Hastings & Bexhill Bar Billiards league

Jenny B win the derby as the Rix Cup kicks off
Sunday 31st March
The Jenny Lind B kicked off their Rix Cup campaign with a 5-0 win against the Jenny Lind A at the Ashburnham Arms, meanwhile the Stag squeezed past the Ashburnham Arms 3-2 at the Old King John.

After the draw the returning world 4 pin entrant Andrew opened up Vs Rob from the B team. Rob was equipped with his newly donated queue and started with a really impressive 1.5 k break. Rob has really improved of late. Undeterred Andrew then embarked on a really positive break on the incredibly fast Ash table. The break was going really well, but undeterred, he passed the 2k mark when he managed to pull off an incredible white in the 50 ringing shot, which also hurled the red directly down the 200 hole, not touching the sides! Maybe, Andrew should have left it there, but continued until the break had reached 3.5 k, when an attempted roll up shot, owing to the speed of the table threw the white peg down. Strangely, Andrew took this quite calmly but after that was unable to make any headway and Rob ran out a convincing winner.  Next up was an under the weather Jimmy against Jez, jimmy started and didn’t score too convincingly, and when Jez took over he scored well. When Jimmy returned to the table, the Ashburnham ghost seemed quite happy to roll the red off of its spot on a couple of occasions ensuring that Jimmy’s scores were low. Jez compiled a 2k break and the table calmed slightly, but however hard Jimmy tried he could not recover the deficit, 2-0 to the B’s.  Next up was Ray against Chris Law, who had arrived with his favourite Jenny table queue. Chris started really well and was on a different level from the last time the Jenny A had seen him. He demonstrated confident play and good scoring throughout. Jenny Captain Ray struggled with the pace of the table and hesitant of committing the 4 breaks on a row shot, managed to halt his break prematurely on a few occasions. Chris was quite easily the winner when the Bar dropped.  After the excellent Sausage, Chips and Nuggets half time refreshment break, next up was Paul, who has recently had his new queue re-tipped. Paul managed to fluff his first break, and Steve started, but both players became tentative, as they had both taken in the issue the previous players had encountered. With neither player dominating, it turned out that Paul was not using his Queue at all, and taken Jay’s queue instead, and whilst his game improved when he swapped back, it was not enough to catch Steve.  Last up was Jay from the pool team, making his debut in only his second ever competitive game. Normally reliable Matt was under the weather and Jay had stepped in at the last moment. Alex was in really good form and managed to keep Jay away from the table for long periods of time, Jay’s opening break didn’t work and he was left only tricky scrappy shots after that, and with Alex racking up a 2K break, there was no coming back from Jay. He was undeterred and is looking forward to deputising later in the Rix cup, to gain experience.  A 0-5 score line was not what the Jenny A were expecting as we normally run the B’s to a 1-4 or 2-3, but the scores do not lie, but for a slight slip in the first frame from Andrew, who seems to be playing his best from the last few years, then that might have affected the overall result?

Straight off the back of the Stag ‘s defeat to the Ash in the league, the two teams meet again but this time for the opener of the Rix cup at the OKJ.  The fun kicks off with Alec playing Dave. Dave leaves the 1 up short on his break, and Alec follows suit. Both put in decent breaks but keep misjudging the speed of the table and leave balls short. Dave finally manages to get ahead of Alec and Alec replies by clearing the table and inching ahead. Dave’s next turn sees him lose 700+ as the bar drops. With 1 white and the red on the table and 1 white in the trough Alec sinks the red to go 230 head. They both spend an age to get the last ball down. Stag 1 – Ash 0.  Chris and Mick are on the baize next. Chris knocks in 1210 on his break, and Mick steps up and leaves them short off the bat. Chris responds with building a decent break before losing it. Mick returns and misses again, clearly struggling to get to grips with the table. Again, Chris responds by clearing the table and getting back to break and chalks up some points to take a 2100 lead. Mick’s back on and means business, he’s found his stride and makes a brilliant 5006 break and plays the table out to win the game. Stag 1 – Ash 1.  Tom and Leigh play the third game with Leigh missing the break off. Tom doesn’t do much better but gets out ahead of Leigh. With Leigh’s next few goes he takes his axe to all the wood on the OKJ table except the black peg. Tom did not find his rhythm, but banks little and often to maintain his lead throughout. Leigh manages to put in a decent break to draw even, it could be anyone’s game, until Tom contributes an 800 break which is ended by the bar dropping and takes the game. Stag 2 – Ash 1.  The fourth game sees Dave and Sandy on the slate. Dave sets off with a business mindset knocking in 2500+ until he misses and loses it. Sandy responds knocking in 3690 on his break off. Dave’s given a second chance on the baize but fails to capitalise and Sandy steps up to bang in 5000+ in what seems to be some healthy inter-team highest break rivalry in the Ash team. There’s nothing move Dave can do as the Ash takes the win. Stag 2 – Ash 2.  With the last game of the evening being the decider, it’s time the Stag release the Maverick to run riot on the baize against Dave. Pete’s strong out the gate leaving Dave to respond. The balls didn’t run Dave’s way as Pete got into gear and drew out a decent lead. Unfortunately, Dave couldn’t find the answers to Pete’s work and the Stag takes the game and match. Stag 3 – Ash 2