The Lamb are top of the Crown Street Garage Stone Pool League after they blew away Longton Cricket Club last week. And if their scintillating form continues, they’re going to take some stopping this season.
Here’s all the action from week eight…
Cuckoo 4 The Joker 4
A surprising draw for the debutants to the league as the perennially reliable Joker team put in a below-par performance. Only Mark Welton performed, finally showing some form for 2/2 wins.
First Half
Steve Foster opened brightly for Cuckoo, a lovely black off two balls to an otherwise blocked pocket giving him frame 1. Mark Welton was the clear underdog in frame 2 based on the position of the balls, but fought back to secure the frame after Mick Hart failed to reach the black on a ‘tip-tap’ exchange. Hart has been providing Cuckoo with tactical coaching, and it paid off as they went 3-1 at the interval – Mark Perry failed to secure frame 3 with 2 shots on the black, Melvin Archer missed a pottable black against Sam Hart in frame 4. Three Harts played in the first half, challenging the Banks for most family members in a team!
Second Half
Gaz Cummings missed another pottable black to give Cuckoo at least a point at 4-1. Melvin Archer pulled it back to 4-2 with a steady frame, Mark Welton played a flawless frame for 4-3 and Mark Perry won for the draw. The Joker now sit joint fourth in the league table.
The Cuckoo are developing into a strong team. Aided by their demanding table – which won’t accept any but the most accurate pot at pace – they are sure to cause further upsets this season.
Jokaz 4 Stone Cricket Club 4
Stone Captain Chris Banks signed 2 new players before the match- his brother Mark (making 4 Banks’ registered to the league this season) and cricketer Liam Hickey. Frame 1 went to Jokaz Captain Nick Beech and they went 3-0 up via Tom Sharman and Phil Ratherham before back to back wins by the Stone Captain stopped the rot. Phil made it 4-2 -and at least a point -but Liam and Ian Banks earned a good draw with wins over Justin Kirkham and Nick Beech respectively.
Eccleshall 4 Longton Snooker Club 4
With star Longton player Liam Flaherty recovering from his appendicectomy, and no Rich Lewis, a below strength Longton took a good draw from the ever reliable Eccleshall outfit. The away side were 3-1 up at half time via wins for Sean Doolan, Captain Nick Backhouse and Dave ‘Pythagoras’ Roberts. Martin Covington & Captain Lee Marshall for The Eagles got it back to 3 apiece but Longton’s Sean Doolan’s second win of the evening gave them a guaranteed point. Andy Evans beat Dave Roberts to gain the home side something from their evenings work however.
Lamb Hot Pots 7 Langtry’s 1
Foot of the table Langtry’s must wait another week for a first win after their mauling by last seasons runners-up. 4-0 down after the first half, and 7-0 down, they were only saved the humiliation of the whitewash by Alan ‘Pinky’ Pinkstone, who allowed Captain Rob Hughes to secure Langtry’s solitary frame of the evening. 2/2 wins for Ben Smith, Ian ‘Greebo’ Greaves and Neil Dale gave The Hot Pots 4th place in the table after a quarter of the season.
Lamb Phall 3 Lamb A 5
In the Lamb local derby, ‘the A team’ emerged with the win, and 2nd place in the league table. Dave ‘Dopper’ Clift, Steve Loughhead and Paul ‘Knighty’ Knight made it 3-0 before, in the clash of the captains, Andy Smith defeated Andy Conner for 1-3. When Mark Tolley beat Dopper and Graham Gilbert beat Steve Loughhead an unlikely comeback win seemed possible, but Knighty secured at least a point defeating Sean Creighan and League Chairman Andy Conner ‘brought home the bacon’, and the 2 points, by revenging his earlier loss to Andy Smith. Lamb A are delighted by their early season form and hope it will continue into the second quarter of the season where they face some testing fixtures.
Little Stoke 6 Moddershall 2
With Moddershall Captain Mark Bradshaw honeymooning in Japan, it was down to Deputy Shaun Brian to skipper against the tricky team of talented snooker players. Man of the moment Lee Walker pounced on Shaun Brian’s ‘in off on the break’ to dish up with his 2 visits. Little Stoke proceeded to streak ahead to 6-0 and secure victory via wins for Russ Britton and Craig Foster with Lee Walker and Nick Griffin winning their second half frames as well for 2/2. Ben Warrilow and Shaun Brian gained some consolation, winning the final 2 frames for respectability. Little Stoke stand 3rd in the league table.
Longton Cricket Club 0 Lamb 8
Lamb really are scintillating this year, and they showed their class by blowing away Longton CC. Lamb Captain Darryl Norman has always had a potentially league winning squad, although player availability has scuppered this in previous years. This season, however, he is (so far!) blessed with his top names turning up every week, and they tore into Russ Johnson’s steady gang with 2/2 wins from John Grobnik, Brendan Ruttledge, Paul Loughhead and the very impressive Gav Davies. The post-match curry was almost as hot as Lamb’s performance and puts them top of the league at the quarter-way stage.
Talbot 6 Labour In Vain 2
Talbot secured the second win of their debut season over The Labour In Vain. With Captain Ant Gibson out for Labour following a Road Traffic Accident (he is recovering well!) his men lost away, the details are unknown as the league card has not yet been submitted to the website!
Coming up on Thursday 31st March….
- Second-placed Lamb A face third place Little Stoke in what is clearly the tie of the round
- Lamb Hot Pots face a tricky fixture against Longton Cricket Club and Moddershall may find The Cuckoo a handful
