New Mill Practice with Mike Holding

Off the New Mill no match but I had arranged to have a knock with Mike Holding. He was there when I got there and we had a nice little game of Billiards 200 up off level start. At this point one of the A Team players arrived Steve Whiteley and said he would play the winner.

I was a bit bothered as I really wanted to play Mike as we had been trying to get together and go over a few shots for several months. Mike is only just learning the game after converting from snooker, he is an accomplished snooker player and by all accounts used to knock in decent breaks.

His billiards was quite good for a learner much better than mine when I started. It made me realise just how far I had come in the last 10 months. Mike knew the half ball quite well and has played a couple of games when the team have been short plus he has watched quite a bit in the club and on the internet. He got a few 15-19 breaks and they were not just potting quite a few cannons and he also played some nice thick run through shots. I won by a bit but he did quite well.

I played Steve next 200 off level start I thought I was going to get thrashed when he started off with a 46. But I plugged away and got a few 20's. I lost in the end but only by a few points 200-183 I was quite happy with that as Steve has had lots of breaks this year in the league, Paul Dunning knows him and rates him a good player. Mike dropped out and I played Steve off handicap, He's on -40 I'm on 70, 110 start to 200 up. I played quite well and thrashed Steve I won by 120 and had a nice little 44 and a 31. He described my handicap as a Bandits handcap.

I don't think he enjoyed that game, I played Mike next off handicap, I give him 20 odd start and he played much better and was 60 ahead needing 18, I pulled it back and I needed 2 to win and missed a simple straight pot off the black spot. He got the red in the middle and won. Quite an interesting game. Once he learns the tactics and some more shots he will be hard beat as he has a nice cue action and pots very well. Long days billiards but I did enjoy the games.