Left to right, Chief Constable of Norfolk Phil Gormley, me and the Cup, Miss Potter
I stopped updating the blog some time ago, however there is one post left to make. I entered the police championships at Potters Holiday Camp in Norfolk three years ago and was promptly thrashed by everyone in the competition. I was determined to come back the following year and beat them.
I set about learning this strange game and this blog is my diary of the years as they unfolded. The following year after spending a silly amount of money on coaching, playing and practice, I entered and got soundly thrashing in the semi finals.
I have been playing reasonable well this year getting to the final of an Ebos plate event and the semi of the Northwest championship, I also managed a few decent wins in the ABC events finishing just in the top 32 after only entering four events.
So this years Police tournament was my next challenge, I had drawn last years winner in my round robin group and a couple of past winners. So it was going to be tough. I played really well winning all five of my round robin matches. Hammering the defending champion 140-324. In two of my hour long games I scored over 300. I also put together a string of breaks, not massive but constant 20-30 breaks in every match. I managed a 42 and a 54 which ended up as the highest break mainly due to the tables being very tight and slow.
In the semi final I drew Colin Childs from one of the welsh forces, he was a past winner of both snooker and billiards so it was a tough draw. The match was scrappy and poor, The highest break being a 23. I managed to run in 17 unfinished at the end to win by 8 points.
In the final I was playing Gareth Wakeford another past winner and last years runner up. I started off really well getting 80 in front in 15 minutes with a few little 20+ breaks. He then changed tactics and started double baulking me and before I knew it he was 44 in front. We had 5 minutes to play I scored 7 points and left the table quite safe. Gareth tried to double baulk me but left a difficult Jenny in the middle I got the jenny and then slammed the red in the bottom pocket leaving me perfect top of the table. I then proceeded to hold the top gradually scoring a nice 41 to run out the time and take the match.
That completes my billiard year (s). My goal has been achieved. In the other events Ron Bickerdike managed another win in the serving billiards and Euan Henderson managed a 147 break on a really poor quality table in his first round matches, went on to eventually take the title for the third year in a row.
