East versus West
The annual East versus West men clash took place at the weekend
with the West looking to defend their trophy from last year. Originally
scheduled to take place in the East, a problem with fitting the tables through
the Commodore’s doors, after they had made the journey out there, meant that
plan b had to come into action and last Saturday’s game had to make the move
back to The Standing Stones Hotel.
9 players made up each team as the West kept faith with
their all star cast from last year, the only change being Paul Sinclair, who
was available to replace Sean Shearer, while The East team had a good mix of
youth and experience as they went on a mission to end a barren run of 8 years
without a win in this fixture
With 2 tables being used throughout the day, and the Orkney
Singles semi finals also taking place, a jam packed day of pool with plenty of
thrills and spills lay ahead. The script for the day was to be 3 sessions of 6
matches, 3 of the matches were singles while the other 3 games were scotch
doubles and each game would be best of 3 frames. The semi finals of the singles
would start as the 2nd session began meaning the East West game
would switch to the 1 table.
The clock struck 1 so the pool got under way and it was young
Holm prodigy, Darren Tait, who got the first point on the board for the East as
he won his singles 2-0. The West were soon level though, as the reigning Orkney
Doubles champions, Stewart and Keith Keldie, won the first Scotch doubles of
the day. Paul Sinclair then made sure the West went ahead for the first time as
he won his singles 2-0 in fine fashion. Although Leslie Drever played
absolutely fabulous for the east to win his singles 2-1, further west wins in
the scotch doubles were had for Shaun Spence and Paul Robertson, and then Neil
Cormack and Erlend Grieve, who managed to snap victory from the jaws of defeat.
This meant the West had a 4-2 lead at the end of the first session.
For the 2nd session a new order was written out
by each captain and it was the West who stretched their lead, first with
Stewart Keldie winning his singles before Shaun Spence and Keith Keldie won
their doubles. East fought back briefly, as eternal youth, Colin Reid won his
singles before Davie Campbell and Leslie Drever won their scotch doubles to
bring the deficit to 2 once again as the West led 6-4. Paul Robertson then
continued his good form on the day, as his elbow flowed freely in a convincing
2-0 singles win and when Paul Sinclair and John Norquoy won the last scotch
doubles of the session it meant the West led 8-4.
As the darkness began to descend outside and the bar started
to crowd up, the 3rd session got underway with the West just needing
2 more points for victory. Shaun Spence was next up for the West and he inflicted
more damage on the East as he won his singles 2-1 by taking out a tricky
clearance in the decider. The East side were now in dire straits as the West wanted
just one more point for victory. This was soon wrapped up in the next match as
Paul Robertson and Erik Wilson both played a lot of good strokes as they won
their doubles together, 2-0. In doing so, the Stromness pair made a very
impressive clearance out of the blue in the 2nd frame. All of which
meant the trophy would go west for the 8th consecutive year.
4 games remained and up next was Keith Keldie for the west.
Keith won the first frame and then incredibly, from his break off strike in the
2nd frame, he managed to shed 7 balls, 6 reds and 1 yellow, meaning
quite simply, red had to be his colour of choice. Although the only red left on
the table had to be doubled into the middle bag, Keith wasted little time,
knocking it in and leaving himself an easy black to win a frame in 3 shots.
Something which I cannot imagine has happened very often before.
Stewart Keldie and Paul Sinclair then won their doubles 2-1 as
the score extended to 12-4. In the final game of singles, captain sensible,
Neil Cormack, won 2-0, and then in the very last doubles, John Norquoy and
Erlend Grieve put the final sting in the tail of the East with a 2-0 win. This
meant the West won the final session 6-0 and left the final score at 14-4.
In what was a very solid performance from the West, 5
players won all 3 of their matches, Shaun Spence, Stewart Keldie, Keith Keldie,
Paul Robertson and Paul Sinclair. For the East Leslie Drever was the only
player to win 2 games, playing in this fixture for the first time.
ORKNEY SINGLES
Also played at The Standing Stones last Saturday were the
semi finals and final of the Orkney Singles. The first best of 11 semi- final
was between Paul Robertson and John Norquoy. John had come through a very tough
draw to get to the semi finals, being the slayer of 3 inter-county regulars in
doing so while Paul had also been clinical in reaching this stage, dropping
just 4 frames in his 4 victories. Both players were looking to take that form
into this game and reach their first Orkney singles final.
John broke off in the first frame, with his customary freak
power and a red went down. Left with a great chance to win the frame, from the
break, John potted well, manoeuvring the cue ball into space before managing to
squeeze the black in down the cushion, just past one of Paul’s yellows and into
the pocket. A 1-0 lead soon became 2-0 before Paul came out with a lush
clearance of his own to bring the score back to 2-1.
Frame 4 saw John again pot well. With the black over the
pocket and a long thin cut on his final red, John played an excellent shot to
pot his red, but unfortunately found himself snookered on the lip of the bottom
pocket as his white laid to rest. Although a very dodgy position to be in, with
a little mix of side spin and swerve placed on the cue ball, John somehow, managed
a great shot to bend the white out of the pocket and sink the black.
Frame 5 also went John’s way before Paul managed to thunder
a black in to win frame 6. John then continued to take steps towards his first
final as he won frame 7 to leave himself one frame away from victory. Although
Paul was first to the black in frame 8, it was particularly tough, and he
missed it going for a thin cut. This allowed John to step in and once more take
out an emphatic clearance to seal the match with a 6-2 victory.
The other semi final saw defending champion Keith Keldie
take on another of the Orkney Singles, giant killers, Leslie Drever. Leslie had
also been in great form in the build up to the semi finals and had matched John
in knocking out 3 inter-county regulars to reach this, his first Orkney Singles
semi final.
There were sparks between the 2 players right from the
start. The game went back and fore as Keith won the first frame in a rush
before Leslie showed his usual grit to win frame 2. Keith broke and cleared in
frame 3 before also winning a scrappy frame 4. Leslie came back though, reeling
of the next 2 frames to level the match once again at 3 all. Keith’s potting
was starting to look like it was deserting him but he managed to find a cure, to
win frame 7. Frame 8 also went Keith’s
way after he punished a Leslie error to go 1 frame away from the final. Leslie then
did well to blur out this mistake as he won frame 9 to go 5-4 behind. This
match just had the feeling about it that it would go to a deciding frame, which
it did as Leslie pounced on a moment of madness from Keith to win frame 10.
Leslie broke off in the deciding frame and unfortunately for
him, the white was only heading in one direction, and that was the pocket.
Although the pack did not split well this gave Keith 2 free shots and a chance
to dictate the frame. Keith got to the table, potted a red before covering the
bottom pocket with another red. This gave Keith complete control of the frame
as he tried to farm out one more chance to let loose. Leslie continued to
battle though as the frame became a very tactical affair. Keith resisted
several temptations to go for a clearance, instead deciding to try and extract
a foul from Leslie that would give him a great chance to clinch the match. This
he managed after Leslie for a change did not get out of one of Keith’s
snookers. Normally one to embrace the pressure, Keith potted his 5 remaining
reds but could not quite find himself in perfect position at any point. Now left slightly out of position on the black
after misjudging the kiss on to Leslie’s yellow, Keith was gutted to see his
black rattle in the jaws of the pocket. This now gave Leslie a chance to reach
the final, though his yellows were not at all in the easiest of places. Leslie
confidently potted the first 3 of his yellows but was then left with a tight
yellow into the middle pocket. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be for Leslie,
who put in a colossal effort throughout the match, as he narrowly missed,
leaving Keith to pot the black and win what was a very tense match.
Onto the final now and with 2 very attacking players in
Keith and John a quick match was anticipated. This was the first time Keith and
John had come face to face in an Orkney competition. The toss went Keith’s way
so he decided to break. Keith busted the pack open and a yellow dropped in. He
then wasted little time in clearing the table to take a 1-0 lead. 1-0 soon
became 2-0 as Keith produced another good clearance. Frame 3 saw a dry break
from Keith, so John stepped in to clear the table to cut the deficit to 2-1. Keith
won frame 4 before another break and clearance from the defending champion saw
him take a 4-1 lead. John had done very little wrong at this point and could
only sit back and watch as Keith sustained his massive attack to take a 5-1
lead. Keith continued to raise his game to another level in frame 7 as he broke
and cleared for the 3rd time in the match to storm into a 6-1 lead.
At this point Keith seemed to have no doubt in his mind that he would retain
his title and this he did with another polished clearance in frame 8 to win the
match by 7-1. This was Keith’s 3rd Orkney Singles title and as usual
he left his best form up until the final to yet again be king of the green
baize. John can take great heart from the way he played throughout the
tournament though and was unlucky to come up against a standard that was as
mental as anything seen in Orkney pool. In the last year or so John has proven
himself to be one of the most improved performers in Orkney and it is always
good to see a new face in the final as well, showing there is a great depth of
pool talent on our islands.
In what was a big fun day of pool, thanks go to all the
players who made it out on the day. The East versus West match was as always, played
in great spirits. Also, thanks to The Standing Stones for hosting the event at
short notice.
Also played last weekend was the Ladies East versus West match. The West Mainland Ladies were victors in this match, beating the East by 11 games to 9. The West clinched victory in the very last match and thus, put to an end a 9 game unbeaten run from The East in this fixture
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