MARCH DATE FOR NEW COMP NIGHT

There was a well attended meeting last night at the Institute which marked the welcome return of the chairman Alan after his recent enforced layoff.

A second competition/social evening was agreed for the first week in March. Ricki suggested it be billed "Brazilian Snooker Evening" complete with a few grass skirted local ladies, OK the last bit isnt true (though we are always open to offers) but the first bit is! Other games put forward were round the clock (darts), 5s and 3s (dominoes) and knock out whist (cards) with the theme being simple to understand games which anyone can play.

Rules for Brazilian Snooker are to be left in the club if anyone wants to give it a try in the interim (I've updated them slightly from the original set of rules I left, which were slightly incorrect) but this particular version does seem an ideal alternative to 3-red snooker. You only actually play with one red, but the main differences are you have the option of taking on a "penalty shot" where you concede the relevant points should you miss or take on the lowest value ball without this clause as per normal snooker.

The penalty shot option in effect means theres very little safety play so games are over very quickly which is ideal for the format. Fouls will be worth 7pts whatever the colour attempted.  I think I have pinned it down to the bona fide version of the game eventually anyways.

Round the clock (darts) is fairly self explanatory, you go around all the numbers on the board and finish with 25 and then the bullseye to win the leg. There are some variants where you can skip a number if you get a double or two numbers if you get a treble but we'll decide nearer the time.

5s and 3s is mainly points scoring for getting multiples of 5 and 3 (depending on how many times those numbers go into the total number you create from each end) and also a point for being first to finish each hand. You have to get the exact score to win which would probably be 31.

Knock-out whist is the card game most people played when they were in their youth, with decreasing hands of 7 cards, then 6 then 5 right down to 1. Its simple trick taking with trumps nominated by the winner of the last leg or via turning up cards at the start of play.

If someone fails to win a trick in any hand, the way I used to play they'd have a "dogs chance" the next deal which is one card only played at any time. Should they fail to win that or not win a trick in a subsequent hand, they'd have "a blind dogs chance" which is one card only played at any time without being able to look at it. Thats the last chance saloon.

Quite often though it goes down to the final hand of one card each a fair amount of the time.

There was also some discussion about the No 2 team which Jason (Fretwell) agreed to run at late notice, they may be scrambling around for players on the odd occasion by the sounds of it due to unforeseen developments so it would appreciated if anyone could help out now and again to keep the team going rather than create large gaps in the league schedule by not being able to fulfil the fixtures.

Its only really about three quarters of an hour a week to play and referee a game usually  and hopefully it will be some fun too, as I'd imagine the reason most people joined the Institute was to play snooker after all!!

The league starts next week with the No 3 team away at Matlock Club and the other two teams playing each other on Tuesday night, good luck to everyone!! You can follow it all on http://www.leaguesnooker.co.uk/league/online-snooker.asp?leagueid=106&SeasonID=327&DivisionID=653