Duffield take the spoils on first Bolehill visit

Bolehill v Duffield Left-Right: Matt Deegan, Tom Lucas, Ian Birks (partially obscured), Danny Cooper, Mick Bunting (obscured), Paul Beech, Jimmy Gratton (forefront), Dwayne Poyser, Sean O'Sullivan and Guy Shirley.
Also present: Ricki Slack behind the lens, blame me for those missing heads!!

WEDNESDAY April 13th saw the return match of a previously arranged friendly between Duffield Club and Bolehill Institute. The first match held last month saw Duffield win 5-3 on home territory and this was their first ever visit to the Bolehill locality apart from navigator Jimmy Gratton who had previously played for Belper Strutt Club.

Sean O'Sullivan a new recruit to Bolehill with three wins out of three in the league to his name, started proceedings but admitted to being a little unsettled by the 20 minute time clock that was in operation and in quite a tight finish it was Matt Deegan who put the visitors 1-0 up leading 38-20 when the minutes had elapsed.

Ricki Slack looked set to equalise when haring off at the start of his frame but Dwayne Poyser refused to be phased and in a thrilling finish worthy of the Sky Snooker Shootout, potted a fantastic pink and black  to snatch the frame 47-44 with the seconds running out rapidly as he did so.

In fact he just got the final shot away right on the 20mins clock buzzer, and though the black entered the pocket just afterwards, we got straight on to the hotline to Barry Hearn (!) and he said it was OK, giving the nod for a 2-0 to Duffield in dramatic circumstances!! Memories of Robbo against McManus at Blackpool all over again!

Bolehill fought back in frame three with Mick Bunting producing his best performance of the season with a dazzling display of potting to defeat Danny Cooper 79-40, someone commented that it was like Tony Drago on roller skates, but certainly Mick seemed to take really well to the shot clock conditions. Danny himself had a 22 and an 18 break which made up his score so shows how well Mick played.

Sean played his second frame next against Paul Beech who had impressed in the first match at Duffield and again looked a force to be reckoned with in his 73-20 success which included breaks of 28 and 24.

Ian Birks was up next for the home team and he narrowed the deficit with a 55-18 win over Tom Lucas who has done very well in this season's Derby League so an excellent win for Ian.

At 3-2 it was time for some food and suitably replenished, Duffield strengthened their position aided by a 45 break - the highest of the night - from Jimmy Gratton as he defeated Guy Shirley in the next frame 81-23.

Guy had no luck in the next either when paired with Mick Bunting as they came up against an inspired Paul Beech and Matt Deegan in fine fettle and Duffield went further ahead at 5-2.

The eighth frame was nip and tuck until the colours and with the scores about level, Ricki Slack and Ian Birks were in with a chance of pulling one back but Ricki rattled the green in trying to pot it thick to hold for the brown and instead their opponents Jimmy Gratton and Dwayne Poyser stylishly cleared up with 25 to make it 6-2.

The pairs matches were being played as Scotch doubles affairs, which can often be seen in the Mosconi Cup annual pool event held each year just before Christmas.

The night was still young for Duffield in this kind of form but though Bolehill were now down to just the last two men standing, some pride was clawed back as Ricki and Mick overcame Danny and Tom 51-28 and make it 6-3.

And in what was to be the final frame of the night, there was still some fantastic snooker to be witnessed, Ricki and Mick compiled a joint effort of 22 to which Jimmy and Mark hit back with 36 but after a tit for tat battle on the colours, the home pairing prevailed 64-49 with the final match score being 6-4 to Duffield.

Ricki thanked Duffield for making the effort to come and fill in what otherwise would have been a blank "bye" week in the league and for being such great sports and competitors over the two games, and the visitors said how much they enjoyed their first ever visit to Bolehill and were very impressed with the way the table was playing. Thanks to table fitter Mr Briggs for working his magic on it a few weeks back in that respect too!!

All in all some really quality attacking snooker played in the right spirit and nice to get the chance again to play under shot clock conditions too, which certainly freshened things up a bit and ensured it was a lively encounter throughout! But mostly it was about the camaraderie more than anything else and a good night was had by all present.