WARMING UP ON AND OFF THE TABLE!

THE Bolehill players played two enjoyable friendly matches over the past couple of weeks which provided valuable match practice for the forthcoming season.


Firstly, a team of five - : R Slack, C Marchington, M Bunting, K Robertson and A Hopkinson -  made their first ever visit to play Sterndale Moor Social Club (for whom our own Sean O'Sullivan was playing for on this occasion) and although it was hard to keep tabs on the scoring with the match consisting of both snooker and billiards, I think Bolehill emerged as narrow winners 5-4 (though there was also some pool action which I didn't find out the results of!)

The following week seven players: R Slack, C Marchington, M Bunting, K Robertson, S O'Sullivan, I Birks and S Zoppi -  travelled to play at Duffield Club, who we had enjoyed two matches with last season and put up a good performance to be edged out only 5-4, the closest game yet against the high standard Derby League opposition.

Thanks to both clubs for their hospitality and excellent food provided on the respective nights.

Back on home territory, the committee have agreed to have central heating installed over the next few weeks with the main heater unfortunately failing a couple of weeks back and eventually being condemned as a result.

Plus it was agreed to carry out further insulation work at the same time.

THE LATEST BAIZE NEWS

JUST an update to say the competition sheets are now up for the Annual Snooker and Billiards Competitions. The billiards event will most likely take place before Christmas this year (replacing the position previously occupied by the J Haywood Cup). So entries for that will close on October 21st while the snooker entries close as per usual on December 31st. Entries are £1 each for the snooker scratch, handicap and billiards handicap.

The J Haywood Cup will be played for by the teams this year, who will have to decide how to go about it beforehand. The No 1 and No 2 teams will play each other twice and the No 3 team once during the league season so maybe we could use the last three fixtures as a round robin unless we play the other two matches elsewhere in the season so we all play each other twice each. Though alot depends on how far teams progress in the league play offs and cups as regards scheduling.

As regards the league teams, the No 1 team is a mix of last seasons 1 and 2 teams, captained by Ricki Slack, the No 2 team is again captained by Dwayne Martin and retains some of the players from last season whilst the No 3 team will now be run by Mick Bunting who lends his vast experience to the fold.

Also the Brazilian Snooker / Alternative Games Night has been rescheduled for Saturday November 16th at 7pm. Again its £1 per competition with the winners taking all this time. Other events will be round the clock darts, 5s and 3s dominoes and knock out whist.

We will probably go ahead with this whatever the numbers to see how it pans out, we will tailor the format accordingly and it could even possibly be the first ever Brazilian Snooker Championship held in the UK!
The best way to remember the main rules are that on coming to the table, you have the option of a penalty shot (i.e. taking any ball on the table on but giving a 7pts foul away should you miss). Should you pot this ball, you score the relevant points and then take the next ball normally "on", followed by any colour and then back to the starting point of a penalty shot again.

You can ignore the penalty shot option of course, and just take the ball on and not risk losing any points.
So during breakbuilding its penalty shot (optional) - next ball on - any colour - then back to penalty shot (optional) - next ball on - any colour  - penalty shot (optional) and so on.


The game is played with only one red and the colours, and from the break off you can neither pot the red nor snooker your opponent or you will have to try again. I think we will allow flukes in the spirit of  a fun evening as some versions of the game insist on "nominating a pocket" but once the beer is flowing I think we will have enough to try and remember without adding that into the equation!! Plus Keith Robertson paid me a fiver to allow them too (not sure why!!).

This was reportedly the original form of snooker before it developed into the game we know now, the main problem to grasp is when on the colours, you pot the ball on (i.e. yellow), then have to remember to take another colour and a penalty shot option before going back to the green. And the same right through to the pink and black, where you pot the pink, take the black as a colour and it then comes back up again to be potted a final time as the ball "on" (there being no other balls left to take a penalty shot option). Having been raised on proper snooker its very easy to revert to type and take the balls automatically in the traditional order!

It took me a while to grasp how it worked but eventually saw a couple of matches on Youtube and it finally registered, though not saying I won't forget what to do on the night lol.

Also the next Bolehill Improvement Group Meeting is on Tuesday September 20th from 7-9pm. The institute will be closed for normal business during this time.
Cheers for now!