Sussex A 19 - 25 London A
12th February 2012
Brighton

A disappointing number of players (4 or 5) who would have played in the As were missing, particularly disappointing given that it was the first match of the season and the longest journey. Having said that, the 11 who did play were all there by 1pm as I always ask people to be, and it may well be the first time that's happened. So to those players who made things easier for me and themselves... thank you and keep it up.

So, 8 players from last year's team were joined by Jack Pople (back after a sabbatical in Kent), Tony Bailey (a surprise recall thanks to being back in the set-up for the new Senior team who had already won 5-4), and Alex Lawrence (his debut in the As having topped the regional B ranking last year).

Debbie Pople writes: The Kent Youth Open will be held on the weekend of 2nd - 3rd June at Kent's inter county venue at Chatham.

The main event is open to players who were under 18 at the beginning of this year. The event starts on the Saturday and concludes on the Sunday, and will be played using a Swiss System so that everyone will have 3 lives - £10 to enter.

On the Sunday there will also be an under 16 (on the day) event.

See this flyer for more details.

The men's qualifiers take place at Vauxhall Holiday Park, Great Yarmouth and the ladies qualifiers are to be held at the Club 147 in Leicester. Full details including dates, entry fee and closing date for entries are on the appropriate entry form - click on the relevant links below.

Please note that the first entry deadline is 12 March 2012 (Mens' World Championship Qualifier).

Mens World Championship Qualifier

Mens World Masters Qualifier

Ladies World Championship Qualifier

Ladies World Masters Qualifier

London C gets off to a flyer!

London C took a big step towards overcoming last season's demons and doing justice to its undeniable talent with a terrific 28-16 win at Sussex today. It was a hugely confident performance, I think, not least because we trailed after the first quarter, but the ridiculously exciting thing is that I know, and we all know, that as a team we didn't come anywhere near our full potential. Everyone played great, nobody who played went home without a frame under their belt, so it really was a huge team contribution, but heck, we still have some notches to step up to so who knows how far this great team can go this season.

The Youth Grand Prix is being replaced in 2012 with a Junior Tour – limited to 64 players. The Junior Tour will comprise of a MAIN COMPETITION and a PLATE EVENT at each venue, with the GRAND FINAL event at the end of the season.

Tour Dates
21st/22nd April Morley International Leeds
26th/27th May Club 147 Leicester
4th/5th August Jordan's Kent
29th/30th Sept Players Lounge Stoke

ENTRY FEE £145
£50 Deposit paid with entry form and full amount paid by 1st March 2012

For an application form and further information please click here.

The presentation for the successful 2011 season will take place at Canavan's starting at 1.30pm.

There will also be an opportunity for everyone to complete their registration paperwork ahead of the new season. We strongly recommend that you take this opportunity as our first match is away to Sussex at Brighton on the 12th February. There will be a free to enter Scotch Doubles competition with pairings being drawn at random. The winning partnership will have their subs paid for the 2012 season.

We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible on the 5th.

GLCPA Committee

The AGM will take place on 22nd January at Canavan's. More details will follow.

Motions for consideration by the AGM must be received by me by the end of 8th January. This gives me time to format and edit them as necessary with the proposer's approval, and if required merge them into composite motions.

Please send your motions to me at darrenobyrne@hotmail.co.uk

Only fully paid up members of the Association can submit motions to the AGM.

The AGM is also when we elect members to committee positions. Please note that we don't
have a policy of inviting applications for specific positions; rather, the tradition
is that the newly elected committee decides roles amongst itself at their first
committee meeting. Anyone who is keen to get involved with organising things, whether
that involves specific things you think you'd be able to do or a general desire to help,
is encouraged to put themselves forward at the meeting. Please feel free to get in
touch with any of the current committee to discuss things if you think you might
be interested in this, but please note that committee members are expected to do
stuff... and that means more than just turning up to committee meetings.

It's been a tough old season, but it came to an end today as we played our final game at Reading. With nothing to play for but our pride, our team was on paper immediately weakened by the loss of three top players to the Bs. Fortunately Sam and Keely from the ladies and Luke from the juniors stepped up to help us out. Sam especially did well with 3/4.

Berkshire's a good side and they quickly showed it. They took the first quarter 7-4 and repeated that in the second quarter. This match could have been a lot more one-sided than it was, but I have to take my hat off to the team for bringing us right back in it in the second half. At one point we drew level at 17 each, but then Berks woke up again and went 21-17 up. Still, we held on with three brave wins to come to just one behind with three frames being played simultaneously. We could just as easily have won this as we had chances in all three, but in the end, we won one and our opponents took home the spoils.

Paul Dawson got 3/4 which guarantees him the region's top C team player trophy. Well done to him for such a great season. His closest rival was playing on the other side and achieved 2/4 gifting Dawson the honours. Player of the match though was Michael Bonney. I am so proud of him for getting his first 4/4 at county, achieved with confidence. Nice one Booney!

Now the season is over, the frames have all been totted up and those under 50% will be retrialing, as will those who didn't make 50% of the fixtures. I'll be making my recommendations to the committee and players will be notified in due time if they have to go to the trials in January. Curiously, I notice that 3 of my players who were absent today had all played enough matches and were on exactly 50% - if I were a more cynical man, I might suspect they were opting out to protect their averages lol!

Anyhow, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for chipping in this season. We've struggled, for sure, to develop an identity and I know there have been some individual concerns and difficulties, but the season is over now and I hope we have all learned from it, so we can make 2012 a far more successful campaign. Everyone who has been involved should take pride in the fact that they have played their part for their county. A decision hasn't been made yet as to whether I will be leading the team for another season, but whatever happens, I'll be giving you the benefit of my support.

The As and Bs both won the region so well done to them. I'm sure there will be a few changes over the close season, so we will keep you all informed about those. Meanwhile, have a good Christmas everyone.

The Doctor

Hampshire A 19 - 25 London A
Chichester,
23rd October 2011

It was strange being back in Chichester to play someone other than Sussex, the closure of the Pomrtsmouth club having forced a temporary re-location. I'd kind of missed the place. Takes a bit longer to get there than Brighton but the tables are ok and you have to love the sheer vastness of the hall.

Hampshire expect to be somewhere back in their county for next season, probably Basingstoke by the sound of it.

Full credit to Hants for making this a really tricky game. We were a bit flat the first half of the match, on and off the table, but it took some very good finishing from a relatively inexperienced home side to take advantage of that.

We were 12-10 down at the halfway stage, and lost the next 2 too. But the London team showed a great deal of character from that point, losing only 5 out of the last 20 frames to end up with a very respectable 25-19 win.

The fact that our noise levels started to rise at the same time is no coincidence, and does make me have to ask why we were quiet in the first half. Some players need to start making their support a bit more easily heard... and some need to spend a bit less time away from the tables!

Of course, that's never a problem at Yarmouth. And this result means we're going
back as Region 7 Champions, for the 3rd year in a row (and the day's other results mean that Surrey have clinched second place). Well done to all the players, now let's try to take the second half spirit into this season's final match in Berkshire and on to the finals.

Rob 1/4
Joe 4/4
Jamie 2/4
Darren 2/4
Frank 2/4
Nigel 2/4
Michael 1/4
John 2/4
Rupe 3/4
Jerry 3/4
Adam 3/4

Joe's excellent 4/4, his third of the year, means that he goes into the last match a frame clear of Ian Hubbard at the top of the regional rankings list (with another 2 players another frame behind Ian).

Great to see the lads round off the 2011 season with a good away win.

The match was all square at the half way stage, however London won the opening 4 frames of the 3rd set and from then on it was a reasonably comfortable run to the victory.

The ‘rolled over’ Player of the Match prize of £20 was shared between Jack Lawrence and Stephen Kelly who both played fantastic pool all day and well deserved their prizes.

Vice captain Liam Clancy began the match in joint 6th place in the Region and his 3/4 will almost certainly confirm his England trial place. Well done to Liam.

Finally, captain Luke Thompson played his final match as a London Junior. We wish him every success for the future. The Scarecrow will be missed!

Individual scores:-

Stephen Kelly 4/4
Jack Lawrence 4/4
Liam Clancy 3/4
Shane O’Reilly 3/4
Mehmet Tango 3/4
Luke Thompson 3/4
Jasper Bacon 2/4
Oliver Lawrence 2/4
Alex Long 1/4

The Region 7 Open will be held on 26th November at Surrey's county venue in Croydon.

Entry fee is £10 for the main event and £5 for the Ladies and Juniors events. Payment in advance.

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