LATEST MATCH REPORTS...

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).