Berkshire 14 - 30 London: A team report
Posted by Rupe on June 21 2009 22:57:57
Another great win for London A team today, getting to the 30 mark for the third time in our six matches so far this year, and against one of the strongest Berks line-ups I've seen.
To be honest though, we started a bit flat, and were a bit lucky to end up winning the first 2 sets with 6 and 7 frames. At least 5 times that I can think of, one of us (myself included) had thrown a frame away only to have it thrown back.
Still, there's always a bit of that kind of thing, and at the end of the day we were getting the blacks down more than them which is what matters.
The second half of the match was much more one-sided in every way, the improvement during the match reflected in the fact that every set saw us win one more frame than the set before.
Danny Miller was the only player to win all 4, but those that won 3 included Dean who lost a frame to a roll-off and myself who ost it to a break and dish. Apologies if I've forgotten anything similar relating to thers... I seemed to end up reffing some very long frames today - felt like I missed half the match!
Mark Thrussell's reappearance, from the bench at half time, produced a great dish, but I think just about everyone managed at least one of those. Except Etienne who was unlucky in his 2 frames but ended up being the one to make way for Mark. The truth is he didn't deserve to come out any more than a good few others - at least 4 or 5 of us were in contention. But that's a sign of the strength of the squad we have now. Like I said before, we can't consider a 50% average as securing a spot any more... because we're all there (see stats below).
Deciding who plays isn't going to get any easier because we have 14 players all of whom are up for the job. But that's the best kind of difficult decision to have.
Berks new venue in Reading is a huge improvement, although I imagine there'll be pressure on them to try to rearrange things a bit... having to play their match on 2 tables such a long way apart can't be easy for the B team (home or away).
Shame about the longer drive... and the traffic coming back was a nightmare... but on balance I think everyone will be glad not to be going to Chiswick anymore (although a little bit of me might have disagreed as I passed through Chiswick on the way home... two hours after leaving Reading!)
Current stats for the A team...
