Sponsored by 'Plaza Snooker and Pool Club' Plymouth

THE NATIONAL COUNTY FINALS AT GREAT YARMOUTH

Played 4^th, 5^th and 6^th March 2005.

Before I tell you how DEVON ‘A’ and DEVON YOUTH did over the weekend I would like to tell you about some of DEVON’S individual achievements over the three days.

The England trials started on Friday morning so a good number of players travelled on the Thursday and arrived in time to enter some of the Thursday evening Tournaments (Flyers). The most successful of these players being Dave Williams who got to the final of one of them.

On Friday the day of the England Trials we saw two DEVON players win through and become England players. They were Jez Graham who qualified for the Men’s Team, and Gary Mills who qualified for the Youth Team. This is a fantastic achievement and is what most players strive for. Congratulations to you both!!!

In the evening the flyers started again and two DEVON players had great success, firstly Luke Dunbar (Devon & England Youth player) got to the final and lead 2-0 only to be pegged back and unfortunately lose 3-2.

The other player, “has been” Paul Balston yes that’s right its me, I actually won a flyer the first in quite a while. That’s enough about me already, now to the team events.

We DEVON ‘A’ and DEVON YOUTH that is arrived at approximately 8.15am along with all the other County teams. Then we were all part of an opening ceremony which included being announced by County name and being lead to our places to the sound of our team managers chosen music. It created a great atmosphere from the start.

County Match Format

For those of you who don’t know, we play on two tables, there are 11 players plus reserves in each team (we had no reserves). The team manager, in our case (player manager Jamie Zambuni) and captain (Rich Harling) pick the order of play. There are 4 sessions of 11 frames which means there is a possible 44 frames in all. This of course would then be a draw which is decided by a 3 man play off, the players are selected by the manager and captain.

When a team reaches 23 frames the match is over therefore not all players will get to play 4 frames.

Now to the Pool!

Devon ‘A’s first match was against Nottinghamshire. We didn’t have a good first session and trailed 7-4. then things got progressively worse and we lost the next session 8-3 making the score at this point 15-7 to Notts. We did improve slightly in the 3^rd but still lost it 6-5, this meant we could only afford to lose 1 more frame but it wasn’t to be although we lead the session 3-2 Notts now had the required 23 frames and had won the match.

It must be said that they were the better team.

There wasn’t much time before we had to play our second match which was against Durham. We again lost the 1^st session but this time it was 6-5. Once again we lost the 2^nd session 6-5. We were now 12-10 down but despite the small deficit and our defeat earlier we were still fairly confident in catching them. We actually won our first session of the day yes you’ve guessed it 6-5, the score now was 17-16 to Durham.

After 10 frames of the 4^th session we lead 22-21 we needed our last player to win to avoid a playoff. That honour went to Jamie Graham who after his opponent missed cleared his remaining balls under quite a bit of pressure, Phew!

Bored yet or intrigued.

Well, we now had to play and win a third match to go into tomorrow’s play this was against London. This match was played on 4 tables, there wasn’t time to blink. Not a good start again, we lost the first session 6-5, but things were looking up we then won the 2^nd 6-5 level pegging. What happened in the 3^rd session, not good news I’m afraid we lost, wait for it 10-1 shocking!!! We soon lost the 2 frames London needed in the 4^th. That was it we were out! Losing by 23-12. May be next year?

No! I haven’t forgotten the Youth Team.

I believe Devon Youth have a great team and was expecting them to do really well this weekend and could come home as National Champions.

Devon Youth started the day by playing Warwickshire. They started a bit slowly and lost the 1^st session 6-5. In the 2^nd we won 8-3 and won the 3^rd by the same score. We now only needed 2 frames from the 4^th session, sure enough we won the first 2 frames, job done! 23-11 winners.

The second match was against Lancashire. We were off to a good start winning the first session 6-5 then the 2^nd 8-3 but lost the 3^rd 6-5 the score now was 19-14 a good lead at this stage of the match. We only needed 4 more frames from the final session

despite losing 6 we eventually won the required 4 frames coming out on top 23-19.

Devon Youth were now in the semi finals to be played the following day, Sunday.

Play started at about 9am and we were playing Suffolk. After the 1^st session Suffolk were leading 7-4 and we could see they were a talented side. They then went further ahead by winning the 2^nd 6-5 it was now 13-9 to Suffolk. There were definitely danger signs at this point. We had lost a couple of frames by missing pressure pots and Suffolk just weren’t missing any. Devon managed to win the 3^rd 6-5 (18-15 down) we were now in with a chance or so we thought Suffolk then romped home winning 5 of the next 6 frames hence knocking Devon out of the National Finals. I do believe that on another day Devon Youth could beat Suffolk but it wasn’t to be on this day.

A special mention should go to the Devon Youth Managers Father and Son, Bruno and Danny Bruce, they not only pick the team, order of play and spur the lads on they also did a great job looking after them all.

Click Here to see the Devon ‘A’ and Devon Youth Averages.