Match Report

And we are live…

Our London neighbours arrived at Chatham Pool and Snooker Club on a day when the club was going to pilot the live streaming of County matches, and everything, or nearly everything, went exactly to plan. Please go to the Chatham club website, and you will be able to watch all your favourite players at county pool. Find your own frames and send those great shots to your family and friends, and cut the bad ones out!

Kent came away from the matches with 5 wins and a draw (no junior’s match), which saw our Ladies, B team, C team, and Under 23s go top of their respective divisions early in the season.

Total frame score: Kent 144 v 96 London

A Team
Dave Fernandez grabbed the A team at the start of the match to describe his team alterations for the day. Behind the scenes, Dave is trying to find the best balance for this team who had lost both matches despite winning 6/8 sets! The team went 3:1 up early but found themselves 8:3 down after the first set. At 13:7 down, the team managed to find some form and a strong run of frames across the board, showing some bottle. The score soon became 15:14 up. The two teams traded frames before a late burst gave the A team a 24:20 win to get their season started in earnest. Pat Cunningham, Willie Anderson, Charlie Minta, and Jasper Simmonds winning 3/4.

B Team
Kent B is already top of their section with 9 points from 9, and the team will extend their frames ratio at the top in the Kent team’s internal battle for the top spot, another little stat we are producing this year. Kent dominated this match from the start, winning the first two sections 7:4, 7:4, before taking the third set 6/5. The team eased to the victory and posted an impressive 27:17 victory. Ben Morgan top player of the day with 4/4 followed by Jake Lloyd, Gavin Webb, Ritchie Bell, Andy Twigger, Jamie O’Donnell, and Andy Redsull all posting 3/4. Good going lads and looking strong already. Watched some of the B team match on stream, and there were a few frames with a few flukes around, but hey, take full advantage of these things when they come around.

C Team
Our C team has also hit the top spot with 9/9 points posted. 25:19 was the final score in a match where Makhan Notay, Ricky Pierce, Dean White and Scott Woods all delivered 3/4. The top player this week, however, was the old Pigeon Mr. Coakley, delivering 4/4. Again, I am happy to see the youth blending with the experience on offer here and hope to see our young players progress their games through the season with people like Coakly, Cox and Freelove looking after them. The first set went 8:3 Kent’s way then a 6:5 swing the other way made it 13:9 up at the halfway point. London again pulled back well with a 7:4 win in the third to be a single frame down going into the last set. A 5-frame burst, however, sealed the deal as Coakly Fenech East Albert and Notay delivered those 5 frames.

Ladies
Our ladies delivered an emphatic victory of 28:16, again settling in at the top of the table, a place they generally call home. Vanessa Ledger wins 4/4 again, and she was followed in with another 6 players popping in with 3/4 frames, those players being Mel Clements, Jan Spinner, Jo Herrington, Jo Miles, Erin Gannon, and Barbara Taylor. I should add that Barbara delivered a total of 7/8 today as she had already won 4/4 for the seniors earlier in the day. Well played. Again with that firepower at Captain Fane’s disposal, it was always going to be very difficult for any team to cope with the National Champions, especially after they delivered an 8:3 then 9:2 start. All over by halfway but kept going strong.

Under 23s
A 5:0, 5:0, 5:0 start is what the Under 23 sheet told me, so yes a 15:0 lead, which is mightily impressive given that these rules can give lots of advantage from the break situation. However, the wheels fell off on frame 16 when Jasper Simmonds lost his first frame of the day, and by the end, it was 15:2. Well done to you guys especially as there are some new players from the junior section settling into this format. A couple of players that will be in this team for the next 4 years, which is exciting in itself, are Michael Cairns who is proving he has much more ability than his dad and the exact same thing can be said of James Goldsmith and his dad. Both won 4/4 well played boys. Also undefeated were Jake Lloyd and Joe Greenwood with 2/2 each, so a 4/4 total.

Seniors
I’m beginning to wonder where my senior team have gone? Not because they are being battered by anyone at all in any form, rather we are not playing to our normal ability as either individuals or as a team. I get the feeling they are about to explode into life and when they do play to the standard they are all more than capable of, I expect to see some decent results. After three matches we have had two draws and a 23:21 defeat to the National Champions, so that tells me we are there or thereabouts. On the day, we were thankful to the girl in the team, Barbara Taylor, winning all 4 and securing the final frame with a number of team shots that you can all see on YouTube if you want to know what team pool is all about. Martin Prime and Andy Gee both won 3/4, well done Andy Gee especially for coming back to the team and showing a bit of confidence. Well done also to Steve Jepson for waking up after halftime and winning his last two frames and to Bill Rase for his perseverance and a rather excellent pot out of a snooker, which can also be viewed on YouTube.

So well done all for an emphatic day. Good atmosphere in the club. I got to buy the Jaeger Bombs for the first time this season and our cameras caught many good shots during the course of the day.

Next match Hampshire away on Sunday 12th May. Until then keep practicing, enjoy your pool, and see you there.

All the best,
Wilbo

Final Scores

u23s	18:2 WIN
Seniors	22:22 DRAW
Juniors	no match
Ladies	24:20 WIN
A	23:21 LOSS
B	27:17 WIN
C	25:19 WIN

Match Report

4 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat. Combined score: 144-111

Kent A team lost 23-21. They had led all the way through the match from start till 21-20; however, they lost the last 3 frames with a couple of break dishes, which is always due to happen at that level. Ash Hind started his own campaign off winning 4 out of 4.

Kent B team won convincingly 29-15, with many players on 3 out of 4, demonstrating a confident strong start in what looks to be a strong side. Vice-captain Farron Rowe stated that they blew the opposition away and that there seems to be a great balance to the team. Seven players started their season with 3 out of 4. 4 out of 4 from Ritchie Bell. Well done to the B team, my tip for champions.

Kent C team was always going to be interesting with our development of juniors into the side mixed with some good experienced players coming back to represent Kent. A 30-14 result gives a lot of optimism for how this match was won, with the new juniors winning 11 out of 12… Chase East, Joshua Wheeler and Alfie Rogers settling in well. Jamie Fenech also added another 4 frames to evidence his importance to the team in terms of experience.

Kent Ladies also dominated proceedings with a 30-14 victory. Four players gaining all 4 frames: Barbara Taylor, Mel Clements, Jo Herrington, and Jo Miles. New recruit from Juniors Erin Gannon started her career with the ladies with a decent 3 out of 4 start.

Juniors team manager Lee Crowhurst took over the new chapter for them, and it started with a 19-17 win. This is no mean feat given we had so many players leave last year, so the players coming in have big shoes to fill, and Lee feels they are up for it. New team, new relationships, still winning means many positives from this match. England international James Goldsmith won 4 out of 4, with Callum Britt adding 3 out of 4.

Our Under 23s also have a changed team but still done enough to earn a 10-10 draw, Jasper Simmonds winning 3 out of 4 to maintain their long unbeaten record. Kent Seniors started the day’s proceedings by going 7-4 up in the first set, only to be pegged back to 11-11 by the end of the second set. There was never any more than two frames in it for the rest of the match as it went one way then the other, Kent feeling they left a few frames out there. 22-22 the final score, and Billy Rase gets my vote as player of the day with his debut 3 out of 4. Lee Crowhurst also delivered 3 out of 4, with Marc Brazier and Barbara chipping in with the same.

Next match in region 7 v Berkshire on 17th March, but before that, we have the little matter of the Nationals.

Good luck to all our players going to represent their country next week in Ireland at the European Championships. Hopefully, we will see some Kent winners with you never know a Scottish victory somewhere along the line.

Good start all, well done, and great atmosphere by all.

Wilbo

Final Scores

u23s	10:10 DRAW
Seniors	22:22 DRAW
Juniors	17:19 WIN
Ladies	14:30 WIN
A	23:21 LOSS
B	15:29 WIN
C	14:30 WIN

Now that the dust has started to settle after an eventful weekend at Pontins Pakefield, we thought it was time to reflect on the achievements across the Kent squad before we move onto our second county match of the season.

England Team Trials

Our county was well represented across the categories, but firstly massive congratulations go to Jan Spinner who qualified for the England Ladies Team.

It is great achievement just to finish at the top end of the region to qualify for a trial in the first place. Then being pitted against the top 64 players in the country to battle it out for 8 spaces in the squad is an even tougher challenge.

So congratulations to all of our other triallists, they weren’t successful this timebut but undoubtedly will be back:

Seniors: Lee Crowhurst, Martin Prime
Under 23s: Callum Brown, Harry Compton, Jake Lloyd, Frank Moss
Ladies: Jo Herrington, Vanessa Ledger
Juniors: Callum Britt, Chase East, Erin Gannon, James Goldsmith, Josh Wheeler (trials held in January)

Inter County Finals

Firstly we must congratulate again our National Championship winning teams – Mens A and Juniors.

Mens A

Kent Mens A went one better than last year by beating Bristol A 23-18 in the final, the first ever win for a Kent team in this category. Their fate looked in the balance in the semi-final against last year’s champions Leicestershire A with both of the last two frames in play at a score of 22-20. Kent managed to win the one frame they needed to secure a spot in the final.

Our boys were never behind in the final winning the first two sets 7-4 and 8-3. With Kent’s lead at 21-12, Bristol started to get some momentum winning the first 5 frames of the final set to make the score 21-17, but Mitch Standen put us on the hill and in his first outing as captain at a National Finals, Adam Bassoo took the winning frame. This picture says it all.

Juniors

In some ways a similar story for the Juniors, runners up in 2022 and champions in 2023. The first win in this category since 2001.

The team made light work of their group matches winning 23-12 and 27-9 over Northamptonshire and West Yorkshire respectively. they took this dominance with them into the semi final beating Leicestershire 19-9. Taking the National crown with a 19-11 win over Essex in the final with Finley O’Shaughnessy getting us over the line.

We weren’t able to emulate this success in the other categories but they will all be back for another campaign.

Under 23s

A first round loss to West Midlands B put our team into the Cup event, our boys re-doubled their efforts beating London 11-3. But then faced West Midlands A and lost out 5-11 in the quarter final. Most of this team all still have time leave in this age category with only Charley Macdowall having aged out, so we’re sure they will come back stronger next year

Mens B

Expectations were undoubtedly high coming into the event as reigning champions. Unfortunately it was to be as a first round loss to Leicester put the B team into the Cup. A win against Worcestershire saw them progress to the quarter finals but our team were unable to make it any further losing 19-23 to Essex.

All good experience for the team and plenty to build on.

Ladies

The ladies team have had so much success over the years having won on 8 previous occasions. We made a good start beating Essex 23-12 in the first round and secured a semi final spot by beating Region 7 neighbours Hampshire 23-18. This was as far as the ladies were able to progress losing out to the ultimate winners Cheshire 18-23.

The current season continues…

Many thanks to all the players and supporters who were with us along the way at Pakefield. Our campaign to get to the finals again next year is already underway with our second match of the season on Mother’s Day (no need to thank us for the reminder) 19th March were we host Hampshire.