Section 1 Singles Final.
Hosted last night by the new guys at the Travellers Rest, Brockholes.
Tony Proctor of Monkey Club B versus Matt Brook of Honley Libs in a best of 9-frames contest.
Tony Proctor arrived with his entourage – A Thorpe Junior and Tony Goode….Matt Brook turned up with the entire Libs team and a ginger bloke from the Allied.
Tony won the toss for the break in the first frame – fluent,fairly fast open play and Tony was 1-nil up.The second frame followed more or less the same pattern – 2 frames to Tony.
More supporters from Monkey B turned up….Messrs Thorpe(snr) Scargill and Hawkyard.
Frame three – Matt Brook took hold of this and stretched it into taking longer than the first two frames. A lengthy tactical battle – Matt won making it 2-1
Next frame was Tony’s - Matt broke off but the balls once again landed in Tony’s favour – 3-1
A break for supper – and what a good supper it was. It seems that the Trav’s has a cook!! Quiche with coleslaw, sausage rolls ….and a divine chicken curry with rice…..Lee Blagbrough- you missed a treat!
Frame Five… Tony broke off and looked to be ok but once again Matt dug deep,as he does, slowed it down and ground out a win… making it 3-2
The next frame contained probably the longest “60″ seconds shot gap we’ve ever had in a final. A member of the audience was ‘taken ill’ ….I believe that’s what they call it at the crucible – in our League it tends to be more plainly termed as being drunk and disruptive . Said person was actually asked to leave the playing area by Tony and others from the Monkey B supporters and eventually was assisted to leave by the bar staff. This occurred halfway through the frame with Matt patiently waiting to take his shot. The frame was resumed . 4-2 to Tony. Matt took the next one to make it 4-3.Matt broke off in the next frame – disastrous break for him – unbelievably fortunate for Tony….nothing dropped and the balls were left in such a way that a full clearance (of either colour) was definitely a nailed on finish. Tony obliged – 8 ball clearance – and wrapped the match up with a 5-3 victory.
Congratulations to Tony and commiserations to Matt.
Referees and Match Officials were Andy (the hug) Horn and Martin J Gabanski.
It was a cracking final, played absolutely in the spirit of the game .
Many thanks to the supporters and spectators for coming along and helping to make it a good do.
A big thanks to Honley Liberal Club for loaning us a set of match balls for this final.
Many thanks to all the staff at the Travellers Rest for the hospitality.