A COMBINE harvester was still at work in a nearby field as the victorious Hedge End B snooker team eventually found their car keys and left the Exbury Club with the time fast approaching 11pm.
Life in the New Forest is certainly different.
Apparently, while enjoying the summer evenings on the new outdoor seating area, under which is buried Alan Headley’s old cue, fox eyes can be spotted glinting in the dark and the odd deer has been known to bound across the grass.
Not exactly Shirley Social Club is it?
And so our tour of every club affiliated to the Southampton & District Social Clubs League moved to the heart of Southampton.
Bowls has been played at the site near the Town Quay since at least 1299. But the Southampton (Old) Bowling Green had to join the 21st century as they prepared for a first ever cribbage match in the league.
New cribbage boards, ordered off the internet, arrived on the morning of the defeat by Woolston Royal British Legion B.
Captain Alan Pickett, former publican of the Bald Faced Stag in Shirley, explained that the 232-year-old annual Knighthood Competition used to start on Wednesday afternoons, early closing day – for those of a certain age.
After they suffer a defeat at bowls, the team line up with their backs to the bar (known as the twenty-second end, similar to golf’s 19th hole) and sing to their victors. The words are on a beam just in front and above their heads.
The barman reckons it’s to make sure the visitors don’t want to win again.
Happy-Snapper Kevin Legg returned in daylight and persuaded the occupants of a nearby flat to allow him access for an aerial shot.
And on Monday, a first for us. At the green, corrugated iron shack that is the Curdridge Royal British Legion we found a table with a note that said ‘reserved 4 press’.
We were informed by one character who emerged silently from the darkness that poaching was only called poaching during daylight hours.
BACK in the 1960s it wasn’t just hippies that let it all hang out – although it is unknown whether spectators at a long-gone social club in Southampton were ‘turned on’ by the antics of a certain snooker player.
Dave O’Brien, who is about to begin his 25th year as president of the Southampton & District Social Clubs League, was watching Last of the Summer Wine recently.
One of the original cast members, the legendary unkempt Compo, reminded Dave of a similarly dressed character, who ‘appeared’ in a match at Workmens No 1.
Dave recalled that the man in question turned up with a broken zip held together by a safety pin.
Forced to stretch for a shot “he cocked his leg up onto the table and everything fell out”.
AS WINDOW cleaner Paul Solloway basked in the attention on the roof garden at Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club on Sunday night, good friend Dave Mumford was south of Newbury and 20 minutes away from the club with his own story to tell.
And the first carload of juniors arrived back from Northamptonshire holding the top three positions in the Rushden SC under-21 series.
Dave and Happy-Snapper Kevin Legg were heading home after watching ten-year-old Shane Castle’s England debut in Leeds.
Proudly brandishing a certificate signed by EASB tournament committee chairman John Hartley and Scottish Snooker chairman Stevie Baillie, Dave told how he had been asked to make the numbers up in the Random Doubles, the finale to the Auld Enemy clash.
He was paired with England under-19 champion Adam Duffy and won.
Dave watched Solly collect the £1,000 jackpot in the year-long 105-tournament Roll-Up.
Shane had not been slow in coming forward in Leeds. According to the EASB, he marched into the Northern Snooker Centre on the Thursday evening and immediately booked local professional Peter Lines’ match table for practice.
And the budding Ronnie O’Sullivan had a few choice words for Duffy, who had recently been awarded the Paul Hunter Scholarship by the World Snooker Association.
Dave told us: “It’s priceless. Adam Duffy’s going to be on our telly in two years time and Shane’s pulling his leg about twitching with the rest.”
Stevie Baillie said: “Shane was easily the most impressive junior player on display for England.”
After a quick interview and before heading home to sleep for England, Dave put his mouth close to the tape machine: “I won the doubles; I was different class,” he laughed.
TEN-year-old Shane Castle made a winning start on his international debut today in Leeds. But the Auld Enemy clash must have come as a welcome respite for under-fire Scottish chairman Stevie Baillie.
The power battle north of the border has seen a war of words over the last few months on two separate websites.
Strong-willed, determined, stubborn and sometimes vicious are words that could be used to describe the main players in this struggle. But what characters. And what a sense of humour lies just under their thick skins.
Just months before Scottish Snooker Ltd, the national governing body, hosted the prestigious European Under-19 Championships in Glasgow, their colourful chairman stepped into the playing arena at the IBSF World Championships in Thailand for a Masters match against a well-known Aussie slowcoach armed with a pillow and a book.
And he used both items during the match to the fury of his opponent.
And he didn’t mind the story and picture appearing in CueSport magazine.
Priceless.
On the other side, a dad of a top junior was involved in a ‘full and frank discussion’ at the SSL AGM and discussed the issue on the opposing website.
“Over the years,” he said. “Loads of guys have been GOING to knock me out. Despite pushing 50, I still have my own teeth.
”The next guy to actually do it, will be the second. Going back 20 odd years, I remember it well, The Morvern Bar in Springburn, big specky guy, BANG.”
Although we are all supposed to step back and shake our heads in a disapproving way, you can’t help but smile and wonder how powerful Scottish snooker would be (and what a fun time all involved would undoubtedly have) if these concerned could find a way of sitting at the same table.
The dad continued: “I’m proud of the fact that over the years, I have never felt the urge to settle an argument using force. I suppose that will exclude me from joining the board, under this regime anyway.”
THE 58-year-old manager of the England boat fishing squad recalled the day he was caught with his pants down.
With a new beach caster given to him by his uncle and a reel bought out of his paper-round money, a young Ray Ashby and a group of friends walked along Hurst Shingle Spit to fish near the entrance to Keyhaven Harbour.
They left their rods on rests to dig bait. A small flotilla of boats passed and when Ray returned to check his rod he was horrified to find it missing.
A small channel led to the edge of the water. One of the boats had caught the line and dragged the whole lot into the sea.
It was May and chilly. Ray stripped to his underpants and waded in. On the third dive he struck lucky.
By now a small crowd had gathered. Ray triumphantly walked from the water brandishing his rod and shouted: “Ian, I’ve got my rod.”
His friend replied: “But you haven’t got your underpants.”
Ray, who is a member of Hamble Sea Angling Club, added: “They reckon the fishing off that area was never good for about six months afterwards.”
FIRST lines are so important to a writer. Grab the reader’s attention early on and you’ve got them hooked.
So this week I take my hat off to Dave Hendon, the assistant editor of Snooker Scene magazine and Eurosport commentator.
Dave writes an almost daily piece at snookerscene.blogspot.com.
His boss, legendary snooker commentator Clive Everton, is also famous for his running battles in his magazine and through the courts with the game’s governing body - the WPBSA.
Snooker Scene’s coverage of the women’s game is second only to CueSport’s, in my humble opinion.
Last Monday, Dave opened a piece about the game’s young stars with:
“Like the black pudding industry, any sport – snooker included – relies on a steady supply of fresh blood.”
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