The finals night of Holbeach and District Pool League showcased some incredible matches as a host of South Holland’s top talent went head-to-head at Sutton Bridge’s Anchor Inn.
Headlining the evening was a marathon three-hour Knockout Cup final between by the top two teams in Division One – Woadmans Arms and Golden Lion.
In the end it was Lion who denied Woadman’s a double, but it went right to the wire in a 5-4 scoreline.
Every frame was a tense tussle of cat and mouse, with nobody wanting to make a mistake. Lion got off to a slow star with N Walls, playing Woadman’s ace Neal Jackson, producing what looked like a great shot to get himself out of trouble.
However, he watched on in horror as a ball rebounded off of a cushion onto the black, which went down.
In frame five, Woadman’s star Shane Balding potted the white while breaking, giving Lion’s D Rhodes two shots. Rhodes then proceeded to clear up to take the frame.
The scores were tied at 3-3 going into the doubles, but Balding and Jackson took the first the first frame to move ahead.
Not to be outdone, Rhodes brought the Lion back from the brink of defeat by potting five balls and the black to make it all square going into the last frame.
There, Lion’s players seemingly toyed with their opponents, leaving them with nowhere to go. They finally pounced to take the frame and win the match 5-4.
Elsewhere, the Secondary Cup final wasn’t as close.
Rose and Crown C romped into a 4-0 lead against Elizabethan A, before D Whapples stopped the rot.
There was to be no comeback, however, with D Phillips clearing five balls and the black to seal a 5-1 win for Rose and Crown.
Next up, the ladies’ singles final saw some top quality play from two evenly matched players in S Bennett and T Willows.
Despite the agony of seeing the white follow the black into the pocket in frame three, Bennett came from behind to win 3-2.
Some of the best pool of the night followed in the doubles final, as Woadman’s duo Balding and James Ball beat an Anchor A paring 3-2 in a real thriller.
Balding and Anchor’s C Back both cleared up well in the first two frames, but – with the scores level at 2-2 – it was another whirlwind clearance from Balding in the final showdown that clinched a 3-2 win for Woadman’s.
The evening ended with Shaun Summers (Woadman’s) taking on Carl Appleyard (Golden Lion). There was more quality play here, but Summers prevailed 3-0.
Overall, it proved to be another very successful season for the Woadman’s, winning the league title undefeated and also taking the singles and doubles titles.
It serves as a fitting tribute to their late landlord Neville Johnson, who was a long-term supporter of the Holbeach Pool League. He passed away earlier in the season.
