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Wednesday, November 22, 2006
It was the first time that LSSC had hosted London Pompey to a social event in 16 years - since a 2-2 draw at footy when some of the present squad tonight could claim to be young. And the beauty of it was that we beat the Skates 11-7 in a joint pool and darts evening down the City Road in a very enjoyable clash with a good atmosphere all round.
Pompey turned up with 10 players as opposed to seven LSSC members - which meant doubling up on some pool games, and a memorable 1,001 darts game which although it turned out to be fairly chaotic epitomised the evening. There was good grub thanks to The Royal Star and a cracking atmosphere all round, helped by Man Utd losing at Celtic and Arsenal winning on the big screens.
Here's how the evening went:
Darts: 1-0 - LSSC darts skipper Nick Head leads from the front with a comprehensive victory
Pool: 2-0 - In the first baize game of the evening, Pete Berkeley not playing the finest Premiership pool, wins through after a Pompey foul. There's a surprise.
Darts: 3-0 - Paul Wathan steps up to the oche and, in a marathon game, gets down to x13, then 13, 7 - and then explodes with a x3 finish. Extraordinary.
At this point, the LSSC captain Reg Betts and LPSC captain Tony take stock. More female Pompey fans turn up and there's talk of pools doubles and Reg playing darts. "no, no..."
Darts: Pete offers to base his game on the person nearest the bull. His opponent gets the first ton of the night and it looks like a fair offer. Meanwhile in the pool, we have one yellow left. "Yellows, yellows...." Then, within a second or two, disaster. Reg misses the black in his pool game, and Pete is struggling in darts.
Pool: 3-1: Reg loses.
Darts 3-2: Pete's opponent scores the final x2 after an approximate 120 darts at finishing the game. Pete is marooned on x1. What a marathon.
Pool: 3-3: Wathan loses a tight one. Cunning play leaves LPSC in trouble - they miss a sitter then fluke a middle. Then Wath fouls with only the black to play. Disaster!
Darts 4-3: a darts marathon... Tom Henson for London Saints plugs away at 501 to bring his score down to 103 - Pompey are on 101. Then it's down to Pompey on 32, a perfect x16 and Tom on 21. Right. Then Tom gets a 9, so it must be all over? No. Pompey blows it, he gets to 3 with Tom on x1 - and wins. Saints 4 Pompey 3.
Pool 4-4: Darts hero Nick goes down to the tattoed Pompey cab driver.
Darts 5-4: Steve Keenan steps up to play Pompey Dan, who's well ahead but blows it. Both get down to x1 and in a not very fine shoot out, Steve nicks it.
Darts 5-5: Reg v Gaz. Reg uses a philosophy of keeping it on the board, but he's up against a sharp player who aims for 20s. Remarkably, both end up on x19 - and Gaz nicks it.
Pool 6-5: this is nip and tuck as Tom (Trigger) seals a pool and darts double. To be fair, he flukes the black but who cares?
Darts 7-5: new LSSC member Keith Richardson (recruited the previous week) comes from behind to slot an excellent x20.
Pool 7-6: Wath only needs two more shots to win - then mayhem. He has a simple black to finish but blows it. LSSC skipper Reg is worried: "We are always ahead but they keep coming back....."
Darts 8-6: The star of the night, Trig (Tom), scores a x16 on his second dart to see off a London Pompey girl who was marooned on x1.
Pool 8-7: These Pompey won't go away. Steve on yellows has a simple black to finish but blows it.
Pool 9-7: Now it's looking good. There are 18 points to be won, so this game win meant we couldn't lose, only draw. Reg and Steve team up and it's a win with one ball to spare.
Pool 10-7: while a marathon 1,001 darts game is still under way, Pete Berkeley misses, fouls - then they miss, have two wild shots and PB wins.
Darts 11-7: Nick scores 105, the highest score of the night, to push LSSC to their biggest margin of victory all night. It gets down to Pompey 622, and LSSC 578, then it gets a bit ramshackle as the pool boys win and with it any chance of a draw. Can't remember how this finished exactly but we won - and had a bloody good singsong!
ANALYSIS: all credit to London Pompey to suggesting the idea, and for Reg for enthusiastically supporting it and seeing it through. We all thought it might be a bit iffy but it was anything but, with a really good atmosphere - and a spanking big new trophy provided by LSSC's Nick that demands LPSC strive to win it next year.
London Pompey had a good bunch, with great supporters, and it seems bizarre that 16 years had elapsed since the last social encounter. Or maybe not.... Still, we now look forward to a Ryder Cup style golf challenge - and there is always the matter of next year's pool and darts challenge....
