Week One Match Review: LS @ HT

Match One: HT_Chris094 vs. LS_jasonlippi01234 – my first match back as a ref would see HT’s co-captain refuse a cam request from LS’ new lead-off man Jason. As I mentioned in my build-up to this match, High-Timez are a no safety league and I was concerned they would not appreciate the tactical side of the game. However Chris had no trouble adjusting to the safety style inter-league game, and resorted to snookering himself on occasion, forcing ball-in-hand from Jason once or twice. Jason would rush a few shots and due to the open nature of his break this lead to Chris being left a couple of openings. Chris doesn’t have the accuracy to make him pay, and after missing 4 clear opportunities to run the rack out, Jason would eventually regain his composure and run the simple table, fairly tidily (barring one shot :p), putting LS 1-0 in-front.

Match Two: HT_yvettechen2001 vs. LS_xxx_cannon_fodder_xxx - Yvette breaks off and quickly gets to work on sinking some balls before playing safe and winning herself a ball-in-hand. She’d begin another attempted run, of which the key shot would appear to be the tremendous long yellow she made to free her last ball and put the rack at her mercy. Despite this, a missed purple to the middle on her last ball before 8 gave Cannon the advantage back. The only thing left in Cannon’s way would be a “rookie mistake” which, by his own admission, he would go on to make and hand Yvette the game on a silver platter – she obliged and put HT back on level-pegging. 1-1.

Match Three: HT_wv420man vs. LS_luckyshots_tony – a relatively open break from Tony allows him to sink a couple of solids and play safe. After a short exchange Tony worked himself a half-chance at the run, and after some neat shots, he is left with a tough bank on his green solid to the middle. By failing to get the right english, a double kiss occurs and the initiative is handed to 420, Robbie or Boo as a lot of people will remember him as. He makes hard work of the run and after misjudging a positional shot that was intended to send the cue ball around the table and towards the 8 and his 9 ball, he is left with a long shot on his one remaining ball. He totally nails the 9, and despite him being so close to the 8 that I thought it was going to cause him a problem, he makes light work of that too, and pulls HT to a one game advantage. 2-1.

Match Four: HT_my_sticks_crocked vs. LS_im_just_jeremy – this game started off with a fairly safe break and neither player, especially Jeremy, seemed to want to go for any kind of run. Eventually, my_stick or Adam, would go for a run, sink a few of his balls, and eventually scratch while sinking one of Jeremy’s. This would then prompt Jeremy to go for the run, which to me never, really, looked like happening. When he did end up missing, there was no hanging around as Adam sank his 4 balls and the 8 in world record speed, potting all 5 balls in less than 2.3 seconds, firing HT into a 3-1 lead.

Match Five: HT_Chase_70 vs. LS_snow.queen333 – crunch time for LS and Bev makes the brave decision to call herself. A tap-break would be her selection and both players would proceed in a tactical exchange, which Bev would seemingly have the upper-hand in – she would find herself in the advantageous position of her opponent having sunk 3 of his balls in comparison to her none, while neither player was offered a clear run at them. Rather than looking to gain a BIH, she decided to try the run at this point, (even though two of her balls were tied up). She would miss early on, handing the momentum over to Chase. He would start a run but realise it wasn’t on, and eventually decided to listen to the dubious coaching of his captain, who advised him to combo one of his balls in an attempt to make one of Bev’s. As far as I could see, it wouldn’t have achieved anything anyway, but he executed the shot incorrectly, and failed to make Bev’s ball. This then ensued a bout of attempted runs and misses that lasted for nearly 5 minutes, before Bev finally found herself with a shot on the 8, albeit a difficult one. The full length of the table separated the cue ball and 8, as she just managed to cut it along the left rail and into the bottom pocket, but in doing so sent the cue ball plummeting into the top right bag, gifting the match to HT, 4-1.

Match Six: HT_l3ooty_lovin_l3oy vs. LS_simon.kitto – an irrelevant game here saw Simon go for the early run, and he very nearly played it to perfection. He ran all 7 of his spots before leaving a moderately difficult, but makeable bank on the 8 that he would end up putting narrowly wide. This would leave the HT skipper with an almost un-missable opportunity to clear off the table, and he didn’t let his team down as he put the icing on the cake for the debutant league, sending LS home with a 1-5 drubbing to think about.

Having seen Jeremy and Simon both turn up for Lucky Shots and then crash to a 1-5 defeat against league that is new to WPC, I have to say, I was very surprised. No one, including Jason, brought their A-game to the table for LS tonight, and as well as Tonz not being there, that is why they have started the season with a loss. Only so many slip-ups can be afforded throughout the season, so if LS wanna be part of the post-season they will have to pick up the slack and fast.

As for High-Timez, they gave a very good account of themselves tonight, playing very well on the most part, being very well prepared for the start of the match, causing no controversy and they clearly have a half-decent shooter in Boo. They took advantage of a lot of LS errors tonight and I’d be surprised if they were presented with such easy games consistently throughout the season, but if they can play well like this all season and bring 6 guys to the table each week, who’s to say they can’t make it to the play-offs?

It was a pleasure reffing this match and if all the ones I do are at 6 or 7 and go this swimmingly I should be able to finish my write-up afterwards and get it posted on the same night. VGLIR of season to both leagues, and I should have my analysis of the match I’m doing next week (Monday’s DS @ FR, I think) up by Friday. In a bit. Ogges.