Sale Conservative Snooker Team

With the 2023/24 season well under way Sale A find themselves riding high at the top of division 1 winning seven of the first nine games see’s them one point ahead of Flixton Cons D and two points clear of Partington WMC.
Captain John “The cherry coke king” Daly believes that the spirits are high in the team and the results confirm that.

Congratulations to Sale Cons A team 2022/23 trophy winners. Highest break of 61 Damon Heslop and Players Payer of the Season John Daly.

Early setback for Sale A

After a successful win against Flixton Cons D last week, sale travelled to United services (USC) for their first away game.

On his debut new signing Steve Groves, following a break of 66 in pre-match practice, was first up against the ever reliable Graham Walls, both players appeared evenly matched. Steve being -33 and Graham -20 set the scene for an exciting frame. Steve got in first dragging back the small deficit. Graham quickly responded and slowly began to force his home advantage. Steve missed a couple of relatively easy shot, for him, which Graham capitalise down and he ran out winner 75–51.

On table 2 Malcolm Wells battled it out with you USC’s is Mark Horner. This started out has a cagey affair until the pack of reds scattered. Each player have the chances to clinch the frame but Mark just had the edge and won the frame 67–45.

With sale trailing 2-0 Captain John Daly sent out two of last weeks winners, Hugh McQuaid and Rich Sweetman, to do battle with Steve Hough and Rob Litherland. Yeah stop nothing

Hugh gave Rob a small start of 9 which Hugh pulled back immediately.Hugh continued his good form from last week potting well and not leaving many chances for Rob. For the second week running Hugh potted his way to a 74–38 victory.

Meanwhileon table 2 Rich seem to be having a tough time trying to find his way in the frame with Steve pulling away a little bit at a time. With the colours left on the table the drama was about to unfold as Rich needed the final colours to force a re-spotted black. After a couple of safety exchanges on the black Steve left the Black 6 inches away from the green pocket with the white online with it by the middle pocket choices needed to be made does rich try and cut the ball into the Green pocket or play it safe…………….. What do you think he did?…………… yep we all know Rich, he tried to pot it…………… and guess what happened?…………….. Yep he missed the Black resulting in a foul which handed the win to Steve 78–71.

With sale now being 3-1 Down and 17 points behind, and needing the extra point for the aggregate, things are looking a little desperate. The final two players, who were out to make amends, were Steve Daly on the table 2 and Damon Heslop table 1.

Steve was taking on Graham Dillon who gave a handsome start to Steve of 32. Graham left little chances for Steve to get onto the frame. The highest break in the evening of 46 fell to Graham who eventually run out winner 96–36.

Again another minus player Gary James was giving Damon a 12 start on table 1. It was a tight affair both players taking minor opportunities to pot a few, but the match was evenly balanced. The aggregate, and extra point, where out of reach and so Damon just needed to win the frame, which he did 59-42, to ensure two points were picked up from the match for Sale.

A disappointing night but USC it’s a difficult place to visit and get a positive result, They have some good players and on the return leg I’m sure sale will reverse the result. Next week Sale A have a home fixture against Urmston Men’s A which will again be a difficult fixture but which Sale will hope to come out on top.

SHAKEY START

With a strengthened squad, and pockets full of optimism, Sale Cons A welcomed Flixton Cons D hoping for a good start to the season. Captain John Daly decided to put Rich Sweetman and Luke Owens in first to give the team the initial boost.

Rich took on Ben Sindel, who was once a team mate of his playing for a previous club, so they both knew the extent of their abilities. Rich made an excellent start to the frame with confident potting and dare I say it ...........some safety play as well! Ben looked a little out of sorts but take nothing away from Rich he played well throughout the frame with his highest break of 20 and he ran out a convincing winner 89- 22.

Meanwhile on table one Luke Owens was struggling against Flixton’s Dave Rigby who seemed to have got the run of the size fairly quickly. Luke battled hard to stay in the match having to play a fair share of safety to keep his opponent at bay. Although Luke was giving a 22 start to Dave he still managed to stay in the frame but Dave, who potted sufficiently, took the frame 67-41. So with the match score at 1-1 Hugh McQuaid and his doubles partner Steve Daly were up next to try and turn things in Sale’s favour.

Steve elected to play on table one against Neil Turner. The frame was a little haphazard with both players struggling to get a grip of the game. Both players had chances to follow up on one or two balls but without success. It turned out to be moe of a game of misses than chances to dominate and a close match saw Neil take the frame 46-27.

On table two Hugh was taking on Tom Prichard. Hugh and Tom always seem to be drawn against each other, in both home and away fixtures, so they knew each other’s game well. Hugh started by giving Tom a 19 start, and with an early exchange of safety, Hugh managed to pull the 19 deficit back immediately then started to edge away. Tom missed a couple of good opportunities to get back in the game but Hugh continued to pot well and was 29 ahead with just the colours left. After Hugh took the first three colours the game was out of reach for Tom who potted the last three and ended up loosing to Hugh 82-58.

The night seemed to fairly even and the 2-2 score confirmed it.

Last to represent Sale were Damon Heslop and Malcolm Wells. On table two Damon was drawn against Jordan Lucas. Both player ranked even with a -2 handicap set up a potentially good battle. After an early exchange of safety, both players potted small amounts but it was Jordan who got into his stride quickly. Damon and spectators of both sides sat and watched as Jordan put together a break of 52, and although there was enough points left on the table, following that break, Damon continued to plug away in vain with Jordan running out the winner 88-44. With team down at 2-3 it was left to Malc to try and secure the points.

Malc was drawn against P McKenny and giving him a 25 start. Malc quickly made 24 break to reduce the deficit and lay down his intentions of trying to make it a short frame. P wasn’t taking the bait though has he slowly took his time on each play P managed to pot consistently ensuring Malc had to do the same to get anything out of the frame. The frame came down to the pink and black which Malc required to win the frame and aggregate a subsequently the match. With the pink potted and the black over the middle pocket Malc mocked about missing a sitter and almost did by sliding it in off the jaw of the pocket to the relief of his team mates.

With that result Sale Cons A took the extra point for the aggregate and ran out winners 4-3 giving them a taste of what’s to come in this season.

CHANGES FOR SUCCESS!
Pre-season saw several changes to the Sale Conservative Club Snooker Team (SCCST), with the formation and introduction of a B team to the league and the signings of three new players to the A team, which has brought excitement and optimism for a bright season ahead.

Following a disappointing 2021/22 season, and the battle for survival, the A Team remained in the first division. Captain John Daly felt the need to strengthen the squad by signing three new players, Dec Ronson, Malc Wells and Steve Groves. "We have a strong squad now and the competition for places will make the team stronger and we are hopeful that we can bring some silverware back to the club this season" stated John.

As there re now two teams playing out of Sale Conservative Club there will always be one team playing at home each Tuesday evening at 7:15pm. A full list of fixtures will be posted on this page, and can also be found on the Urmston and District Snooker League website.

To kick of the season the A-Team will have their first match, tonight 20th Sept, at home against Flixton Conservative Club D Team while The B-Team are away at Flixton A team.

Back on Track at the Rail?

So after a dinner of impressive energy infusing Indian delivery pre-match starters, could our boys deliver on the table?!

With only being a point above the relegation zone, a decent win was needed tonight to give us some breathing space.....

So off to Rail we went, and arrived with the concentration endearing noise of Emmerdale in the background - perfect for a focused snooker match 😂.

It was a tough night to be honest, balls were not running kindly, all evening. 'Cool Hand' Luke (google him, Lukester 😂) stuttered slightly from the off, but found his form to dominate the second half of the frame, and got a decent, dominate win. Good start. Our 'Midget Assassin' Hugh looked out of sorts, missing too many balls, but somehow (and i'm not sure even Hugh knows how), he managed to claw his way back, and cleared up to get over the line, and win on the black. Well done!

2-0 up.

The second pair-ups didn't go so well. Sweetman played a bandit, this time in the form of Bandit Ben, who palyed really well, but never a +23 player - with the aggregate deficit, then a few flukey positional shots, he soon found himself 50 behind, and chasing. Clawed some points back by taking the colours, but not to be. But 'Sexy' Sweetman's only there for eye candy to be fair, so at least that was a success. 'Sarky' Ste played ok, but when missing a few (which is allowed), he let his opponent in, and then the Rail man cleared the colours to make the pain worse.

2-2.

The 'Cherry Coke Captain' John played their best player - he's a decent stick, and put a decent 39 break in early doors. So it was a tall order to get back into it. But Johnny Boy did, and fought back well. To the point where he could've grabbed the much needed point with the pink and black. Unfortunately, all the artilary had to come out, long rests, the lot, and it was a stretch too far, and the pink was (actually) missed, so that was that. Similar for 'The Beast' Damo - played ok, kept right in the frame, and had the clearance from blue very much on. But the pink was straight, he just needed an angle, any angle, and that made the difference. Missed the pink, and his opponent got over the line.

So, a disappointing 5-2 loss - only 1 point seperates the bottom 3, so it's all to play for in the final match of the season. Pray for us, dear reader. After our match at Rail, let's hope we can Mind The Gap next week, and not get relegated. All to play for, and still in our hands.

Sale Cons Player of the Week : Luke Owens