A still and sunny day greeted the 4 semi-finalists for this year’s Prebendal Manor Trophy. Joe King, Andy Robertson and Peter Allan (three times) had all won the competition in the last 7 years, and Deirdre Cochrane hoped to add her name to that trophy.
The first semi was all over within an hour. Joe was 11-0 up before Andy got his first break. After Andy then played the wrong ball, Joe quickly completed an 18-0 rout. The other semi was much tighter. Deirdre took an 11-3 lead, but only after using all her bisques. Peter steadily fought back to 15-all, despite a free drop that Deirdre was awarded after a very long scrutiny. The match could have gone either way, until Deirdre missed a shot with all 4 balls on the peg: game over (18-16).
So Peter and Joe met in a re-run of last year’s final, which Peter had won 26-0. Peter had also beaten Joe in last season’s Founders Cup final: Joe described Peter as “my bete-noire, who I’ve never beaten competitively”. Meanwhile Peter seemed bemused by being given 1.5 bisques (“I’ve forgotten what to do with these”): indeed, they were used up quickly as he opened with a modest 2-hoop break. However, at the hour-mark, a 12-hoop break had taken Peter to 17-0, with his red already on the peg; while Joe was really struggling to find his form after lunch.
But Joe finally ran Hoop 1 (at the 4th attempt!), and his confidence steadily grew as another 11 hoops followed: having taken his own ball to the peg, he pegged out Peter’s red. There was over an hour still on the clock, though Joe was 6 hoops down (12-18). Joe played cautiously, making sure each leave minimised Peter’s chance of a long hit-in, and drawing on both his 1-ball and his peeling skills to slowly inch his way back. The tension built. The wind started gusting, and was blamed by both players for a couple of missed chances. But Joe wasn’t throwing any caution to the wind. With nerves of steel, he levelled the match at 20-20 just as the 5-minute warning was announced. That was still the score when the timer sounded, at which point Joe pegged out his rover ball, while putting too much distance between the last two remaining balls for Peter to reply. With this 21-20 victory, Joe could finally lay to rest the ghost of last year’s defeats.