2022/23 Season Review

BRT Trials:

We took an amazing number of 17 players back to Weston-Super-Mare for the new fangled event called the British Regional Tournament.
Taken part in a triple elimination Swiss style tournament, most players started off slowly. However we soon warmed up and showed the region what we were capable of, even with the tiredness and long waits starting to show their effects.

Star performers include: Thomas Malins, Jake Gander, Sam Kernott-McAvoy, Sufiyan Surti and Jonny Pugsley getting a 3/5 win record!

Leanne Sinclair also deserves a special mention for almost certainly qualifying for the Ladies' team in her first main competition (3/5 wins)!

Most importantly, the team were amazing throughout! They supported each other where they could and the atmosphere in the team was incredible! All the signs are there that this year will be a really good year for the club as it returns to the forefront of competition in the country.

9 Ball BUCS:

Individuals: Both Banjo and Thomas lost their first round matches, with Banjo losing in a close and nervy deciding frame, whereas The Bank Engine got chucked into the sidings with a 5-0 defeat to a strong Lancaster Player. Jake played some solid stuff before losing in the Last 32 to the Leeds captain.

Teams: Warwick 2’s were first up on Sunday, where the team lost in an incredibly close 2-1 defeat, which went down to a deciding frame.
To Monday, playing Durham 2’s, knowing a loss would put us out the competition, the pressure was on. At 1-1 in the overall match, Banjo performed one of the best comebacks, coming back from 4-1 down to win 5-4 to secure the overall win!
Another close win against Kent set up a match against Liverpool on Tuesday to decide the seedings for the Team Championship! This was incredibly close, once again going to the final match! Unfortunately tiredness got the better, losing to Liverpool 2-1. This put us up against an incredibly talented Bristol 1’s side who beat us 2-0. Shoutout to Banjo for playing some amazing stuff to take 3 frames off the BUCS 8 Ball Runner Up!

Thank you to everyone we met up with, all the teams were absolutely wonderful to talk to and we can’t wait to return to winning ways at BUCS 8 ball in February!

Southerns 8 Ball:

Both teams qualified for the team shield, with Bath 1sts only dropping 1 match against Warwick.
Special mentions to Jonny, Sam KM and Olivia for making it deep into the individuals.

8 Ball BUCS:

Day 1 (Individuals):
The Individual Championship got off to a great start, with the majority making it past their first match. (Including Justine in the Women’s Competition!)
Sam KM and Jake managed to make their way into the Last 32 before being knocked out by the number 4 seed and one of the eventual quarter finalists. On this journey, Sam KM managed to beat someone who commented “I will hang myself if I lose this”.
The 2’s decided to “save up energy” for the Team event in the next few days (this ingenious tactic clearly worked).
Day 2 (Teams Day 1)
Thanks to our no show last year, we were dumped into the Shield/Vase competition.
The 1s breezed by both their opponents, being Lincoln 2nds and then Exeter 4ths. (6-2 and 6-1). Against Exeter, Haydn decided to tick off 3 squares on his bingo card by playing into the rack, while playing one handed and blind. The Pool Gods did not see kindly to this as he lost the frame following.
The 2s also started strongly by beating Edge Hill 3rds, giving them a great “Halloooo” into the Team competition. The strongest team on paper (Essex 1sts) came next and the team played valiantly….oh wait we won 6-1, never mind!
Day 3 (Teams Day 2)
Tougher challenges awaited on Day 3! For the 1sts, a scrappy draw against Newcastle 1sts, before going back to winning ways with a 6-1 win over Strathclyde 3rds, even with some interesting rule suggestions. The tie to decide the top of the table was last, with another close draw meaning the 1sts ended 2nd in the group, with a meeting against Manchester to come.
The 2’s couldn’t continue their extraordinary run so far, losing to the strong Lancaster 2nds. However, they bounced back with a win over Man Met 2nds and with results going their way, they won their group, to face Liverpool 2nds in the Quarter Finals.
With double promotion secured, the team entered the Longton Flyer, with esteemed alumni Griff joining the team. Unfortunately, the best runs were made to 9th place out of 68. However, the star attraction of the event was witnessing the former Wheelchair Pool World Champion (Dave Beaumont) in action! On the final day, the 1sts knew Manchester would be tricky opposition. Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalise on our chances, losing 6-3.
However the 2’s guaranteed themselves medals with a well fought 6-4 win over Liverpool 2’s. Sadly, that’s where the run ended, losing to eventual winners Durham 3rds.
The team have so much to be proud of, securing double promotion at the first time of asking, and getting some well-earned silver(bronze) ware.

Snooker BUCS

In the Individual Championship, Jake and Sam KM were the most successful, winning their first matches before losing in the Round of 64. We fared slightly better in the Individual Trophy, with 3 players making Day 2, with Jonny being the standout, making it to the Last 8 players.
The 1sts started strong beating the man down Imperial 2nds 6-1, before drawing to Oxford. With some major misfortune against Newcastle causing a 6-4 defeat, we had to beat seeded Nottingham 1sts. Unfortunately, they were too strong, meaning the 1sts went out in the group stage, agonisingly close to qualifying for the Trophy.
The 2nds started with a heavy 6-1 defeat to Sheffield, but bounced back with an incredible 6-0 win over Edge Hill! The Trophy deciding match was next, facing Nottingham 2nds (at the same time the two first teams were playing!). Again, Nottingham was too strong, winning 6-2. After Sheffield went AWOL, gifting Nottingham 2nds a controversial 6-0 win, the 2nds could no longer qualify for the knockouts, regardless of the Southampton result, in the end a 6-1 loss.
That was our last BUCS of the season, and while results and luck certainly did not go our way there is still a lot to be proud of. Thank you to Jake, Thomas, Justine, Banjo and Federico as this is most likely their last BUCS!
Just being up and running as a club again is a huge achievement since last year and we are definitely back on the rise!