Amateur International

Beaconsfield Club Derby, October

England Retain International Championship

The second Four Nation International Match Took place at the Beaconsfield Club, Derby, on October 13th & 14th where England successfully defended the Championship they had won last year at Killiney in the Republic of Ireland. The Tournament was Sponsored by Rees Bros, Ltd, Derby who also donated a prize for the highest break. The Beaconsfield Club provided excellent facilities. The Tournament took place under the auspices of The Billiards and Snooker Control Council. Eric Hodgkinson was Tournament Organiser (Together with Brenda) and Eric on behalf of the B.&.S.C.C. thanks all Officials, Referees, the Staff of the Beaconsfield Club, and all other involved persons for their time and efforts made so willingly and without which the Tournament could not have been the outstanding event that it undoubtedly was.

England

Martin Goodwill. Peter Shelley. David Rees. Jim McCann. Mark Hirst. Bob Tongue (Team Manager.)

Northern Ireland

David Elliott. John McIntyre. Seamus McClarey. Sammy Clarke (Team Manager) Billy Loughan.

Belgium

Martin Spoormans. Steve Cohen. Leo Taelman. Rudy Van Dooren. R. Leysenns. Hugo Mulders (Team Manager.)

Republic of Ireland

Aidan Murray.Victor O'Gorman. Toss Reilly. Tommy Martin. Larry Drennan. Pat O'Sullivan (Team Manager.)

The matches were played to a format of 500 points up or two hours whichever was the sooner. Four of the games were decided on the two hour basis and ironically one of these was the match between Goodwill and Elliott who were the two best players on view and two of the quickest. B.Q.R. feels that this was perhaps over-long, certainly for some of the games, and whilst it gave opportunity for big breaks, a shorter game format might have led to a rather more exciting tournament

Martin Goodwill was beaten by David Elliot in a game in which neither player showed any form or came to terms with the rather slow table. Sammy Clarke did well to beat David Rees on his home ground. Jim McCann and Peter Shelley both won fairly comfortably. The top break of the round - 75 - was recorded by both Mark Hirst and Seamus McCleary.

This was a good win for England. Goodwill made amends for defeat with a 170 which turned out to be the highest of the Tournament. David Rees also had a century.

Belgium were the weakest team of the four and manager Hugo Mulders expressed his disappointment at his team's poor showing. The Belgians relied too much on cannon play and, despite the examples all around them, seemed unable to adapt their play to take enough advantage of the pockets - rather strange considering that all were good cuemen. There was an amusing incident in the Van Doeran - Loughan game. The Belgian managed to get the balls in a huddle near the pink spot and, being a big man, by half climbing onto the table was able to get at them for the masse. But the light shade was in the way whereon the effervescent Sammy Clarke with a cry of, "wait a minute," clambered onto the baulk end of the table to hold the light shade out of the way. Van Doeran scored a beautiful shot. David Elliot had a fine 160.

This was a pretty easy match for England. Spoormans, the Belgians best player, made a 69 - his team's best break of the Tournament. Goodwill and McCann had centuries.

N. Ireland were just a little too strong for the Republic though O'Reilly did well to win.

The Republic had an easy win though Spoormans did well against Aidan Murray.

England thus won the Tournament with 13 points, N. Ireland came second with 11, The Republic had 6. Belgium 0. English players Shelley, McCann and Hirst together with Elliot and Clarke of Northern Ireland were all unbeaten. The event was a huge success from the social point of view and there was much talk of, "next Year" if there is to be a next year then sponsors equal to Rees Bros of Derby, and a club as generous with its facilities as the Beaconsfield will have to be found from somewhere. Let's hope that they are.

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