Amateur Champion: A Game with Martin Goodwill

I had for some time wanted a game with Martin Goodwill. We made arrangements when we met at Leeds where, even though I did my best to talk him out of it, he pipped me for the highest break prize, and where he had his second ABC tournament of the season. He was the winner at Derngate, he was surprisingly eliminated in the first round at Spalding but went on to the plate final. Martin also reached the Widnes Mini-Prix final where he was on the end of a thrashing from a great performance by professional Peter Gilchrist. Thus from four events Martin has won two, been in the final of a third, and reached the final of the plate in the fourth. This, to my mind, makes him the leading amateur player of the 1992/1993 season to date. I am not forgetting David Causier, an ABC winner at Spalding and the current Amateur Champion, but Goodwill's record at this stage of the season gives him the edge, how things will stand at the end of the season may be a different matter.

Martin Goodwill was born some thirty years ago in the North East and, surprise, surprise, is a product of the Teesside Boys Billiards League in which he started playing when only ten. Albert Hanson recalls that in those days Martin was considered to be one of the best players but never seemed to be able to win anything. But when he did start winning things he started at the top and it must be unique in the game for a player's first championship of any note to be The Amateur itself which he won in 1990. He won again in 1991 but was beaten by David Causier (Another Teesside Boys product) in the 1992 quarters, there was only 131 in it but that was more than enough. But though losing the major title Goodwill took the country's second most important championship - the C.I.U. - for the second year running. Though there are players who might have a say in the matter few people are looking any further than Goodwill or Causier for this year's championship. Martin's best tournament break to date is 311 but that must surely soon be bettered. Martin has been in the Royal Air Force for six years and after a spell flying Hercules Transports including a tour in The Gulf, is now a flying instructor based at Scampton in Lincolnshire but soon to move to a base further North. This will probably give him more opportunity for play and here perhaps is one of the more remarkable aspects of the man's ability at the game i.e. his very limited opportunities for practice. One young player at Leeds told me that he played two or three hours every day, Goodwill is lucky if he gets a game a week though he is usually able to put in a period of concentrated practice before a major tournament.

We arranged to play one Saturday just before Christmas. It was for me a drive of some fifty miles or so through the North Notts countryside and into Lincolnshire. For those who know the area my journey took me past Newstead Abbey, through to Ollerton and into Robin Hood country. Then the A57 and some typical mining countryside; through East Markham where there was a skirmish in the Civil War, and on towards Lincoln. Anyone knowing Lincoln will recall the sight of the Cathedral standing proudly on the high ground and dominating the countryside. On this particular misty morning the town was invisible and the cathedral appeared to rise from a white sea like something from a fairy tale. The Lincoln ring road and the A15 brought me slithering and sliding, scattering pheasants, to the gates of the RAF establishment. Security formalities over I found Flight Lieutenant Goodwill waiting for me and after a cup of coffee we were off to the billiards room in the Officers' Mess.

Scampton boasts a pretty fair table and in this Martin is fortunate, his next billet may not be as well provided for. We arranged to play 1500 up and he would give me half the game start. He has a two year old baby daughter who was going to have quite an effect on the game in-as-much as she had mumps and the Goodwills had had very little sleep the previous night. On his sixth visit Martin made a fifty break but had only 76 points on the board after eight whilst I was even worse with a mere 48. Things then suddenly changed. The RAF man scored two centuries in two visits, 106 and 105, breaks which should not have ended when they did, whilst I had my day's best of 96 missing an easy shot for the century that I would very much have liked to have scored against him. This was a bit more like it, his average at this stage rose to nearly 30 whilst mine was just under 16. But it was a bit of a false dawn as the next 22 visits brought the wilting Goodwill a mere 343 points with top breaks of 67 and 72 and an average of 15.5 to my 211, top break 53, average 10.5. After a break for a coffee and some fresh air we resumed the game going from bad to worse. The first eight visits brought him 42 points and me 54, I could at least say that at this stage I was out-pointing him. But things changed yet again. Martin's next 11 visits, though nothing like his best form, brought in 487 points with a fine break of 166 and an average of 44; in the same spell. I managed 195 at an average of 17 It was soon after this that we decided to call it a day.

The game finished (two-and-a-half hours approx.):-

As Martin was giving me 50 points in every 100 I suppose that I was just the winner, but as we didn't play the full 1500 up then it doesn't count.

The Effect of Side

After we had finished playing, Martin (who had made notes) discussed with me a number of positions where he thought I had broken down, not through any faults in cueing technique, but simply through a lack of knowledge of the effect of side, and, whilst not getting into the question of transmitted side, he pointed out that playing with side, did have an effect on the run of the object ball. Martin is a great believer in the use of side for positional purposes and claims he could hardly play without it. One of the most interesting illustrations of this occurs when a player has made two pots from the spot and leaves the cue ball above the red as shown. Playing the in-off plain ball usually results in the red, unless the strength is very good, finishing somewhere near 'A' where there may or there may not be a short jenny available. I had played this very shot when in the thirties only to break down at an awkward jenny. Playing with running side (right in this case) will cause the object ball to take the line marked 'B' whilst check will cause it to run along line 'C.' Running side is perhaps the best option but either 'B' or 'C;' is infinitely preferable to 'A' - try it some time.

A cup of coffee with Martin's charming wife and mumpsy baby and a drive back through the mists after an enjoyable game and with plenty to think about. I am looking forward to the next one as, despite a respectable (under the circumstances) amateur average of 22, Fl.Lt. Goodwill reckons he has a point to prove.

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