By Brian Phillips

Looe and Liskeard Knockout Cup first round

SUNDAY, October 27 saw round one of the Looe and Liskeard Knockout Cup, the eventual winner being crowned the best of the best from both leagues.

Two teams moved into round two by drawing a bye, they were St Keyne B and The Barbican, while the White Horse B also progressed due to the Harbour Moon failing to travel.

British Legion A Polperro travelled up to JJ’s Liskeard and with the score at 6-5 were in with a shout.

But the hosts took the last four with Sean Frayling and George Knowles picking up three victories each which condemned the Legion to the Plate competition.

Eliot Elephants visited The Millenium Pensilva and with the score at 5-3 the Eliot turned it on to run out 11-4 winners. Jools True and Jonny Jones were both unbeaten.

Sports Club C made the short trip out to the Market St Cleer for this Liskeard league match up.

The Market pinched the last two to progress 9-6 with Market’s Sam Couch securing three wins. Sports’ Brian Stedman returned a double for his side.

Halfway Crooks travelled into town to take on Barley B who amongst their ranks was Jon Harris, playing for the first time in over 10 years.

After losing the opener they reeled off the next nine. Rich Trent secured a hat-trick in the 10-5 success.

Barley A and Sports B was expected to be close and went the distance with the Sports edging home 8-7.

There were threes from Sports’ Dan Prinn and Darren Hooper, while Barley, who are now Plate competition favourites, did likewise via Rich Hill and Mike Hinks.

High-flying JJ’s Looe travelled up to the Liskeard league champions Con Club looking to show they can mix it with the best.

Con raced into a 5-2 lead and JJ’s couldn’t recover, eventually going down 8-5.

Mark Snell and JJ Webber were unbeaten on the night.

Sports Club A played host to Eliot A expecting a tight game, but promptly raced into a 7-1 lead before completing an 8-2 success.

Will Doidge, Brian Phillips and Rob Ivey were unbeaten for the Sports, as was Eliot’s John Rowland.

Pelynt Cutouts made the short trip down the hill to take on Polperro British Legion B.

In a pretty one-sided affair, Cutouts raced into a 7-0 lead before the Legion rallied with a treble. However, Aaron Simmons completed the victory with a treble to secure victory.

Reigning champions the Moonshiners (formally Social A) travelled over the water to take on JJ’s Cuemen and after securing the match without dropping a frame at 8-0, eventually won 13-2.

Jon Godfrey, Mark Stevens, Roger Hawken and Steve Eastley were all unbeaten.

St Keyne A travelled over the hill to take on Marquee Club Duloe for about as local as a derby gets.

In what looked to be a match too close to call, the Saints put in a stellar performance by running through the card for an 8-2 success. Mike Drown put in an eight-ball clearance along the way.

White Hart made the tripto fellow Liskeard-based side JJ’ Pooligans for whom one-time league heavyweight Jason Bond put in a shift with a treble as the Cuemen won the last two frames to pinch the match and a spot in round two. A Myerscough also won three for the Hart.

Over at the Ship Looe, the league newbies ran into a 4-1 lead against the Looe first division side Social Club.

However the Social woke up and secured seven of the next eight games to move into round two, which included Jim Rickard’s hat-trick.