POLICE SPORT
U.K INDOOR GAMES CHAMPIONSHIPS – 2004.
The above event took place between Tuesday 4th May and Thursday 6th May 2004, at Potter’s Leisure Resort, Hopton-on-sea, near Gt. Yarmouth, and was attended by competitors who had pre-qualified from the twelve U.K police regions, which are made up by the 43 forces of England, Scotland and Wales. Sadly once again, no competitors were present from the Northern Ireland region.
The championships are open to any serving police officer or employee of the police authority (civilian members of staff) and any person currently in receipt of a police pension. The cue sports traditionally played within the championships are Billiards and Snooker, although this year saw the inclusion of English 8 Ball Pool for the first time.
The separate competitions are listed as follows;
Billiards
Retired Officer’s Billiards
Snooker
Retired Officer’s Snooker
Snooker Doubles
Pool – Men’s Singles (new discipline)
Pool – Ladies Singles (new discipline)
Pool – Open Doubles (new discipline)
Originally the intention had been to play a separate Pool Doubles tournament for both Men and Ladies, but this had to be altered due to insufficient numbers notified for the Ladies competition.
The qualifiers are separated into two leagues of equal numbers where possible, or as near equal numbers when necessary. Those regions that have dual representation e.g. the Metropolitan and Scottish regions are separated, as are the Holder (who is automatically invited back each year with no need to pre qualify) and the qualifying representative from his home region.
All of the competitions are played on a round robin basis, with each competitor playing a match against all of the other competitor’s in his / her group. At the conclusion of the round robin stage, the winner and runner-up in each group will progress to the semi-finals, which take place on day two. The winner of Group “A” plays the runner-up of Group “B” and vice-versa. Obviously the two winners from those matches contest the final.
There were a total of twelve competitors in this year’s tournament. The defending champion Ron Bickerdike (Cleveland) representing the North Eastern region was his usual impressive self as he cruised through group “A” winning all of his matches. He notched up scores of 257/154, 254/150, 258/135, 214/145 and 302/173. His best break was that of 64, which he attained in staving off the only real challenger to his crown from the group, Steve Marmion from Metropolitan region. Steve won all of his group matches except for the one against Ron, which was his worst performance of the day. He posted scores of 175/114, 150/254, 236/158, 192/158 and 203/194, and in doing so booked his semi-final place as runner-up of the group.
Group “B” was much tighter, and saw four players tied at the conclusion of the Round Robin, each having won three and lost two of their group matches. They were Tony Gamesby (Cleveland) from the North East region, David Hall (Leicestershire) from the East Midlands region, Colin Childs (Gwent) from the Welsh region, and Graham Riley (Gloucestershire) from the South West region.
The group qualifiers were finally decided by virtue of the higher number of “plus points” scored over the matches won. Graham Riley ran out the eventual group winner with scores of 230/159, 226/143, 256/177, 120/238 and 152/238. He attained an overall plus of 237 points and recorded breaks of 43 and 41. However, the 41 break was second best to that of 57 made by Colin Childs in their group match, which Colin won. He qualified as runner-up in the group, assisted by a 59 break made against David Hall which helped him to a plus points total of 232. His match scores were 192/197, 170/159, 189/222, 278/143 and 238/152.
Ron Bickerdike beat Colin Childs and Graham Riley beat Steve Marmion in the semi-finals, which were played over 90 minutes. Although Bickerdike had reached the final in pursuit of the defence of his title, it was clear that he had not carried the same form over to the second days play. He was eventually beaten 261/216 by Riley who was crowned the 2004 champion.
Five players competed in the retired officer’s Billiards competition, which meant that only one player would miss out on the second days play. Gareth Wakeford from the Metropolitan region whom was unbeaten in the round robin won the group stage outright. He posted scores of 226/158, 283/130, 227/161 and 293/137. Second place was claimed by the holder, Geoff Mayor (ex-West Mercia Constabulary) representing the West Midlands region. He scored 346/82, 336/116, 283/150 and 158/226. He compiled breaks of 44, 79 and 59 along the way.
Wakeford beat Bruce Duncan (Scotland 1) in his semi final, whilst Mayor beat David Aelberry (East Midlands) in the other semi final to reach the final. Wakeford was unable to repeat his victory over Mayor in the group stage on the previous day and was well-beaten 389/164. Geoff Mayor retained the title that he had won last year at the first time of asking, following on from his victory in the main event the year before.
All group matches in the snooker competitions are played over two frames on a round robin basis. Each player scores one point for winning a frame, and a bonus point for winning a match two frames to nil. In the event of a tie on points at the conclusion of the round robin stage, the player with the highest number of “plus points” scored over the group matches will progress to the semi final stage. The semi finals and final are played over the best of five frames.
This year’s snooker singles competition looked on paper to be the strongest it had ever been, with no fewer than five of the twelve competitors being National Champion previously, two of whom had lifted the title on at least three occasions. Adds to that a newcomer to the championships by the name of Euan Henderson (Fife Constabulary) Scotland, previously number 38 in the world professional snooker rankings, and it was clear that this year’s tournament would be a real cracker.
Euan’s first group match was against the raining champion Dean Latus (Humberside) North East region, and he ran out a comfortable winner 2 v 0 with breaks of 54 in the first frame, and 95 in the second. Unfortunately he feathered the cue ball whilst addressing the blue with the last three colours remaining, and was denied the clearance.
Henderson won his first frame in the next match, but was held to a 1v1 draw by Martin Walsh (Cheshire) North West region, with a 50 break. Tony Long (Metropolitan) a previous winner of the title also took a frame off Henderson, and at the conclusion of the round robin matches in group “A”.
both players were tied on equal points. Henderson however qualified for the semi finals as group winner by virtue of a superior “plus points” tally, and Long also qualified as group runner up.
Neil Wood (North Yorkshire) North East region, was the runaway winner of group “B”. He recorded breaks of 72 and 81,as he took maximum points from each of his opponents, showing the type of form that had earned him his championship titles previously. The group runner-up was Lee Ferguson (Leicestershire) East Midlands, who qualified for his fifth consecutive semi final.
Henderson beat Ferguson 3v1 in the first semi final with breaks of 68, 71 and 48. In the other semi, Wood was disappointing as he struggled to show any of the form that he had demonstrated in his near perfect performance on the previous day. Long took advantage and beat Wood 3v0 to set up a mouth watering final between the two men who had only been separated by the narrowest of margins at the conclusion of the first days play.
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It was Henderson who took the first frame in the final, but Long was not phased, and promptly levelled at 1v1. The Londoner then underlined his intentions by taking the third frame with a 51break to lead 2 frames to 1. With his back firmly against the wall, Henderson then produced two frames, which can only be described as exhibitionist. He took the fourth frame to nil with a break of 87, and was unlucky not to score the century, which had eluded him so cruelly the day before. At two frames all you could cut the atmosphere with a knife, and the match could still have gone either way, but the Scot then treated the crowd who had packed in so tightly around the table to a magnificent 133 total clearance to finally decide the issue, and lift the title.
There were eight competitors in this year’s retired officer’s snooker event, which was run along the same format as the main competition. In the round robin, Group A was won comfortably by David Howe (Eastern Region), who qualified without dropping a single frame. The runner-up spot in the group was claimed by Phil Gibbs (Wales), whose only loss was to Howe. It must be said that he was unlucky not to claim a draw against Howe in their match, as the first frame was decided on the black.
Group B was topped by the defending champion John Blair (Scotland), who also qualified without the loss of a single frame in the round robin event. The group runner-up spot was claimed by Jim Malcolm (Scottish region).
Jim Malcolm beat David Howe in semi-final 1, and John Blair beat Phil Gibbs in semi-final 2 to set up an all-Scottish final. John Blair eventually ran out a 2 v 0 winner and retained his title as National champion.
This year’s snooker doubles event was blown wide open when the holders Tony Crompton & Brian Sweeney (Greater Manchester) failed to qualify from Group A on the first day of play. They were well beaten into third place in the group by Bernard & Neil McGirk (Fife) representing Scotland, and Martin Smalley & Wayne Barker (Leicestershire) representing the East Midlands Region. Both pairs managed to score 27 points in the round robin; only dropping two frames each all day, whilst remaining unbeaten. The McGirk brothers qualified as group winners with a superior “plus points” total.
Group “B” was much more closely contested, the top three pairs finishing within three points of each other at the end of the round robin. But Philip Moore & Daniel Webster (Humberside) representing the North East region qualified as group winners, and Wilf Kerr & Paul Doherty (Strathclyde) representing Scotland qualified as group runners-up.
The McGirk brothers triumphed in the all-Scottish semi-final, beating their fellow countrymen 2 v 0 to book a place in the final. Phil Moore & Dan Webster claimed the other final place by beating the men from the Midlands; Smalley & Barker 2 v 1. It seemed the Scots were on a roll now, and they carried their momentum into the final where they finished comfortable winners by 2 frames to nil.
Pool is a new discipline for the Indoor Games, and these were the first National Finals to be held. All matches were played under the rules of the European & United Kingdom Pool Federation, on a round robin basis, the same basic format as the other cue sports.
The Men’s Singles title was claimed by Iain Gillies (Northern Constabulary) representing Scotland. In the final he beat Gez Farrelly (West Midlands) representing the West Midlands region by 5 racks to 2.
The Ladies Singles title went to Linda Gillies, also (Northern Constabulary) representing Scotland. She beat Heather Tannerhill (Lincolnshire) by 5 racks to 2.
The doubles crown was claimed by Iain and Linda Gillies, who made a clean sweep beating Andy McDonald and Jim Murray (Metropolitan Police) in the final, again by 5 racks to 2.