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Men's Varsity 2013

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2013 Men's Varsity

Oxford 38 - 52 Cambridge

Report by Drew Miley

Cambridge, captained by Drew Miley, won the 2013 Pool Varsity match by the impressive scoreline of 52-38, equalling their best-ever margin of victory, and for the first time since 2008. The match took place at Cambridge Snooker Centre on the weekend of the 11th and 12th of May, where the team of 12 assembled against their opposite numbers.

After an inspirational team talk, undeterred- or possibly aided- by Anthony "The Don" Dinatale's unexpectedly candid revelation, Saturday began with each player playing 3 frames of singles against an Oxford counterpart. Scoring was tight at the beginning, having been tied at 5-5, before Cambridge began to pull away and generated a 24-12 lead- 5 out of the 12 winning by 3 frames to 0, those being the captain Drew Miley, Pete Atkinson, Hugh Lund, Niall Murphy and James Palmer.

We then went onto the doubles frames, 6 pairs facing off against each other for a total of 18 frames. This was a far cagier affair with neither side gaining much of an advantage at any point, the session finishing 9-9. Niall Murphy and Jack Hurst were the only pair to record a 3-0 victory. This left us with an overnight lead of 33 frames to Oxford�s 21, a minimum of 46 being required for victory.

Following the day's play, the teams convened for a celebratory curry on Mill Road. Drew Miley caused much hilarity by reciting a selection of the material from his upcoming joke book and then embarassing himself spectacularly by dropping mango chutney all over his red trousers. Following this, members of the team adjourned to a nearby pub to hear more of Drew's really long and pointless anecdotes- mainly relating to trousers and other paraphernalia, before psychologist O'Connor did much espousing on the vagaries of modern life. The team were left with much to ponder before play began the next day.

Regrouping on the Sunday, with 36 more frames of singles to go, the team concentrated on winning the remaining frames quickly and efficiently. Cambridge started strongly, winning a number of frames early on to maintain our healthy lead. Highlight amongst them was the battle of the look-a-likes, Justin Timberlake versus Jude Law, our very own Hugh Lund of N-Sync prevailing three frames to love. Oxford mounted a small renaissance to claw back some of the deficit- with some of the team possibly still debating the moral & philosophical consequences of the previous night- before a miraculous double from Richard O�Connor, alas not played quite as promised, brought our total to 45, with only one more frame required for victory. Racked with shoulder pain and surprisingly not wearing shorts, veteran Paul Thomas supplied the winning frame, his enjoyment was plain for all to see! Pete Atkinson, Hugh Lund and James Palmer repeated their Saturday success to win one hundred percent of their singles frames. They were joined by Paul Thomas, who not only won the all-important 46th frame but then went on to defeat his opponent without reply.

Following this, the remaining frames were played with much enthusiasm, the team strengthening their lead to punish the dark blues even further and we emerged comfortable victors. The match ended, as ever, in farce, with CUPC stalwart Jon Nelson going in-off whilst having ball-in-hand on his last red, leaving his opposite number two shots on a tap-in. His opponent wasted much time in playing the shot. I wonder what Jon will make of that on his spreadsheet!

In a team with many star performers, Niall Murphy top scored for the Cambridge team- in his Varsity debut, winning 8 out of his 9 frames, including 6 out of 6 on the Saturday.

Oxbridge's James Palmer went on to win the Varsity single's tournament, walking away with a top prize of �40. He made it through as the only non-Homertonian left in the last four, those being Pete Atkinson, Drew Miley and Tarun Manjunath- who he beat 5-3 in the final.

FULL RESULTS
		Oxford				Cambridge
Saturday singles 12-24	3	Ben Charlston	3	v	0	Paul Thomas	0
	3	Matt Kennedy	0	v	3	Drew Miley	3
	4	Alex Pappas	1	v	2	Jack Hurst	5
	4	Paul Allen	0	v	3	Hugh Lund	8
	6	Chris Speller	2	v	1	Tarun Manjunath	9
	8	Joe Dillamore	2	v	1	James Ross	10
	9	Gerald de Oliveira	1	v	2	Rik O'Connor	12
	10	Danny Dobrev	0	v	3	Anthony Dinatale	14
	10	Sam Eardley	0	v	3	Niall Murphy	17
	12	Ben Green	2	v	1	Jon Nelson	18
	12	Alvin Yu	0	v	3	Pete Atkinson	21
	12	Alisdair Knox	0	v	3	James Palmer	24
Saturday doubles 9-9	15	Alisdair and Alvin	3	v	0	Hugh and James P	24
	16	Gerald and Sam	1	v	2	Paul and James R	26
	16	Paul and Alex	0	v	3	Niall and Jack	29
	17	Ben G and Joe	1	v	2	Rik and Jon	31
	19	Matt and Danny	2	v	1	Drew and Anthony	32
	21	Ben C and Chris	2	v	1	Pete and Tarun	33
Sunday singles 17-19	24	Gerald de Oliveira	3	v	0	Jack Hurst	33
	24	Ben Green	0	v	3	Hugh Lund	36
	26	Matt Kennedy	2	v	1	James Ross	37
	28	Paul Allen	2	v	1	Anthony Dinatale	38
	30	Chris Speller	2	v	1	Drew Miley	39
	31	Joe Dillamore	1	v	2	Niall Murphy	41
	33	Alex Pappas	2	v	1	Rik O'Connor	42
	36	Sam Eardley	3	v	0	Tarun Manjunath	42
	36	Danny Dobrev	0	v	3	Paul Thomas	45
	38	Alvin Yu	2	v	1	Jon Nelson	46
	38	Alisdair Knox	0	v	3	James Palmer	49
	38	Ben Charlston	0	v	3	Pete Atkinson	52
			38	v	52

Stats

Debutant Niall Murphy and Pete Atkinson share the spoils for adjusted frames, although it was the Darwin man who won most overall, only losing one singles frame.

Cackling witches Hugh Lund and James Palmer, in addition to the aforementioned Pete, won all 6 of their singles frames.

INDIVIDUAL STATS
Name	Singles (out of 6)		Doubles (out of 3)		Overall (out of 9)		Doubles Adjusted (out of 7.5)
	Won	% won	Won	% won	Won	% won	Won	% won
Niall Murphy	5	83	3	100	8	89	6.5	87
Pete Atkinson	6	100	1	33	7	78	6.5	87
Hugh Lund	6	100	0	0	6	67	6	80
James Palmer	6	100	0	0	6	67	6	80
Drew Miley (c)	4	67	1	33	5	56	4.5	60
Paul Thomas	3	50	2	67	5	56	4	53
Rik O'Connor	3	50	2	67	5	56	4	53
Jack Hurst	2	33	3	100	5	56	3.5	47
Anthony Dinatale	3	50	1	33	4	44	3.5	47
Jon Nelson	2	33	2	67	4	44	3	40
James Ross	2	33	2	67	4	44	3	40
Tarun Manjunath	1	17	1	33	2	22	1.5	20

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