The captain, Paul Haywood decided to stick with the "old guard" for the first match, especially as our last match was a famous victory in the Perfection Cup final - a game in which Dave had played so well against Jamie Brown.

So, Dave and Paul went on first. Dave wasn't at the table too much and he lost quite heavily. That was rather disappointing, because we did not recognise the guy he played. We seem to think he is a reserve player but he was obviously no mug. However, Dave should have probably given him more a match than he did.

Paul's match was a typical start of season game. Both players struggled to string much together, with Paul's positional play letting him down on more than one occasion. However, he was always ahead and managed to pot enough to win pretty comfortably at the end of the day. By his own admission he will have to play better next week against Windermere.

Ian Rawlings was next, against one of Selly Oak's better players. It was a scrappy game, which suited Ian down to the ground. There was never much in it and it really swung one way then the other. Ian maybe turned down chances that he should have gone for, but then he has always played that way. He put his opponent in trouble on more than one occasion and picked up quite a few penalty points, but ultimately it came down to the pink and black. Ian managed to engineer a half chance, which he missed, but then he was presented with a golden opportunity to close it out. Sadly, he could not take it and his opponent managed to take his chance when it came, eventually winning by just one point! How frustrating.

On the other table, Mark Sutton also had a fluctuating game. There were a few 20 breaks here, but again, the match swung one way then the other. It started to look like this was going to be Mark's first defeat for us, but he was rather let off the hook. Mark took his chances towards the end, but the scoreline perhaps flattered him a bit. Still, we'll take it! :-)

So it was all down to Luke Ellis. This was a similar game to Mark's, with chances for both sides and several modest breaks, but neither player could put that really telling break together. Luke potted some really nice balls and looked safe having potted the brown, he was two snookers clear. He did have one heart stopping moment when he rather carelessly potted the black when trying to play a safety shot, but his opponent could not force the other snooker and Luke crept over the line.

So, it was not great snooker by any means, but we did come away with a 3-2 victory, which we would certainly have taken beforehand.