Last year, Kent was demoted to the lower division of BUCS in both pool and snooker. It was the lowest point in the club’s history. Enlightened under the banner of Team Kent, however, the club produced its best ever year in 2013. Sealing the Shield for the 1st team, and Bronze medals for the 2nd team at BUCS Pool; and Bronze medals in the Trophy at BUCS Snooker.
February saw the club send four teams (three men’s, and one women’s) to BUCS Pool. Things got off to a great start with all three of the men’s teams going undefeated in the group stages (the women’s team were unfortunately one frame from progressing to the knockouts). The men’s singles, in which there were over 500 entrants, saw a number of great performances. Most notably, Ben Coles and Dan Devlin made the best run in the clubs history in getting to the quarter-finals. The women’s singles also saw Victoria Jefferiss produce her best, narrowly losing in the semi-finals 3-2.
Into the team knockouts, all but the 3rd team dispatched their opponents in the last 16, going 5-0 down (first to six) they almost pulled off a great comeback, losing 6-4 to Cardiff 3rds. The 1sts comfortably beat Gloucestershire 1sts 6-1 in the quarters, and Cardiff 2nds 6-3 in the semi-finals. Th 2nds struggled to get going early on and were one frame from elimination at 5-2, and then 6-5 down, but prevailed to go on into the semi-finals. They lost 6-1 to Sheffield 3rds, but would see the 1sts exact revenge beating them in the final 6-2.
Buzzing from the success of pool, Kent sent two teams to BUCS snooker in March. Good performances in the group stages saw (amongst other results): Kent 1st’s draw to Leeds 1sts 5-5, and narrowly losing to Oxford 1sts 6-4. The 2nds notably beat Glasgow 2nds 7-3, and drew 5-5 with Manchester 3rds. Kent 1sts would progress into the trophy quarter-finals (second highest division), and Kent 2nds into the shield quarters. An admiral performance would unfortunately see the 2nds lose 6-1 to Ulster 1sts, but sealing a likely promotion into the higher division for next year. The 1sts pulled off quite possibly the best win in the clubs snooker history, beating Southampton 2nds 6-5, with Dan Devlin destroying the Lower Singles Champion in the play-off. It is worth a mention that Southampton 1sts comfortably won the Championship team event. Into the semi-finals, already having sealed Bronze medals, the 1st’s went 4-1 down to stage a comeback only to narrowly lose to Birmingham 1st’s 6-4.
It finished off a great year for the club, seeing not only the great success at the BUCS weekends, but also Benny Hubbard attaining a spot on the University England team for pool, and Dan Devlin a spot on the England University B team for Snooker.
Teams:
Pool:
A-Team (Gold medal winners): Dave Colborne, Dan Devlin, Benny Hubbard (c), Ben Coles, Ben Tang.
B-Team (Bronze medal winners): Nicky Grant, Dave Austin, Matt Pike, Dara Farrell (c), Kane Maunder.
C-Team: Julian Milner, Paul Robinson, Oliver Westbrook, John Murray, James Smith (c).
Women’s Team: Victoria Jefferiss (c), Lucy Appleby, Rebecca Rawlings.
Snooker:
A Team: (Bronze Medal Winner): Dan Devlin, Julian Milner, Ash Hind (c), Ben Tang, Benny Hubbard
B Team: Michael Gibbs (c), David Austin, Josh Rowe, Jordan Delaney, Ollie Shorley-Smith.
