Sport
12 July, 2026
Farmers finish on right side of poolside ledger
The Farmers’ Arms One side finally managed to come out on the right side of the ledger when they travelled to the treasury in the wilds of the Avoca Forest in an attempt to withdraw the points from the skinflint servants of the Pub in the Scrub.
THE first night of the new financial year was to be an unmitigated disaster for one of the pool talent-affluent teams in round 11 of the Inter-Hotels Pool Competition.
The Farmers’ Arms One side finally managed to come out on the right side of the ledger when they travelled to the treasury in the wilds of the Avoca Forest in an attempt to withdraw the points from the skinflint servants of the Pub in the Scrub.
Their quest began well as captain Leigh Watkins and Ned Gorrie extracted the shekels from Keith Turner and Stephen Rodger in the opening frames.
But rival captain Shaun McNaulty and Ben Pell fought back to level the match by cancelling the deposits of Hayden Perry and Shane Cross.
The second round, however, was to produce a bonanza for the Farmers’ boys as the sorcerer, Leigh and his apprentice, Ned were to bankrupt their opponents.
Hayden was to square the ledger with Shaun, but Ben was to render Shane insolvent to keep his team affluent.
In the only frame required in round three, Hayden was to liquidate Shaun, thus securing their position and reducing the doubles matches to the status of mere formality.
The Loganites were to win both of these, but the flushed Farmers’ Boys had deposited the points by six games to five. Out to the north, amongst the verdant fairways of the Country Club, it was to be business as usual when the their cashed-up number Two team hosted the inconsistent investors of the Sporting Club side.
The result was to be a virtual foregone conclusion, but it was to be the Sporties’ David, Tim Wright, obviously still riding the crest of the celestial wave following his recent betrothal, who was to cause a sensation when he was to slew the Rollers and Floggers Goliath, Harley Durward.
But only one of his teammates, Jesse Cook, was to approach anywhere within a cooee of this achievement when he withdrew a frame from Grant Doyle.
Meanwhile, Dayle Pitt and Mitch Glidden had been rendered destitute by Will Jackson and Jake Male.
The doubles were a mere formality, the Rollers and Floggers went on to win both of these to retain their unblemished status at the apex of the pile with a nine games to three victory.
The Country Club One side entered the RSL with high hopes of feasting merrily at the Diggers’ expense, but the evening quickly became an unadulterated catastrophe.
It saw the mendicant Mean Machine slink morosely into the night, having been reduced to medieval dungeon rations.
It was to be an intriguing match that never attained the heights of proficient pool prowess, with the matches being decided by the team that made the least mistakes.
In this vein, it was to be the determined Diggers who were to prevail with monotonous military mastery, frame after frame as Mitch Phillips, Sam and Kyle Postlethwaite and Dave Russ methodically extracted the deeners from Paul Mullins, Troy Shields, Dan Harkin and Des Moulday in the singles exchanges.
Mitch and Dave then combined to overpower Paul and Troy in the first of the doubles.
It was to be destitute Dan and desperate Des who were in charge of their team’s destiny but when Des became distraught and suffered an attack of the dreaded Colliewobbles, thereby handing the moolah to the delighted Diggers.
The mutilated Meanies had been whitewashed by ten games to zip which resulted in the usual penalty.
The previous night there had been a strawberry full moon, tonight it was replaced in the Raglan Street firmament by four raspberry apparitions.
This horrifying spectacle having been witnessed by a charming elderly female in a car parked nearby but I was eventually able to calm her down (it was my dog).
Ladder
Country Club Two 237.1
RSL 202.6
Country Club One 116.7
Farmers’ Arms One 127.5
Logan 72.4
Sporting Club 50.0
Farmers’ Arms Two 28.9
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