I hadn’t planned it in advance; it was by chance that my adverts in the local newsletter brought us another new face at the River Mill. Tony, who hadn’t played “for years” had come about 100 yards from the flats opposite to see what we were all about. A quick refresher on the cube, and a couple of warm-up games later, we had eight players ready to play five-pointers for the night, with losers dropping into an ad-hoc chouette..

It turned out to be Mark’s night, and his lucky number was clearly 61 – first to hit from the bar and escape my five-prime at a critical moment in the last game of the semi-final, and then in the final, after some fairly un-noteworthy games to get to 2-3, Caroline doubled early and tried to blitz Mark off the board, but this time a whole string of 61s popped up on Caroline’s side and her back men remained helplessly stuck on Mark’s bar point. A late hit won the game and title for Mark. You can find the full bracket here.

It was a really fun night, and we’ll be looking at doing more!