HIBSF Mens and Masters 2019

The Welsh Mens and Masters sides put their heart and soul into their matches in Leeds this year and came away with some big results.

The Mens A team of Gavin Lewis, Dylan Emery, Tyler Rees and David Donovan started off with a resounding 9-3 win over Northern Ireland, David scoring particularly heavily. A surprise 6-6 draw with the Isle of Man followed on the first full day and the match with the Republic of Ireland B team ended in a draw too. However, with frames won being important, Wales A topped Group 2 to set up a semi final clash with the Republic of Ireland A.

In true Home Internationals style, this match too ended in a draw. With a knockout format now in place, a deciding frame was played on the streaming table, one which Dylan (facing old foe Aaron Hill) took in some style even though the internet was playing up and the stream dropped offline.

The final was a titanic battle, with Wales facing one of the strongest sides England have ever fielded. The matches went our way and Wales A were justly crowned HIBSF Mens Champions 2019. The Mens Player stats were topped by Dylan, winning 14 of his 16 frames.

Wales B (Ben Fortey, Mark Stoneman, Gareth Edwards and Matthew Roberts) found Scotland to be a touch too strong on the opening night, going down 8-4. Two further 8-4 defeats on day 2 ended their participation in the main competition early on. Wales did however make the final of the CUp competition, losing out 5-7 to Scotland.

And so to the Masters...

Both A and B teams were in action at the same time on the opening night. Wales A (Wayne Morgan, Tony Morgan, Steve Thomas and Dean Thomas) faced the Republic of Ireland side and were narrowly beaten 7-5. The Saturday saw them face England B and the match ebbed away from them, going down 4-8. Although they turned things around for their final match (10-2 against the Isle of Man), they didn't progress to the main competition knock out and lost 5-4 to Northern Ireland before avoiding the wooden spoon by beating the Isle of Man again 5-4.

The B team (Alan Hurley, Simon Williams, Jason Tucker and Don Newcombe) started off with a solid 3-3 draw against Northern Ireland. and Excellent 8-4 win over Scotland was followed by a 7-5 win over England A, leaving the Bs top of the group. Notably in that England clash, Jason Tucker cued a spectacular comeback win over Shaun Wilkes. Shaun went well ahead in frame one but instead of conceding, Jason chose to stick it out and waited for a chance to get his arm going for potting practice. The tactic proved to be the deciding fsctor, Jason got going and the wind was well and truly taken out of Shaun's sails as Jason took the next two comfortably with the last frame taking a little over 6 minutes, an 81 break sealing it for JayTee.

The Semi Final opponents were England B. The scoreline of 7-3 was truly reflective aof a strong performance from the team, with Alan Hurley playing particularly well and topping the rankings at that point. The Final however didn't go the way we wanted it, the Republic of Ireland were sinmply too strong and crossed the finish line 7-4.

Stats wise, Jason finished third overall and the rapid fire 81 taking second in the breaks table.