Kent Super League Finals 1986

The day Sheppey won the super league title in 1986 did not go with out incident, These finals where played at Poolland Ramsgate on a Sunday in March wearrived there in my mini bus at 12.am, First job as usual was the whip, They all put £10.00 each in, 12.15 get first round in, what seemed to me to be just a few minutes but must have been more, Some one shouts get the drinks in john boy, Although i tried to slow them down and prolonged getting the drinks in for as long as i could, All i got was get the drinks in you old Git ( i was only 46) and that went on all day however it did not stop them from winning all their games most of them 5-0 this caused a problem, Sheppey were in the final, But in the other half of the draw matches were going 5-4 and taking along time, The Sheppey men were getting restless and the whip was running out, The whip was replenished another £5 each, Normal service resumes, Then at ten minutes to 4.pm the management announced the bar will close for 1.hour due to Sunday trading laws, The Sheppey lads were quick to react to this news, Get 18 pints in they said; Reluctantly i did, Now the other semi final was being played between Maidstone A and Maidstone B this match had been going on for over two and a half hours, Maidstone A ran out 5-4 winners, The Sheppey lads had been waiting over 3 hours to play this final and they were eager to get started hence Rob Montgomery dancing around the match table and potting the few balls left from the last game calling LETS GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD, Now this didn’t go down to well with one of the Maidstone B players Pete Moonie, And he up and gave Rob a Glasgow kiss, At the time i was at the bar getting another round of drinks in but had seen what had happened, Rob did not go down from the Glasgow kiss and i thought Moonie had not made contact with Rob, but just as T.G & C.M were returning from the gents and reached where rob was, Robert tugged the end of his nose and a fountain of blood came from the wound, That’s when it all kicked off, Wayne Brett launched himself like an Exercet missile but not as accurate and gave some innocent bystander a black eye, (he apologised after)The Sheppey men were now in a full blown punch up that spilled out into the car park by which time Dennis Jezzard (Owner of Poolland) had called the police, The Sheppey lads were teaching the culprits the error of their ways,(In no uncertain terms) I was desperately trying to get all the lads back inside the venue before the police arrived and just managed it, Being the only completely sober person from Sheppey, I explained to the police what had happened and the fact they could see order had been restored they were happy to leave, However, Jezzard said the final would not be played due to what had just taken place, The two captains protested, A meeting was called between KCPA committee members, Jezzard , And the two captains, Malc Fisher (Capt Sheppey) At the meeting, Said, He could not be responsible for his players actions if the game was not played, Paul Cox (Capt Maidstone) eager to play, Said if the game was not played today it would never be played, So the game was on, Now it had not gone unnoticed that the Maidstone team had been drinking coca cola all day!!! however the melee had some what sobered up the Sheppey lads, although we had some walking wounded ie Roberts nose and TGs right hand was twice the sizes it should have been, The match see sawed and eventually reached 4-4 it was all on the last doubles game, Paul Cox had gone for the clearance but he lost the white, Polly Perkins (Power pot Polly) as he was known, Came to the table with two shots, The black ball was on the cushion between the middle and corner pocket, Polly cleared the the table, He’s got two shots on the black, Using his two shots Polly rolls the black down the cushion the ball bobbles in the pocket and rolls a couple of inches along the bottom rail, You could have heard a pin drop in Poolland as Polly made the shot and potted the black, BIG CHEER Sheppey super League Champions of Kent,I asked Polly after the game What were you thinking about when you took that last shot on the black, Polly looked at me and said I was thinking how the fucking hell am i going to get out of here if i miss this, We stopped at the Long Reach on the way home to celebrate, We nearly got thrown out of there when Robert tried to pay for a round of drinks with his winners medal, If you look closely at the team photo taken the following week you can just see the scar on the bridge of Rob Montgomery’s nose, The Sheppey lads some times gave me big headaches and we did get the odd fine from the KCPA for some small misdemeanour’s but all in all,They were Good Times. This team with a few addition ie; Adey Horn, Jock Connors, and Dave Goldsmith went on to retain the title twice, They also reached the BAPTO finals a couple of times when i was involved

JVA's “ The Pool Years.”