Sheppey Open 1983

E-mail from John Allison to Gary Buttfield following the Sheppey Open 2014

Hi Gary, I see on the IoSPL web site Carl Morris won the Sheppey Open taken out Tony Gray on the way to the final, A case of the pupil beating the master as Tony coached Carl back in the early Nineties, I will be 73 this year and am now living on the south coast been here 14 years now but have some good memories of Sheppey, I have been writing my memoirs and have now reached what i call “The pool years” from mid eights to mid nineties, I sometimes take a look at the IOSPL web site I see Tony Gray still doing the business.

In about 1983/4 Myself and Malc Fisher were the instigators of the first Sheppey Open, Sponsored by Brittain & Hobbs the first Open nearly 200 entered and the event had to be played over two weekends at the Victoria Club Sheerness using six tables, Not ideal but was deemed a success More so when it was won by local lad young Tony Gray (23), Gray had only dropped 4 frames on reaching the final and was in devastating form in the final sweeping Mick Keulemans challenge aside to win the best of 11 frame match 6-0 in less than 35 minutes

The following year it was played at Irwin's Now Layzells, That to was a success as it was played using 8 tables 154 entered, Ray Farbrother won this one beating Kevin Field in the final, both of these players had previously won THE Maidstone Open, In the Semi’s Farbrother had K.O Essex player Mark Hewitson a player we came to know well, Field KO London Pro The late Lee Tucker.

The Third Open was won by Andy Lindsey from Cambridge, He turned up at the venue and went straight on the 14-1 table and forgot to register, his mate dropped out to let him take his place on condition anything he won they split 50-50, The late Jimmy Morris asked if his boy Carl (11 years old) could enter the event, there were no rules stipulating age so he was allowed in on condition Jimmy refereed his match, As you probable know Carl is deaf, And could be a bit of a handful at that time, Carl played Andy Lindsey in the first round, Lindsey just scraped through 3-2, We all know what Carl went on to achieve in the game, I don’t know what it is about The Isle of Sheppey but it has produced some top pool players over the years, Ian Hubbard was a member of the Sheppey super league side of 86 and went on to played for England, Other members of that team the likes of Tony Gray, Robert Montgomery, Ray Farbrother, Kevin Field, If given the financial backing and the table time I don’t doubt any one of them could have become A world champion.

The last open i was involved in was won by Lee Tucker from the East End he beat Cliff Montgomery in the final, Lee & Cliff were both West Ham supporters, but we didn’t hold that against them, Tucker was a Snazzy dresser, He won the best dressed player at The Jersey Festival of pool in 1991 when i was there, Nice Bloke.

I went to many pool tournaments with the Sheppey lads and had some hair raising moments and a lot of laughs. They were good times I have written about some of them in “The Pool Years”.

All those lads will now be in their late forty’s or early fifty’s. That’s the same age as i was when they used to call me an OLD GIT in the nicest possible way, Well I am a fully paid up member of the old gits club now!!! Lol (some may be Embarrassed by what i have written but I doubt it) The buggers are more likely to LAUGH. (John V Allison)