Season Two: Week Three

Table Tension

Shocking scenes marred today's meeting when Chris Forbes appeared to throw a punch at the reigning champion, Gary Little. TBL players rushed to separate the two after an ill-tempered match which Little won by two controversial points.

The normally affable Forbes was seen to raise his blade in a threatening manner and, according to one witness, vow to kill the champion's dog the next time he seen it.

This on a day when Rob Kane, the notorious and self-styled "Souness of the TBL" was missing because of a scheduled appointment with the beaks, following last week's incident with a purist. His absence meant a truncated league meeting: the other players electing to complete only one round today (rather than the regular two rounds) and filling the remaining time with some doubles matches.

Of the official matches, the points totals today were as follows.

Gary 20
Greg 16
Chris 12
Bruce 14 (includes a victory over Chris in a "carry-over" match from last week)
Viv 4
Mark 2

Current totals and places are at the bottom of this post.

The off-table shenanigans left Greg Hemphill apparently unmoved, although Mark Nelson later suggested that the Canadian took quiet pleasure in the fracas between the two players immediately above him and below him in the league. Certainly, he showed trademark focus, hauling 16 points from an available 20 and, as shown in the photo above, concentrating only on the ball in front of him and not the one behind his head.

Viv "Batgirl" Gee, meanwhile, continues to grow in style and confidence, grabbing, even in defeat, some cool points across the board and suggesting that she may be thinking of a top four place in this, her first TBL season. Her spirited  - and occasionally ingenious - 4-2 victory against Nelson showed the resilience and the subtlety which has lately endeared her to the Copenhagen Beard.

And what of Mark Nelson?

The Admiral will be disappointed with a points total of two on the day, but it may be that his mind was on other things: an imminent baby and an even more imminent appearance in the Edinburgh Marathon, in which Mark is running this weekend. All of the TBL wishes him well in both experiences. The records show 2 points overall for Mark, but do not record his extraordinary fight in a deuce game against The Spin Doctor, which went to 16 points, in Morton's favour.

Below, the current TBL placings. First though, a reminder that Rob Kane did not play today. The backlog that this blog warned of some weeks ago during the reconstruction debate has begun in earnest.


TBL Current Points and Places

Gary 110

Greg 96

Chris 80

Bruce 58

Rob 58

Mark 20

Viv 20

Have a good week. 'til next week!