Inn on The Green 2nd October 2008

They don’t like it up ‘em
They certainly didn’t like it up ‘em! The division 1 champions quiet literally kicked off their season with a shock defeat at the Rose and Crown.
Trailing 3-1 after the doubles the visitors rallied to 3-3 before an inspired Tony Scott set up this victory for the home side with a 100 checkout to edge The below strength Rose and Crown in front by one with one game to go. And with Paul Mullins well on his way to sealing an impressive win, the visitors imploded, Mullins could only look on as scenes more akin to the playground of the local primary school some 400 yards down the road unfurled themselves in the public bar.
The visiting side arrived with an arrogance that bordered on cockiness as they asserted their presence in the bar . A Side comprising of the best that Watford has to offer with a smattering from neighbouring county Bedfordshire and with the odd home grown individual somewhere in their midst have certainly been what you describe politely as nomadic in their ways and these nomadic tendencies were plenty evident in this picturesque part of St. Albans on Thursday night. A chorus of loud and abusive language played itself out accompanied with lewd comments that pertained to their previous visit to these parts which was so evidently fresh in their minds.
Heightened by taking the first doubles of the night the champions were in a boisterous mood and the cockiness had now spilled into complacency and the talk was turned to last Mondays “Super League” exploits The fact that Tony Scott and Kevin Woods had levelled the match with another impressive performance went barely un-noticed and when Neil “The Daddy Dude” Crosby and Dave noble edged the home side in front for the first time, heads barely turned. But when the “evergreen” John Goode and Paul Mullins took the final doubles encounter of the evening without affording their more illustrious opponents a shot at a double, heads nearly rolled.
Consigned now to the confines of history was the arrogance and cockiness that proceeded this spectacular downfall (one would usually describe it has a “fall from grace” but the Inn on the Green are anything but graceful). Desperation had now begun to manifest itself in the heart of the visiting team and despite pulling back the next two singles to level the encounter the mood had changed .
Enter Tony P Scott. With a chance to secure what would be an historic point, Tony drew on his experience to guide the wolfram into the board with unerring accuracy, each one a dagger bursting through the over inflated egos of the visitors culminating in three superfluous flighted arrows to checkout on one hundred and thus securing the point, but deep down I think everyone in the pub knew that this was going to be the Rose and Crown’s Night and Tony had set up the inevitable victory.
Mullins took to the oche very much unaware of what was about to unfold and as he was seemingly coasting to victory in the first leg the visitors heard the bell that heralded playtime.
Now Neil “The Daddy Dude” Crosby is known for his antics and almost certainly has been guilty of casting out his infantile educational tools from his perambulator a little too hastily at times, but even he was aghast as the visitors mix of egotistical arrogance and cockiness erupted into an early pantomime production of “I’m better than you” , “Oh know your not”. Followed quickly by frantic arm flapping and jostling that nearly caused them all to disappear into the fireplace and up the chimney.
Unfazed, as the visitors hurled their handbags at each other Mullins kept his cool and strolled to an easy victory to cap a wonderful evening for the home side.