A Monk Bretton man was the top performer as his team won a national pool title – despite breaking his elbow after the first day of the competition.
Nick Wollerton was competing for the West Yorkshire blackball team – who have merged with his county of South Yorkshire and adopted several Barnsley players – at the National County Finals in Selsey, Sussex. He had played just one match on the first day of the event when he stepped out of the caravan he was staying in on the second morning, slipped on the top step and landed on his right arm.
Nick said: "There was black ice on the step and I just went flying. It really hurt, but I had had a decent amount of alcohol the night before which seemed to numb it quite quickly and I played that day. I had to sit out a few of the matches throughout the rest of the tournament when it was really painful but I just thought it was ligament damage and I didn't go to hospital down there.
"When I got back up to Barnsley, I went to A&E and found out it was broken. You don't expect to break a bone when you go away to play pool."
The 41-year-old bank worker is now in a cast and has to take four weeks off work. But the injury did not impair his performance at the event as he was the most successful player on the team, winning 14 of his 19 frames.
Wollerton, who used to be in the top 20 on the UK pool tour, said: "It's a pretty even standard across the whole team and I wouldn't say I'm usually the best player. In Barnsley I am one of the top two or three but in South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire there is a very strong field of players. But it was nice to contribute, even with an injury."
Wollerton is a six-time Barnsley Pool League champion and has won several other titles with Ardsley Oaks in the Monday night league and The Pheasant in the Wednesday night league. He had to draw on all his experience to play with a broken elbow.
"At that level, one of the most important parts of the game is the break, and you need a lot of power to break well. But I couldn't do it properly because it hurt too much so I was having to break really softly and then play really well for the rest of the game."
As well as Nick, other Barnsley men in the team included Josh Juhasz, Steve Webster, Seb Web and Sam Chambers. Webster, a national champion from Thurnscoe, produced a masterclass finish to secure the title as the team came back from 4-1 and 8-5 down in the final against Essex before winning 14-11.
Wollerton said: "It was a fantastic achievement for all the players. We have always had a strong team in the past but the collective thought this year was that we might not quite be good enough to win it. We surprised ourselves and got through it on pure team spirit and it was a great feeling to win it."
