Ron Harding's 'tidal wave'

He picked up the snooker team one night in a leaky, old VW camper for a trip to Hythe.

Torrential rain caused the inside to mist up. At the Winchester Road/Tebourba Way traffic lights, Harding pulled open the driver’s sliding door to let some air in.

But as the lights turned green, a car swept past and a “tidal wave” drenched his feet.

Cue much hilarity from his teammates, who then proceeded to add insult to injury.

Harding had buckets containing plastic bags strategically dotted around his van to catch leaks.

A couple of players took one polythene bag, pricked it and squirted water over Harding’s shoulder at the inside of the windscreen.

Frantically operating the wipers, the driver said “I can’t understand that. It’s not clearing the water.”

And then there was the time that Freddie Hallum was on the green at Camelot in Shirley.

Teammate Mick Carter, who now turns out for Totton Conservative Club B, recalled: “He got down and potted a cracking white with the green. Everybody looked. The marker said ‘foul shot’. And he said ‘what do you mean foul shot’?”

Or the time at Curdridge RBL that Eddie Macey played a shot on one table and potted the pink on Carter’s table.

“He used to hammer the ball a little bit,” admitted Carter.

It was 53 years ago that Carter formed the team. That’s a long time in anyone’s book.

The 73-year-old said the standard has improved across all divisions over the past 50 years.

“We don’t play many bad teams, even at our level,” he declared. “The clubs have improved as well. Some of the dumps we used to go in...”

Alan Bagg, who has served the side for half a century, simply said: “It’s an evening out.”

Terry Sessions, 64, reckons the social side is not what it used to be.

“If you won, it was a bonus,” he said. “But the people you met became long-time friends.”

Did you know? There was previously a B side at Totton Cons, which won Division 5 in 1960.

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