Exeter Exiles Pool - The End of an Era

On the 28^th February 2006 the Exiles pool team paid tribute to two departing heroes – the long serving Dean Capel and the up and coming Tim Pryor who both are now moving to the south west as the Exeter City magnet draws them closer to their spiritual home!

As two teams captained by Dean (The Old Timers) and Tim (The Young Pretenders) battled out a parting contest with Exeter guaranteed to win, the evening provided an opportunity to look back on 13 years of quality pool and some amusing stories!

On a cold evening in 1993, the pool-playing elite of the newly formed Exeter Exiles descended on The Market Tavern pub to take on Derby County in their first game in the APSCIL Pool League. The historic first team lined up as Roger Pyne, Nick Parry-Evans, Barry Clemitson, Dave Peters, Dominic Saunders, Dave Manlove with Rob Davies playing the role of the team’s first ever ringer!

With Derby providing the strongest team in the league it was destined to be a baptism of fire for the Exeter Exiles. It turned out to be a long game with the debutants keen to avoid making the first mistake and with the game evenly poised at 3-3 Dom Saunders took to the table. Both players adopted a cautious approach as a slow and unattractive game of safety shots failed to keep the crowd awake with neither player looking to take the initiative. Dominic took to the table with three yellows left and bizarrely attempted to wake everyone up by dropping his cue on the table to send the balls everywhere! It seemed to work as the on looking players from both teams jumped up to see what the ref was going to do. Fortunately with Derby being one of the friendliest and most sporting teams in the league the slip resulted in a re-rack which unfortunately for Exeter, Dominic went on to lose. Justice for Derby perhaps? Despite the setback our new heroes won the two remaining games to take their first ever pool match 5-4 – what a start!

In their first season Exeter had a rapidly expanding squad with more of the Exiles keen to enjoy success with the pool cue as the team held their own in the third tier of the APSCIL pool league. A special mention goes to Julie Le Milliere who went along to support in a game against Hearts only to find that the team were one short and she'd be needed to play! Having had no practice at all Julie was reluctant to play and it took a few drinks to persuade her! Fortunately her opponent Dave Allen had become nervous about the "secret weapon" in the City line up and had drunk a few more beers than he could handle! It appeared that Dave was incapable of holding a cue, let alone pot any balls. Miraculously though he managed to fluke a few pots amongst the numerous fouls in what turned out to be the longest frame of the season at nearly two hours! Julie managed to grind him down and took the frame with some composed potting for a glorious debut.

In a bid to keep her 100% record intact Julie immediately retired and has not played since!

As the team embarked on their own 13 year pub crawl across London, many different pubs have been called “home” - the first being The Plough in Moorgate. Two seasons later the pub was demolished (fortunately Exeter were playing away that night) with the team lucky enough to stumble across their ultimate home as a replacement - the Exeter Arms in Marylebone.

Another move was forced soon after with the team moving on to The Prince Albert. Unfortunately after five home games it became apparent that the new pub was attempting to enter the Guinness Book of Records for the smelliest toilets in London. With teams starting to find excuses to avoid playing the mighty Grecians it became obvious that this was more to do with the aroma than any fear of losing. In an effort to restore the teams' reputation Neil Le Milliere decided to take the initiative in a game against Swansea and found the cause of the problem - the stop cock! Easy, thought Neil, as he turned the supply back on to continue the evening's contest.

As the game entered its fifth frame with Exeter 4-0 up attention turned to the other end of the pub where a river of water was heading towards the pool table. As the water level rose, it appeared the supply had been cut off for a reason! As the team wondered if the opponents would call for the game to be abandoned, the Swansea players rolled up their trousers and carried on regardless! The water seemed to inspire the Swans as they pulled it back to 4-4. Unfortunately they were made to regret the decision to play on with Exeter clinching the decider to take the match.

Tuesday evening's game was played at the current home venue - The Coach and Horses near Blackfriars. As well as seeing yet another exciting ninth frame decider (for the record, Old Timer's Captain Dean clinched it with a superb clearance) the evening also saw the presentation of the Exiles' fourth trophy for winning the APSCIL Pool Cup last season. The cup win was by far the biggest achievement to date and squeezes into the trophy cabinet alongside the trophies from two promotions and runners up spot in the top division.

Who knows where we'll be playing over the next 13 years. One thing's for sure - it'll be an exciting journey!