Peter Noel

 

In 1966 a fresh faced young man (with hair in those days) left school and went to work in the drawing office of the Jersey Steel Company. The stockyard was ruled with a rod of iron by a bloke called Peter Noel and, on hot summer days when the office windows were wide open, all that could be heard above the songs of the birds, was the sound of shouting and of steel bolts hitting the side of the crane cab as Peter tried to impress upon the hapless crane driver that he needed to buck up his ideas.

 

Being sent out by cruel elders to question the great mans stock control was always a pleasure, but sunshine appeared on the horizon in the shape of bar billiards and once Peter had got over the shock of seeing me in an opposition team one night we found something that was common ground for the start of a long friendship and of course rivalry, during the early years of which he handed out regular lessons and beatings with a grin.

 

In what was probably the heydey of the game in Jersey Peter was one of the top players, even

that long ago and throughtout the sixties, the seventies and the eighties Peter went on to win the local league title with four or five teams. When the Jersey Bar Billiards League adopted its current make up in 1980 competition increased and Peter came into his own. Numerous team successes were added to by the winning of pairs titles, over 60's titles, mixed pairs and a host of break and aggregate prizes.He also became a regular island representative with one of the best records of all.

 

Surprisingly the Island mens title eluded him but, in 1984 he grabbed the big one, winning the British Isles Open and a Rio de Janeiro holiday that he gave to his daughters! But that was not the end of the story. In 1999, approaching his seventieth birthday, he went and won it again! This in the middle of a season when he had not won a league match! Whilst the first was special the second was, as they say, 'something else'. Peter was not in the best of health at that time but that victory certainly did him some good and he was soon back to form and enjoying continued success.

 

The Jersey Bar Billiards League has lost a star player and a great supporter and we have lost a good friend. Peter was never shy to comment but those views were always made with a hint of a smile and a good dash of common sense. We will miss him.

 

Nigel Bisson, February 2006