Champions evicted

SOUTHAMPTON has lost a second snooker club. Following the closure of the Castle Club last year, Pot Black has now also shut its doors.

A fourth straight promotion has taken the Southampton & District Social Clubs League Division 1 champions into the Premier but they will have nowhere to display the trophy.

Homeless champions, left to right: Mark Shirley, Anthony Stevens, Chris Christodoulou, Ian Wallace, Suzie Opacic, Steve Boterhoek (capt). Front, Paul Stenning.

Captain Steve Boterhoek, 29, who vowed to lead the side into the Premier before he was 30, said: “We’re all really gutted. The first day I came here was on my 14th birthday.”

Southampton City Council plan to redevelop the old C&A building and has begun the compulsory purchase process to evict the snooker club and other tenants.

Boterhoek, a production planner, has kept the same squad together, with one exception, for four years and insists this will not change. Women’s world number eight Suzie Opacic was signed after the death of Mick Ginley in 2006.

“It’s something we’re all really proud of,” Boterhoek said. “We’ve worked hard; we haven’t drafted other people in as we’ve gone up the divisions. If we don’t do very well in the Premier then we need to get better. We’ve got a great squad of players. They all bring something different to our game.”