But Blinders increase lead at top to two points
Report by Mike Crook:
The top four teams all lost in the Mac’s Builders Merchants snooker league where the contenders for the title have just three or four matches to play.
Three losses in a row for Blinders, but they actually increase their lead at the top to two points. Musicians were in no mood to be charitable as they were clinging on to a remote title chance. Mike Doherty 17-70 Nick Stephens - Stephens looked good, a 22 break and was never threatened. Vic Rigby 52-53 Conor Mahon - This turned into a very, very long fight on the final ball but it went the Blinders way. The next also went to the black, Dave Hanlon 55-53 Scott Campion - and the comeback was on. An excellent break of 30 by Blinders Brandon Forrester wasn’t enough to shake off Pat Maher who levelled the match, 73-67. So to the decider, Matt Dodd vs Darryl Hill, 70 start to Dodd. A few reds had disappeared with Hill making no inroad into the deficit when Dodd banged in a long red, screwing back beautifully for the pink and continued with another red and black. This left him 84 up and Hill already needed a snooker. Hill picked off 5 reds with blacks for a 40 break but playing safe he left Dodd another sniff of a red and down it went. It was one of those night’s for Dodd who potted everything that was left on and the comeback was complete 95-53 to Dodd.
A disappointing result for second-placed Hurricanes after last week’s fine 5-0 win. Shaun Roberts picked up their only point to go clear in the individual league beating Nicola Young 86-65 in frame two. Other scores: Jamie Wilson 49-80 Andy Taubman, Ste MacDonald 26-69 Paul Tangeman, and Gary Conwell 53-64 Dollin Mercer. The final frame was awarded as a walkover win for Reprobates after the home player played off too high a handicap.
The Masters seem to be on a mission to dent all title contenders chances, last week beating the leaders and this week Jacksons who held third place. Scores: Brendan Clague 59-66 Mike Reddington, Paul Russell (22 break) 67-36 Dave Welsh, David Kelly 74-28 Lee Gale, Martin Rigg 63-35 Kam Virk and Ivan McMaw 47-64 Richard Hillier.
Another week for the Mob to chase higher handicapped players, this time the starts were 63, 63, 21, 21 and 70 in Peel’s favour. The Mob’s Peter Kirkham returned to form and made easy work of the task in frame one, restricting Tom Randall to just two reds. Breaks of 27 and 41 saw him to a 95-65 win. Tom Miller 69-87 Don Humphries - An early break of 15 put Humphries even further ahead, Miller hit back with 36. Needing a snooker on the pink and the black over a corner pocket, Miller very nearly gained the foul required by placing the pink close to the black, only a double kiss on the pink saved Humphries from potting the black. Lee Hunt 48-58 Mike Crook - Hunt controlled this until the last few reds, Crook then found his range and eventually nicked it with a nice green to pink finish. Steve Finnegan 78-53 John Kelly - Kelly with an early 27 break looked nearly out of sight but Finn came back with an even better 31. Kelly potted a great long final brown but the resultant shot left the cueball tight on the cushion and caused him to miss the blue and that was his last real chance. Peter Crellin 86-93 Dave McCallum - Crellin had the biggest chase of the night and it looked beyond him even though his opponent barely potted a ball. Finally, Crellin found some consistency with a 26 break to go eight ahead with four balls left. The break only ended after he slightly over-screwed on the green, eight feet up the table to snooker himself on the brown. McCallum made a far from easy cut on the brown. Crellin missed an easy blue, whilst trying to cannon frame and match ball pink off the cushion. McCallum potted blue, pink then missed an easy black which Crellin took to force a re-spot. Both had their chances before McCallum potted the mid-range 3/4 ball black across into a middle pocket.
Report by by Alec Oates/Graham Ashton:
Mark Quinn 54-53 Jonny Hogg - This was a bit of a slow burner, in fact the firewood was damp for the whole 66 minutes. 15 minutes passed before the first red was potted as eight reds disappeared into baulk. There wasn't much in it throughout and eventually it came down to the black, Hogg making the mistake to leave Quinn a straight shot into a middle bag for the win. Alec Oates 30-64 Graham Ashton 21 - Both started off with some good safety, but it was Ashton that made all the running with a good 21 break and Oates not at the races. The latter was unbelievably unlucky to hit the black whilst trying to escape a snooker with reds surrounding it. About 20 points behind going onto the colours Oates had an outside chance of getting a result, but Ashton was not in the mood to mess about as he cleared yellow to blue and Oates surrendered. James Goodwin 57-78 Sean Murphy - This was a frame where the Douglas player dominated. Although Goodwin potted a red and colour on his first visit he then sank another red only for the white to follow it in. Not long afterwards he did the same again, Murphy taking the frame quite easily. Tony Cubbon 68-39 Marc Bolton - This was really a one-sided affair as Cubbon showed a great amount of flair, ability and tight cueball control with breaks of 28 and 26. Bolton did his best to keep up and made some nice shots but it was never enough to stay with Cubbon. Tony Pring 57-50 Paddy Delaney - Great cueing by Paddy winding back the clock and potting some good long balls, but he couldn't put enough distance between himself and Pring and in the end it went to another black ball fight. Delaney had a go at potting it in the yellow pocket, missed and it didn’t roll too far away and Pring stepped up and sank it. It could have been a different story for the southerners had two black balls not gone their way.
Report by Terry Boyle:
Terry Boyle 64-41 Dave Kelly - Dave held sway down to the last red and would have been further ahead but for two blues which somehow came out of the middle pocket. Terry took the last red with a black then yellow, green and a lucky double on the brown. Needing the blue to win he snookered Dave but the blue ended up over a pocket. Dave escaped but the blue didn't drop and Terry had blue plus pink for the frame. Phil Joynes 56-47 Paul Smyth - This was an all out potting feast, Paul was unlucky to overrun the blue a few times and was forced to take yellows. Excellent pots all the way down to the black from both players. Paul attempted a safety on the black to the baulk cushion, it stayed a little short and Phil got a thin cut into the yellow bag for the frame. Dave Pickersgill 46-81 Travis Bignell - Travis started well and raced into a 20 lead. With one red remaining he got some good snookers which stretched his lead to 39. Dave got the last red but missed the pink, 38 behind on the colours he then got some very good snookers himself and with four balls remaining could win the frame. Alas the fight back was over and Bignell polished it off. Matthew Astill 74-55 James Kerr - James started well eating into Matty’s 49 start. Every time Matty got a red he unluckily left a big colour over the hole, each one resulting in teen breaks for James down to the colours. James took yellow and green to go ahead for the first time but missed a tricky cut on the brown. Matty then took brown, a good double on the blue, pink and black for a 22 break to pinch the frame. Mike Boyle 55-7 Dan Crawley - Opening up with a 26 break to add to his seven start, Mike was always in control in this frame, Dan tried hard but colours were hard to come by and after leaving a blue over the bag with one red still on the table he offered Mike the handshake. 4-1 to PSM but it has to be said on the night we had all the run.
Top League Standings
The Hurricanes - 58 points
Jacksons - 56 points
Finch Hill Mob - 55 points
Finch Hill Reprobates - 54 points
Individual League Standings
Shaun Roberts - 14 wins
Lee Gale - 13 wins
Brendan Clague - 13 wins
Tony Cubbon - 13 wins
High Break League
Tom Miller - 45.5 points
Peter Crellin - 40 points
Darryl Hill - 36.5 points
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