Snooker: St Olaves beat reigning champs

The Rockets fall into second

With only two weeks of the Macs Builders Merchants Snooker League remaining, St Olaves A have moved ahead of The Rockets, with The Hurricanes, who had a bye this week a further three points back in third place.
 
St Olaves A 4-1 Newbys DSB
 
St Olaves beat the reigning champs 4-1 for the second time this season to put them top of the pile as Paul Smyth reports from Ramsey.
 
Darrell Thacker 74-34 Johnny Myers, congratulations to Thacker who is now confirmed the individual league winner after this victory. A nice 25 break and a couple of long pots at the end leaving Myers needing snookers on the brown. Just two losses in twenty frames for Thacker. Paul Smyth 73-20 Calum Gardner, Smyth got in first with a couple of mid teen breaks to take lead. Gardner missed a couple of chances he would normally sink, leaving Smyth in to notch a 30 break, then a run on the early colours to take the frame. James Kerr 59-27 Zain Abideen, a series of small breaks was enough for Kerr, Abideen missing some colours he'd normally get. Dave Kelly 49-58 Pat Maher, a scrappy frame, Maher edging ahead narrowly but still requiring the final black to pick up Newbys only point. Sean Corkish 74-51 Adam Dooley, Corkish was giving away 35 and Dooley seemed up for this, playing positive. A nice long red from Corkish led to a 20, quickly followed by a 22 break to take the lead. Dooley fought hard but Corkish was too strong on the night.
 
Finch Hill Rockets 3-2 DSB Wannabes
 
The Rockets are now a single point off the pace despite this win, details from Graham Ashton.
 
Matt Radley 34-69 Harry Minor, Radley started well but a couple of good teen breaks from Minor saw him home. Marek Kenny 86-66 Steve Cowin, Kenny went off the boil mid frame but was just too strong for Cowin in the end. Graham Ashton 100-66 Paul McKinstry was very much a game of two halves. Ashton played a calculated safety game, refusing reds that wouldn't give position. He nibbled away at the 42 handicap start, but also went in-off several safety shots. Later, the tables turned very much against McKinstry who had all the bad luck going. Ashton found his potting boots and a good blue to black clearance to finish the frame. Ron Grogan 69-56 Fred Corris, Grogan had some fine pots in this frame, and he carried some luck with the run of the ball. It came down to a long battle over pink and black, Corris potting an excellent pink in corner with the rest but left a straight but missable black for the Rocket into corner pocket. The home corner erupted in applause as it hit the back of the pocket for the dapper 92 year old match winner. Doug Kinrade 39-65 Dave Corris, Kinrade became increasingly frustrated with a lot of bad luck in the frame, and losing the tip from his cue mid-frame didn't help his cause as Corris denied the Rockets a vital point.
 
Port St Mary Legion 2-3 Cue Zone Mob
 
The Mob are mathematically still in the title race after this win as Terry Boyle reports.
 
Shaun Roberts 19-63 Steve Finnegan, Finn played exceptionally well giving a superb potting display including a 23 break. Phil Joynes 78-57 Peter Kirkham, both were on form with Joynes just getting there on the colours. Terry Boyle 80-91 Dave Addinall, Addinall as always made it look a simple game with breaks of 47 and 28 to haul back the 63 start, Boyle had a few chances but failed to capitalise and Addinall won easily. Marc Morley 63-57 Lee Hunt was a good frame with Hunt playing well to get back into it on the colours only to leave the black over the hole which Morley duly potted. Mike Boyle 54-60 Peter Crellin, was like the shoot out at the OK Corral, very little safety, whilst slightly ahead Boyle mistook the brown for a red leaving Crellin an easy chance to get back in the frame on the colours. Crellin needed the pink to win which he potted only to go in off, after several attempts at the black Boyle reciprocated by going in off the black! Well done to the Mob. Addinall’s breaks, which included the best seen this week now put him in a very strong position to take this years high break league.
 
Malew 2-3 St Olaves Musicians
 
6th v 5th and not much in the first four frames, Malew claiming frames 2 and 3 on the black. Matt Dodd sealed the match for the Musicians in the last coming from 25 behind. Frame scores: Mark Quinn 39-49 Dave Hanlon, David Quayle 74-60 Mike Doherty, Alec Oates 53-50 Peter Collister, Tony Pring 33-46 Vinny Dale and James Goodwin 46-80 Matthew Dodd.
 
Cue Zone Blinders 1-4 Cue Zone Reprobates
 
Let’s just say Blinder’s captain Darryl Hill was disappointed after a below par effort in this derby match up. Reprobates were happy enough though with their 5th win on the trot. Dollin Mercer looked in decent form in the last with a 24 break to quickly catch Jez Hill’s 49 start. Scores: Brandon Forrester 50-63 Ashley Howard, Scott Campion 36-71 Rob Callister, Josh Rigg 45-69 Paul Tangeman, Ivan McMaw 72-61 Brendan Clague and Jez Hill 55-82 Dollin Mercer.
 
Jacksons 3-2 Peel Legion
 
Four visits to The Cue Zone this season and Peel are yet to record a win. Dave Cavanagh 49-62 Mike Crook, Crook was extremely unfortunate with some in-offs but his luck changed with an outrageous fluke on the final blue when needing the last three colours. Both players had shots on the black, before Crook slammed a double into the middle. Alex Sinclair 60-19 Jason O'Connor, Sinclair is now 3 out of 3 with another good display of potting from the off. Lee Gale 60-53 John Kelly, a strangely tactical game for these two strong potters, with reds gathering below the black spot. Gale drew level but Kelly went away on the colours. Kelly had the frame at his mercy on the final blue and black, but he managed to miss both opportunities and somehow the white went in off the black. Kam Virk 58-54 Barton Beaumont, some good clean potting from Virk pulled back the 21 start but Beaumont hung in and had one or two nice pots himself, and as usual his safety was decent. This too went to the black, Beaumont missed his chance with the rest and Virk fired in an identical mid range black to last week for the win. Tony Dhadwal 43-68 Geoff Hall, Dhadwal was cruising early on adding to his 21 start with good potting but slowly the wheels fell off and Hall gradually clawed himself back. The final straw was Dhadwal going in off the final pink when trying to gain position on the black and leaving himself requiring snookers.
 
Next week’s crucial matches are Peel Legion at home to St Olaves A, Newbys DSB vs Finch Hill Rockets and The Hurricanes vs Malew which will be the latter’s last game of the season. All the leading contenders now have two games to play. Thanks to all contributors.
 
*** 
 
There were three excellent matches and plenty of high scoring in the final week of league action in the Castle Cabs IoM Premier Snooker League held at the Cue Zone.
 
With Peter Kirkham, Sean Corkish and Peter Crellin all vying for the last play-off place it was Peter Kirkham who grabbed it with a 4-2 victory against Paul Smith. Smith, it must he said saved his best two matches for the final two weeks and he scored the highest break of the match with a 38 to at least avoid leaving the league empty handed of prize money.
 
In the second match Peter Crellin still had a hope of reaching 4th place but John Kennish was fairly dominant in the first three frames with a highest break of 41. Crellin did win the fourth for 3-1 and looked to be going 3-2 but Kennish pinched it on the black and comfortably won the last for a 5-1 win.
 
The final match saw Darryl Hill, already confirmed winner of the league phase, putting in his most dominant performance yet. Opponent Sean Corkish had a chance of reaching 4th place, but he was given very little opportunity to do so. Hill looked to be playing with different size pockets as he hit breaks of 75, 42, 40, 39, 35, 33, 31 and three 20+ breaks. Even though he had a 5-1 win, he will be disappointed not to have achieved his second whitewash after failing to clear the table in frame 5, leaving himself awkward on the final pink from the blue with Corkish then potting the pink.

That now sets up the play-offs next week, Saturday, 10 July and up first at 1pm Darryl Hill will play Peter Kirkham and John Kennish will play Tom Miller. The matches are the best of 9 frames and the second semi final will start straight after the conclusion of the first. Thanks to the officials Dave Kelly, Scott Campion, Jane Hill and Darryl Hill.

Report by Mike Crook.