Cue Zone Blinders have retained the Mac’s Builders Snooker League.
They defeated Musicians B at their Cue Zone home venue in Ronaldsway, while their nearest challengers Finch Hill Rockets slipped to a 3-2 defeat against Peel as the league season came to an end last week.
Cue Zone Blinders 4-1 Finch Hill Musicians B
Starting the final week only one point ahead of the Rockets and two in hand over St Olave’s, this was no done deal.
But strong performances from Blinders’ opening players who showed no nerves put them 3-0 to the good. By this time news had come through that the Rockets were out of the title race and only a 5-0 win for St Olave’s could force a play-off.
Noel McConville played very well for Musicians B to take frame four and leave the Champagne on ice.
Just as the last frame started, news came that St Olave’s had lost a frame but Blinders’ Brandon Forrester wasn’t advised as they wanted to be sure.
He played a really solid frame with a good tactical battle against Vic Rigby on the colours and calmly potted a fairly tricky pink in the middle to make sure they had won it. Blinders were warmly applauded by the Musicians lads as the Champagne was opened.
Frame scores: Nick Stephens 56-28 Martin Rigby, Conor Mahon 99-21 Rob Callister, David Hill 74-52 Mike Doherty, Scott Campion 23-63 Noel McConville and Brandon Forrester 60-43 Vic Rigby.
Peel Legion 3-2 Finch Hill Rockets (played at St Olave’s)
Peel Legion’s last ever league match and the snooker gods were certainly favouring them in the opener.
Mike Crook 51-47 John Spellman - a nice break of 25 from Spellman looked to be enough but awful flukes by Crook on the final brown and later the pink to land perfectly on the black for an ugly steal. Just what the Rockets didn’t need.
Tom Randall 70-38 Graham Ashton - well over the hour mark before Ashton required two snookers on the colours. He got one but Randall mopped up brown and blue.
Barton Beaumont 33-72 Sean Murphy - one of Beaumont’s ‘no shows’ and Murphy won with ease to give the Rockets a glimmer of hope.
John Kelly 16-79 Marc Bolton - Kelly’s low handicap proved too much for him as Bolton was very good throughout with long pots for fun. By this time, Rockets had heard the score from the Cue Zone and knew they were only playing for second place.
The decider, Geoff Hall vs Doug Kinrade, was close throughout until Hall took the lower baulk colours and Kinrade needed the last three balls to tie. He made a great long blue and, with the black tight on the cushion near the middle bag, he took on a long pink playing to cannon the black into play.
The second part of the shot he achieved but the pot was missed. This left pink, black and white in close proximity where Hall could attempt to pot the pink and also roll up behind the black for cover if he missed the pot.
As it turned out the pink dropped to secure frame and match for Peel Legion, a nice way to bow out of the league, Hall 52-38 Kinrade.
Finch Hill Musicians A 1-4 St Olave’s
St Olave’s leapfrogged Rockets to claim the runners-up spot after edging some extremely close frames.
Paul Smyth looked like clearing up but underhit the green with the remaining colours at his mercy.
Dan Crawley potted a final black to win but a loose white headed towards a middle pocket but stopped on the lip of the pocket. Had it dropped, there would have been a play-off for runners up spot.
Frame scores: Peter Collister 18-95 Ollie Byrne, Vinny Dale 47-54 Dave Kelly, John Kennish (22, 25) 68-71 James Kerr (20), Sean Rolt (27) 65-48 Paul Smyth and Paul Tangeman 72-73 Dan Crawley (20).
Jacksons 2-3 Hurricanes
Jacksons needed to win 4-1 at the very least to retain any interest in the title race, but losing the opener wasn’t ideal and Paul Smith doubling pink and black to then win on a re-spot made the task impossible.
He also denied Dave Welsh a share of the individual league. Incidentally, last season’s individual winner Shaun Roberts - not a regular this season - ended on played 10, lost 10 - that’s how it can go.
Frame scores: Mike Reddington 73-83 Ste MacDonald, Kam Virk 49-44 Shaun Roberts, Alex Sinclair 57-42 Freddie Dancox, Dave Welsh 36-43 Paul Smith and Dave Notman 57-91 Jamie Wilson.
Douglas Snooker Bar Wannabes 3-2 PSM Legion
An overdue win for the Wannabes, only their fifth all season.
Frame scores: Steve Cowin 90-44 Marc Morley, Dave Callister 86-44 Dave Pickersgill, James Teare 41-87 Terry Boyle, Dave Corris 52-20 Denis Boyle and Paul McKinstry 114-118 Mike Boyle.
Finch Hill Mob 1-4 Malew
Plenty of breaks from the Mob but not enough to overcome some big starting deficits – only the fifth frame was off scratch.
Frame scores: Steve Finnegan (20) 66-108 Tony Pring, Alan Heath 35-66 James Goodwin, Peter Kirkham (23) 46-83 Alec Oates, Tom Miller (23, 25) 121-77 Mark Quinn and Lee Butterworth 44-50 Tony Cubbon.
Final league positions: Blinders 71 points, St Olaves 69, Rockets 68, Jacksons 66, Peel Legion 64, PSM Legion 63, Musicians B 60, Hurricanes 59, Masters and Mob 56, Musicians A 55, Malew 50 and Wannabes 43.
Congratulations also to Conor Mahon, Dave Kelly and Terry Boyle who finish joint top of the individual league with 16 wins.
The high break league winner is John Kennish on 72.5 points from Darryl Hill 41 and Steve Finnegan 30.5. Darryl wins the highest break prize for his 96 back in October.
Isle of Man Billiards and Snooker Association wish to thank all the teams for making it such an exciting league season right to the final frames and also to the many contributors to this column.
- That’s far from the end of the season as over the next few weeks the Island Championship, Manx Car Store Premier League, Pairs Championship, Robbie Corkish Masters, Championship Challenge and the Team Wakefield Cup are played to a conclusion.
Cue Zone Blinders are now looking to complete a ‘double double’ by also retaining the Wakefield.
MIKE CROOK