Snooker: 2022-23 league season gets underway

New Cue Zone Masters side replaces Newbys for new campaign

Report by Mike Crook:

The 2022-23 Mac’s Builders Merchants snooker league has commenced, once again with 13 teams competing. Sadly we have lost the 2019/20 champions Newbys, but gained a replacement in Cue Zone Masters. This team comprises of some of the more ‘mature’ CZ Blinders squad who have switched, a couple of free transfers and players new to the league. Let’s hope for a similarly tight finish as last season with plenty of teams in contention.

Peel Legion 3-2 Finch Hill Rockets

Something of a feeling of deja vu for these two teams as they met in week 1 last season in which the Rockets went on to take the title. Even more of a coincidence was that the first two frames pitched the same players against each other with identical results. Frame one ended Don Humphries 45-72 Marek Kenny, a costly miss on the final green let Kenny in for a nice clearance to the pink. Peel’s Barton Beaumont struggled early on against Marc Bolton and went 20 behind, however he got on the plus side of a barrage of snookers, Bolton was now struggling but could win with the last three colours. He took a lovely long blue but surprisingly missed a much easier pink to the middle. Beaumont blasted in the pink the length of the table for an unlikely win, 57-39. Peel went ahead after Mike Crook 49-42 Graham Ashton, Ashton left a tough frame ball pink hanging which Crook took with a tricky black using the rest to force a re-spot. Ashton’s double attempt left a fairly easy finish for Crook. Frame four ended John Kelly 32-52 John Spellman, both looked rusty and Kelly was particularly unlucky to go in off twice into the green bag which was seemingly guarded by colours. Spellman finally sealed it with a trademark long straight blue and nicely cut in pink. And so to the decider between Geoff Hall and Paddy Delaney, two veterans whose ages nearly add up to a maximum break. Hall held the upper hand throughout with Delaney potting plenty of reds but agonisingly just missing his colours. The final green was Delaney’s first colour of the frame and when Hall somehow followed in match ball blue, Delaney was back in it. He played a nice positional shot off the blue to leave himself a chance on the pink into the same yellow pocket. The pink disappeared and he so nearly gained perfect position for the black into the middle. Cueing off the cushion near the middle bag his half ball attempt on the black stayed up and the cueball trickled slowly into a corner pocket, Hall 38-31 Delaney. A very unlucky way to lose, leaving the final score the same as last season, perhaps a good omen for the Rockets?

Finch Hill Mob 4-1 Finch Hill Reprobates

Report by Peter Crellin:

The first two frames had Frankie Pitts and Andy Taubman making their first league outings for Reprobates. Both were scrappy with colours going safe early. Despite some good individual long pots from both, Tom Miller needed a couple of 20 breaks, the second a yellow to pink clearance to win 83-68 over Pitts. Peter Kirkham also had to dig deep to overcome Taubman, a 32 break plus all the colours to take it 92-80. Frame three was tight all the way between Lee Hunt and Chris Brown. Brown needed pink and black to win, he potted the pink but after going for the black the white went in off, Hunt 43-38 Brown. 4th frame was between Steve Finnegan and Dollin Mercer, but also went the way of the Mob, Finn potting some of the most outrageous long balls you've ever seen. No big breaks, but he kept the scoreboard ticking whereas Mercer didn't have much run. Peter Crellin needed to pull back a 63 start to Rhys Moore to complete a 5-0 win, but with blue and pink safe it was tough. On a break of 30 he cued a red badly along the rail, (decelerated) when getting back in the frame. From then on his safety was poor and Moore potted some good balls to take the frame comfortably, Crellin 62-90 Moore.

Finch Hill Musicians 3-2 The Hurricanes

Three players from the defunct Newbys team featured in this match. The Musicians gained Zain Abideen and the Hurricanes, Ste MacDonald and Johnny Myers into their ranks. The Musicians, narrowly denied in the title race last season were in good form, especially Mike Doherty and Vic Rigby. Doherty 88-40 Johnny Myers and Rigby 72-59 Ste McDonald (20) putting them 2 up. The Hurricanes levelled with Matthew Dodd 65-80 Jamie Wilson, (one that Doddsy, ‘shouldn’t have lost’) and Zain Abideen 48-67 Shaun Roberts. A 32 break from Dave Hanlon in the decider saw the Musicians to victory 66-40 over Steve Munk.

DSB Wannabes 1-4 St Olaves

St Olaves had a fantastic record against the Wannabes, taking 11 of their last 12 meetings. Wannabes, trying to avoid the wooden spoon for a fifth consecutive season went ahead with Steve Cowin 82-48 Dave Kelly. However, on a night of tough battles they lost the next three frames all on the black, David Callister 82-92 Paul Smyth, Fred Corris 68-77 Travis Bignall (on debut) and Paul McKinstry 82-83 James Kerr. The final frame was nearly as close, James Teare 84-93 Dan Crawley. For what it’s worth, had this had been the Wakefield cup where the aggregate points scored counts, Wannabes would have won 398-393.

Cue Zone Masters 4-1 Port St Mary Legion

A winning debut for CZ Masters who included two players, David Kelly and Alan Heath new to league snooker in their line-up, and both won. Frame 1 ended, Brendan Clague 56-50 Dave Pickersgill and David Kelly 31-14 Denis Boyle, in which colours were at a premium put the Masters 2 up. Alan Heath 55-23 Matthew Astill wrapped up the win. Although Terry Boyle pulled one back, Ivan McMaw (21) 48-57 Boyle, Jez Hill took the final frame for the home team 87-80 against Mike Boyle, despite breaks of 22 and 21 from the third member of the Boyle clan in the PSM team.

Cue Zone Blinders 2-3 Jacksons

This week’s second derby match included an early contender for the highest break of the season, Darryl Hill with a 56. Frame scores, Calum Gardner (23) 53-89 Paul Kell, Brandon Forrester 70-53 Mike Reddington, Nick Stephens 54-57 Alex Sinclair, Scott Campion 49-64 Lee Gale (21) and Darryl Hill 111-75 Kam Virk.