Snooker: Cue Zone Masters' undefeated streak brought to an end 

Defending champions Rockets get first win of campaign

Report by Mike Crook:

Cue Zone Masters, the last unbeaten team were defeated in week five of the Mac’s Builders Merchants snooker league. 

Defending champions Finch Hill Rockets took their first win, whilst the Hurricanes went top.

Finch Hill Rockets 3-2 St Olaves

Marek Kenny 93-39 Paul Smyth, Kenny was on top form not leaving much for Smyth who struggled to make much of his few chances and had no 'run' at all. Several quality teen breaks from Kenny left snookers required, the concession coming on the brown. Graham Ashton 76-31 Dave Kelly, both missed easy balls early on with the reds spread widely. Ashton seemed to get the better run and took advantage of Kelly's bad luck as he went in-off a couple of times, the St Olaves man becoming increasingly frustrated and conceding on the green. Sean Murphy 49-52 Travis Bignall, close throughout with Murphy very rusty from lack of play since last season. However, he settled better than Bignall with some good long reds but no position. Bignall potted a good red cueing over the pack but unfortunately fouled, touching a red. Murphy took advantage extending his lead to 20 with one red left. Bignall came back strongly, closing the gap taking blue and pink to set up a black ball fight. Murphy narrowly missed it into the middle leaving it on for Bignall to cut in. John Spellman took frame 4 to give the defending champions a first win of the season, 57-41 over Darrell Thacker. The highest break of the week, 38 from Dan Crawley gave St Olaves another point, the final frame ending Doug Kinrade 32-72 Crawley.

Finch Hill Mob 3-2 Cue Zone Masters

Report by Peter Crellin:

Tom Miller 66-99 Brendan Clague, Miller got some of the start back (23 break) but Clague potted some good balls to win and goes 4 wins from 4. Steve Finnegan 59-66 Paul Russell was a pretty tight frame. Finn got 13 ahead, before his opponent potted pink and black to then take it on a re-spot. Lee Hunt 55-36 Alan Heath, Blade potted some good single balls to take the lead in the frame and was pretty comfortable in the end. Peter Crellin 100-42 Ivan McMaw, the best ‘ton up’ Crellin has played in the league for a long time. A 32 break on his first scoring visit and a 36 with his second. Both could have been bigger. McMaw was left a couple of long red chances but nothing else. Two high teens breaks from Crellin sealed the frame. McMaw was just left with his handicap start but he’s in good company, the only other person Crellin has nilled in the league was one David Addinall! Peter Kirkham 78-42 Martin Rigg, Kirkham missed a couple to start with but Rigg didn't capitalise. Back-to-back runs of 23 put Kirkham in control. 26 behind with 27 on, Rigg had a chance on colours, he potted a good yellow but overrun position and missed a tough green handing Kirkham the frame and giving CZ Masters their first taste of defeat this season.

Jacksons 1-4 Finch Hill Reprobates

Report by Dollin Mercer:

Lee Gale vs Chris Brown looked a brilliant scratch matchup on paper with potential for fireworks, but Chris was the quicker of the two to settle and never really looked back. With a much-improved, flowing technique earned from hard hours spent on the practice table, he did the simple stuff well and didn’t leave Lee much at all, a comfortable win before the colours. Gale 7-44 Brown. Paul Kell 33-70 Andy Taubman, Andy picked up where Chris left off, looking fluid and imperious as he made quick work of Kell’s handicap start and gradually pulled away with some excellent single ball potting. Frankie Pitts made it 3-0 to the Reprobates in a frame against Alex Sinclair where the reds split quite nicely but neither player was quite able to capitalise with a heavy visit to the table. Frankie just about kept his nose in front throughout in a very evenly matched frame before winning with a fluked pink off several cushions, Sinclair 51-69 Pitts. Paul Tangeman looked for all the world like he would make it 4-0 but had a couple of bits of bad luck, which Richard Hillier capitalised upon with some important late pots to get himself back in front. With Paul needing both pink and black to win, Richard had another wild fluke on the pink to make it 3-1, Hillier 51-39 Tangeman, one big bit of good fortune on a winning pink for each team! In the final frame, captains Kam Virk and Dollin Mercer squared off and Dollin never looked like making up the 42-point handicap start, with early pots shared evenly and high value colours going safe. Looking almost dead and buried needing all six colours to win, Dollin got half a chance on the yellow and cleared the table from nowhere to steal it with a break of 27, Virk 52-62 Mercer.

Cue Zone Blinders 1-4 The Hurricanes

With St Olaves losing, this performance puts the Hurricanes top of the pile. Jamie Wilson and Shaun Roberts have been in fine form for them and both won again. Frame scores, Brandon Forrester 28-54 Roberts (21), Nick Stephens 17-62 Ste MacDonald, Conor Mahon 74-94 Wilson and Scott Campion 95-46 Chris Dagnall. In the final frame Paul Smith enjoyed a massive 42 start against Darryl Hill, a player he’s beaten off of scratch in the Champion of Champions a couple of years ago. A 22 break from Smith saw him home, 49-85.

Peel Legion 2-3 Port St Mary Legion

Don Humphries 52-41 Marc Morley, Humphries built up a handy 27 lead but a couple of woeful safety shots, (normally his strong suit) gave Morley chances to get back in it but he didn’t fully cash in, unexpectedly missing a few. Both continued to blow fine chances and it was some surprise when Humphries potted a simple pink to win. Mike Crook 34-93 Phil Joynes, with reds pushed up the table, Joynes got in first with a nice long red, leading to a 28 break and soon followed up with 23. He’s one of those players that can make the game look ridiculously easy. With the next two players yet to arrive, the frame was played out to see if Joynes could reach 100. It ended in near farce with Joynes going for a required snooker on the pink to reach a ton whilst Crook tried to roll it over any bag! Barton Beaumont 27-56 Dave Pickersgill, included a couple of teen breaks from Pickersgill. Beaumont was better than last week but when put in a couple of nice snookers on the colours, he gave away 12 points in fouls to leave Pickersgill out of reach. John Kelly 60-20 Matty Astill was a bit of a grind with just two shared blacks off the 15 reds. Matty was very unlucky with in-offs giving 20 points away. Kelly took a long frame ball green after coming out on top of the safety exchanges. Geoff Hall and Terry Boyle fought out the decider, Hall played the better to have seemingly done enough, 28 up with 27 on. Boyle hit back impressively with 3 consecutive snookers with Hall only able to escape the latter. Boyle then profited from another snooker and with good pots on yellow, green and brown he was suddenly only 6 behind. Hall potted the blue, a very fine cut to the middle but the cueball flew straight into the corner! Boyle deposited the blue from its spot via the D but missed the match ball pink. He also managed to go in-off the pink before completing a dramatic turnaround by potting a mid range pink down the side cushion and a very missable 3/4 ball black to the middle, Hall 58-69 Boyle.

DSB Wannabes 1-4 Malew

David Callister 42-83 Alec Oates, this  included a 22 break for Oates. Jason Campbell 59-37 Tony Pring, a first win for Campbell playing for his new team. Fred Corris 55-67 Mark Quinn, taken by Postie on the black. Paul McKinstry 23-81 Tony Cubbon, 4 from 4 for Cubbon who continues to blow away the opposition. Dave Corris 72-79 James Goodwin, Wannabes again getting on the wrong end of a black ball.

Hurricanes now lead the way with 15 points from St Olaves and Reprobates on 14. Both Dan Crawley and Terry Boyle won to keep their 100% records and stay atop the individual league with 5 wins. Peter Crellin, for the first time heads the high break league on 10 points from Darryl Hill with 8.5 and Peter Kirkham 7.