Snooker: Defeats for top two as Rockets close in

Kirkham and Kennish straight back with multiple breaks

There's 12 weeks of the Macs Builders Merchants snooker league season remaining and the latest round of results didn't lack in excitement.

St Olaves A 2-3 St Olaves Musicians

League leaders St Olaves 'A' narrowly lost this derby match where the first three frames all went to the black. Frame one ended Sean Corkish 61-70 Peter Collister, this was cagey with Collister going well and Corkish missing a couple pots he'd normally get and Collister closed it out well. The 'home' team levelled with Darrell Thacker 66-56 Matthew Dodd, a tightly fought match with both hard ball strikers potting and missing at distance. Doddsy had led all the way and nearly sealed it by potting the blue except the white went in the middle leaving it for individual league leader Thacker to clean up well. Frame three had Paul Smyth conceding a 35 start to Dave Hanlon. A tight start with Smyth picking up most of the small pots and he eventually brought it level. Hanlon edged away with some low colours but Smyth took the higher colours to leave him just needing the black. Just as Smyth was down on the shot, a shortish cut to the middle, the table light went out! Smyth, confident he was bang on line sighting the shot played it anyway, but the black caught the knuckle and thankfully for him it ran safe. After a few safety shots Hanlon left the black close to the black corner but white in the jaws of yellow pocket. A very relieved Smyth dropped it in to save his blushes and put the A team ahead, Smyth 69-61 Hanlon. Frame four brought the match level again ending James Kerr 60-93 Mike Doherty, both started well but Docker with a 49 start maintained a 40 point lead, Kerr fought back and went for a clearance to win by a couple points, but twitched on a shot and left the game for Doherty who potted well to seal it. The decider saw John Kennish make light work of Dave Kelly's 70 start. In warm up, the prolific Kennish had missed a black for a century break, ending on 99. Kelly tried to keep it tight to no avail as Kennish made do with runs of 21, 22 and 33 to claim frame and match Kelly 79-105 Kennish.

Jacksons 3-2 The Hurricanes

Jacksons reversed the result from earlier in the season defeating second placed Hurricanes. Frame one ended Paul Kell 93-74 Jamie Wilson, Kell adding to his 49 start with an early run of 14 to build a more than handy lead. Wilson played some amazing shots and match play but couldn't quite drag it back. Nick Heaver couldn't match Stu Littlewood in the next, Littlewood levelling the score 33-63 with consistent scoring and not leaving much on for his opponent. Several fouls from Kam Virk in frame three, he made up with good long pots and despite Gary Connell grinding out some snookers Virk put Jacksons back ahead winning 76-43. Tony Dhadwal was the match winner for the home team in defeating Chris Dagnall 101-68. Dagsy made inroads into Dhadwal's 56 start but Dhadwal did enough the leave two snookers required on the pink. With the black in a favourable position and the Hurricanes needing every point Dagsy rightly went for the snookers for over half an hour before Dhadwal was able to tuck the pink away. The final frame between Lee Gale and Steve Munk saw both playing well before Munky took it on the black 45-54 to claim another valuable consolation point for the title contenders.

Finch Hill Rockets 3-2 Cue Zone Mob

It was an early night at Finch Hill with two tables in use and Peter Kirkham of the Mob on fire in frame one with breaks of 33 and 47 (best of the week) to limit the dangerous Marek Kenny to a single red. Kenny graciously commenting it was the best anyone had ever played against him, Kenny 43-86 Kirkham. Frame two didn't get much better for the Rockets with Graham Ashton miscuing the break off and missing the pack! Opponent Steve Finnegan struggled with his potting for a while and after a safety battle Ashton got in with a teen break but left Finn in the balls to knock in an impressive 20 break. From there Finn pushed ahead against a sometimes unlucky Ashton to take it 33-69. The Rocket, Ron Grogan saved his team from defeat with a good final pink to win 101-93 over Tom Miller. Miller had put in a solid effort to catch up the 84 start in a frame played with some good friendly banter. Meanwhile on the other table John Spellman v Ste Oates looked like it was going to be a quick frame. Spellman in first with a good long red and black and the pack opened with lots of easy balls on but both players struggled to follow up with colours. Spellman moved ahead with a few small breaks as Oates had a bit of bad running. Spellman got better as the frame progressed to take it 46-17 and level the match. Doug Kinrade completed the comeback taking the decider 65-42 over Lee Hunt enabling third placed Rockets to edge closer to the top.

Cue Zone Blinders 3-2 Malew 

Scott Campion amassed 71 points, bringing his practice game to the table and produced some great shots to dominate the first frame against Jimmy Goodwin with 26. In contrast, Eric Drinkwater of Malew was as steady as ever and eased to the second frame against Ivan McMaw 11-58 with Ivan unable to get going at all. Frame 3 saw Josh Rigg strike back for the Blinders against Alec Oates, Alec had some bad luck and was also experiencing contact lens trouble. Josh ran out comfortably 71-13, which will also see his handicap reduced to 21. Frame 4 was the first close frame on the evening between Sam Palmer and David Quayle and on the final green the frame scores were 67 a piece. Quayle potted green and brown to Palmer's blue and ultimately required just the pink and from what seemed a fairly safe position, he played a long thin clip and in it went to square the match at 2-2, Palmer 72-84 Quayle. The final frame between Brandon Forrester and Mark Quinn was the best of the night. A scratch game, both played to their 28 handicaps very well producing some good safety and excellent long pots. Equalling each other, it was Forrester who looked to be breaking clear, but on a break of 15 he missed a blue to the middle. Postie then potted another cracking long red and followed it up with a 22 break edging back ahead again. The frame went down to the last few colours and Forrester looked set to clinch it as he potted the brown and blue and required just the pink. He was on the pink to middle but had a certain in-off in the corner. Knowing this, he played the shot with pace chancing his luck but in potting the pink the white indeed went clean in-off. A reprieve for Postie, however having potted the pink he missed a black that he himself would have expected to pot. With black on the side cushion Forrester played a double only for the black to go across the table 3 times and then drop in the middle, not the conventional way but having already potted frame ball pink with the in-off, it could be argued it was deserved!? Final score, Forrester 57-55 Quinn. A great turnaround result for the Blinders who had lost 4-1 at Malew at the start of the season.

Peel Legion 4-1 Newbys DSB

Peel had the week's biggest win against an under par Newbys. John Kelly ended Simon Gardner's pre-lockdown win streak 72-32. A couple of teen breaks for Kelly and Gardner going in off a nice long final brown sealed the deal. In frame two Adam Dooley of Newbys had overcome Barton Beaumont's 35 start to lead by 11 with just pink and black remaining. Dooley's attempted double on the pink was left hanging for Beaumont to knock in and follow with a long cut on the black to win 64-62. Tom Curphey ensured a home win, benefiting from a number of fouls from Pat Maher. Maher did manage one of the two snookers required on the blue before Curphey took the pink to win 73-49. Geoff Hall made it 4-0 cutting in a full length pink into the yellow bag to beat Zain Abideen 69-51. Ste MacDonald salvaged a point for Newbys, soon catching up Jim Caley's start before the latter got going. A fluked blue for MacDonald left Caley needing the final two balls but the pink was left for MacDonald to take the frame 51-62

DSB Wannabes 3-2 Cue Zone Reprobates

Wannabes put a run of four heavy defeats behind them but still stay bottom. Harry Minor had a good 64-32 win over Dollin Mercer to get them on their way. Then Stevie Cowin made in 2-0 with his most conclusive victory for a while against Reprobates winning most player Paul Tangeman, Cowin 61-24 Tangeman. A black ball win for Rob Callister kept the match alive, Paul McKinstry 56-70 Callister. Vets champion Fred Corris sealed the home win 63-42 against Brendan Clague. The final frame ended Dave Corris 34-77 to Rhys Moore, the latter adding to his 35 start along the way.

So St Olaves A's loss doesn't cost them too heavily with Hurricanes also going down. St Olaves lead on 44 points with The Hurricanes second on 43 then Finch Hill Rockets with 42. The top two clash next week at Douglas Snooker Bar where The Hurricanes will be looking to avenge a 4-1 defeat at St Olaves in October. The Rockets travel to play St Olaves Musicians. The individual league is still headed by Darrell Thacker with 13 wins from Stu Littlewood on 12 and Jamie Wilson and Mark Quinn who both dropped ground this week on 11. John Kennish takes over at the top of the high breaks league with 34 points. Dave Addinall, who hasn't appeared for a while is second on 33 and Sean Corkish next on 19.5. Thanks to all contributors including Paul Smyth, Kam Virk and Graham Ashton.

The IOMBSA Castle Cabs Premier league returns next Saturday May 8th at the Cue Zone with week 3, two cracking matches and four island champions will be in action. At 2pm John Kennish, currently tied for second place, takes on Sean Corkish who will be looking for his first win of the league. Following that, leader Darryl Hill faces Tom Miller who is tied with Kennish. Both matches will live streamed to the IOMBSA Facebook page. 

Report by Michael Crook.