Kendal’s Andrew Milliard is once again the Cumbria County Snooker Singles Champion – after a 17-year gap.
Milliard, the 2000 and 2005 champion, produced some high quality snooker over the day in the Peter Tyson Audio & Visual sponsored event which culminated in a 5-3 win over Barrow-in-Furness’s Danny Macdonald.
The final proved to be a tight affair but with Milliard producing a four-frame burst to end the match, the Kendal cueist recovered from 3-1 down to re-claim the 70-year-old cup in an event that featured three former professional players.
In the first frame of the final Milliard grabbed the early advantage with a break of 41 and as he added a further 19 points Macdonald conceded with the colours still remaining in a 76-5 score-line.
This did not deter Macdonald in any way, however, and with a quick 20 plus break the Barrow cueist was now into his stride. Looking confident, and after forging another opportunity, Macdonald stepped in and with a contribution of 43 he was out of sight and eventually went on to win 71-49 to tie the match at 1-1.
Frame three started with an excellent safety exchange but with a brilliant red from Macdonald he quickly capitalised in recording a break of 61. Former pro Milliard tied hard to drag himself back into the frame, however with the damage already done Macdonald went on to claim the frame 74-17 for a 2-1 lead.
In the next a break of 35 by Macdonald was countered with one of 48 from Milliard as the Kendal player looked to be edging towards parity. Nevertheless, Macdonald had other ideas and in two rapid visits he cleared the colours to extend his match lead to 3-1 in a 70-62 frame win.
Again frame five was dominated by an initial safety bout with a number of reds finding their way towards the cushions. Even so, as blue and pink were available Milliard coolly worked his magic, and with a contribution of 40 later it allowed him to ultimately take the frame 63-1 to pull the score-line back to 3-2.
Two blues and a black enabled Macdonald to take the lead in frame six, however, with a break of 37 Milliard was back in it. As reds and colours were traded there was nothing in it with just the last six balls remaining.
A snooker by Milliard created the chance he was looking for and in dispatching yellow to pink the Kendal cueist drew level at 3-3 with a 65-48 frame victory.
Frame seven started with another quality safety exchange with Macdonald eventually in first. Nonetheless, with the chance yielding just two colours for the first time in the match the long day appeared to be taking its toll on Macdonald.
Milliard, too, looked fatigued but in maintaining his focus the Kendal player produced two small contributions to take the frame 50-18.
At 4-3 in front Milliard definitely looked the stronger of the two players with the Kendal cueist looking keen to press home his advantage.
As the frame progressed Macdonald’s resolve waned with Milliard seemingly moving further in front as each visit passed to the point where Macdonald required snookers with just the last few balls left.
Gallantly, Macdonald produced a few fine snooker attempts but with the writing on the wall Milliard went on to win 57-42 to take the frame, match and title.
In the first of the semi-finals Macdonald produced the performance of the day in beating ex-pro, current seniors tour player and former world number 67 in Kendal’s Leo Fernández 4-3.
It was a match of the highest quality that included a superb days best break of 112 by Fernández. Macdonald produced his own frame winning contributions with breaks of 64 and 56, but a deciding frame break of 46 by the Barrow cueist under extreme pressure is definitely out there as one of the highlights of the tournament.
In the other semi-final Kevin Kirkham’s superb defence to his title came to an end as the defending champion from Flimby went down 4-2 to Milliard in a contest that was closer than the scoreline suggests.
A Milliard win on the black in the first frame of the match set the tone with the Kendal player leading throughout to make his seventh county final.
One other notable highlight of the day came from Carlisle’s Mally Lancaster with a brilliant break of 110 in his last 16 match against Paul Wright.
Thanks to Martyn Gowing of the QZone, Carlisle for providing support to the event and for ensuring the tables were of the highest standard possible.
Results
Prelim
- L Fernández (Kendal) 4-0 M Tunstall (Workington)
- M Nixon (Carlisle) 4-3 P Cowing (Carlisle)
- G Edwards (Barrow) 4-3 S Jackson (Workington)
- A Mitchelhill (Cockermouth) 4-3 A Oates (Carlisle)
- K Basnett (Workington) 4-0 R Woods (Carlisle)
- M Griffiths (Carlisle) 4-1 C Forrester (Carlisle)
- P Wright (Carlisle) 4-0 J Metcalfe (Carlisle)
Last 16
- L Fernández 4-0 M Gowing (Carlisle)
- M Nixon 4-3 P O’Hagan (Workington)
- D Macdonald (Barrow) 4-1 G Edwards
- K Brown 4-3 A Mitchelhill (Cockermouth)
- K Basnett 4-0 G Carruthers (Carlisle)
- A Milliard (Kendal) 4-2 M Griffiths
- P Wright 4-2 (110 break) M Lancaster (Carlisle)
- K Kirkham (Maryport) 4-2 M Tatton (Workington)
Quarter finals
- L Fernández 4-3 M Nixon
- D Macdonald 4-2 K Brown
- A Milliard 4-3 K Basnett
- K Kirkham 4-3 P Wright
Semi finals
- D Macdonald 4-3 (112 break) L Fernández
- A Milliard 4-2 K Kirkham
Final
- A Milliard 5-3 D Mcdonald
Frame scores: 76-5, 49-71, 67-47, 17-74 (Macdonald 61 break), 62-70, 63-1, 66-48, 50-18 & 57-41.
