Workington’s Peter O’Hagan and Flimby’s Kevin Kirkham are the new Cumbria County Doubles Snooker champions after a thrilling day’s play at Carlisle’s QZone.
It had culminated in an impressive 4-0 final win against defending champions Kevin Basnett and Andrew Mitchelhill.
The QZone-sponsored event saw the new partnership of O’Hagan and Kirkham click almost immediately and with a series of confident performances they romped to the title in a thoroughly deserved fashion.
The final scoreline gave a one-sided impression, however, with a series of comebacks the new champions took the sting out of the defending champions’ tails to land the trophy.
In the first frame an early break of 39 by Workington’s Basnett grasped early control of the match but with some superb tactical play, followed by a series of fine pots, it was O’Hagan and Kirkham who took it 67-45.
Frame two started in similar fashion but this time it was Mitchelhill who was in among the balls and with a break of 32 another nice lead was achieved. However back came the new partnership again and in grinding out the points they required they finished the frame as 62-53 victors for a 2-0 lead.
Not to be deterred by the scoreline Basnett and Cockermouth’s Mitchelhill dug deep and with some smaller contributions another advantage was gained.
O’Hagan and Kirkham were now looking more confident than ever and with a cool break of 41 O’Hagan steered his partnership towards a 58-49 victory and a crucial 3-0 match lead.
Frame four was now the point of no return for the defending champions as they battled to stay in the match, and with the balls not best placed O’Hagan was in again.
As each pot went in O’Hagan seemed to grow in stature and before Basnett and Mitchelhill had time to contemplate their next move O’Hagan had cleared the table with a simply brilliant break of 73 to take the frame 102-20, match and title to the delight of Kirkham and their West Cumbrian support.
In the first of the semi-finals O’Hagan and Kirkham supplemented each other brilliantly as some fine safety play galvanised with some superb potting was more than enough to take them through 4-2 against 2019 champions in Carlisle’s ‘s Robert Barbour and Mike Griffiths.
The other semi-final saw Basnett and Mitchelhill produce a tactical masterclass to defeat fellow West Cumbrians Richard Kirkham and Paul Vickers 4-1.
The event also saw a plate competition held for all first match losers with Carlisle’s Mike Nixon and Paul Wright presiding over Workington’s Steve Garroway and Mark Tatton in a thrilling 4-3 victory.
Thanks to Martyn Gowing of the QZone, Carlisle, for providing an excellent venue.
Results
Quarter-finals
- Griffiths (Carlisle) & Barbour (Carlisle) beat Wood (Carlisle) & Lancaster, 4-0.
- P O’Hagan (Workington) & K Kirkham (Flimby) beat Cowing (Carlisle) & Sloane (Carlisle), 4-2.
- Basnett (Workington) & Mitchelhill (Cockermouth) beat Nixon (Carlisle) and Wright (Carlisle), 4-3.
- Vickers (Flimby) and R Kirkham (Whitehaven) beat Garroway (Workington) & Tatton (Workington), 4-2.
Semi-finals
- P O’Hagan & K Kirkham beat Griffiths & Barbour, 4-2.
- Basnett & Mitchelhill beat Vickers & R Kirkham, 4-1
Final
- P O’Hagan & K Kirkham beat Basnett & Mitchelhill, 4-0. Frame scores: 67-45, 72-53, 58-49, 102 (73 break P O’H)-20
Plate final
- Nixon & Wright beat Garroway & Wright, 4-3
