Workington’s Station Road Club pairing of Tom Thompson and Darren Lawson (+26 handicap) have claimed the L&L Property Contractors Snooker League Doubles Handicap Trophy.
They landed the silverware with an impressive 4-1 victory over Workington Golf Club A’s Mark Cowen and Phil Sorfleet (+19).
The final, hosted by Whitehaven’s Rack Shack, couldn’t have started in more dramatic fashion as fine safety shot left Sorfleet in a tricky situation.
Attempting to play a thin safety return Sorfleet missed the red altogether and after another failed attempt the three miss rule was now in force.
All may have expected change of plan for the golf club cueist with a potential lloss of frame in front of him but in trying the same shot again this unfortunately resulted in the same outcome as the third miss saw the frame go to the Station Road duo with nearly all the reds left on the table.
Frame two begun with some great potting from Thompson as the Station Road team built up a healthy 30 point lead.
As just two reds stood something special was required if the Golf Club paring were to get back in the frame.
Putting the first frame behind him Sorfleet found his form, and in taking the last two reds with colours followed by yellow, green, brown, blue and pink a winning clearance looked to be the order of the day.
Unfortunately as the pink was deposited a clip on the black sent it unfortunately to the side cushion.
A couple of safety shots later left Lawson with what looked like a routine safety but seeing the opportunity to extend their match lead the Station Road player produced one of the shots of the night as the black flew into the bottom corner pocket for a 61-52 victory.
At 2-0 to Station Road a good start was needed for the Golf Club duo but with Thompson and Lawson quick out of the traps again another 30 point lead was constructed.
A safety battle developed and with Cowen and Sorfleet trying their hardest to craft an opportunity a chance finally presented itself. Another golf club points deficit overhaul looked on, however as a pot on the last red resulted in a missed black Lawson seized the chance to close out the frame 54-18 for a 3-0 match scoreline.
A short interval gave the Golf Club pair time to reflect and as the fourth frame started both players looked invigorated.
A cool break of 23 by Sorfleet at last grabbed the early lead the golfers had been searching for, but keen to keep the pressure on Thompson was quick to react with a break of 17 to close the gap.
As a few pots were traded another crucial opening soon arose with the Station Road pairing now seeing the winning line. Down went the brown, followed by the blue and with a mid distance pink at his mercy Lawson looked to be closing out the match.
However a near miss left the golfers with a chance to stay in the match and with a good pot on the pink a black ball game ensued. A tricky shot on the black may have seemed even harder with the scoreline in mind but in wasting no time Cowen duly obliged for a 61-50 Golf Club win.
The fifth frame started cautiously with the Station Road pairing conscious of a potential comeback from their more than capable opponents.
Slowly working the pack of reds open the golfers finally got the balls just where they wanted them. As the white sat near the baulk cushion with the reds spread and the black over the corner pocket the next scoring opportunity had huge significance.
Facing virtually no path back to safety Thompson took the proverbial bull by the horns and with turning point written all over it over the Station Road cueist cooly stroked the long red down the side cushion for perfect position on the black for the shot of the match.
Even though this didn’t yield as many points as Thompson would have liked the upper hand was now gained and in never looking back the Station Road duo pressed home their advantage in confident style to deliver the match and title with a 67-15 win.
