Last night saw the semi-finals of the Team KO in the Carlisle and District Snooker League, with both taking place in the RAOB Club.
Sponsored by Woodpecker Kitchens and Bathrooms, the matches were between The Rock and Ex Servicemen’s Club C on Table 2 and a derby match between SECC A & SECC D on Table 1.
The Ex C and SECC D both received 75pts start in the handicap, over the five frames each for this competition. The snooker room was almost standing room only with around 40 people watching both games and they were in for an entertaining and tension-filled evening.
The opening frame between The Rock and Ex C saw Paul Cowing play David Sanderson with Paul in imperious form on an unfamiliar table.
He had a 34 break and a couple of teen breaks and when he missed or played a safety shot, Dave was unable to respond. Paul won the frame 96-11, which turned around the 75pt deficit to a 10 point lead.
Next up were Mark Ballantyne and Dave Turley. In a tense frame both players missed opportunities to score heavily and it was nip and tuck until they reached the colours.
Mark was able to take the high value colours and the frame 69-39, to stretch The Rock’s lead to 40 points.
In frame three Stephen Little played Stuart Styth in a game that was very similar to the opening frame. Early on, both players played tight safety, but the chances only really fell to Stephen for The Rock. He potted the last two reds with colours and then the last six colours to win the frame 73-10, which put The Rock in front by just over 100 points.
Frame four saw Andy Bell win the first frame of the evening for the Ex Club when he beat Lawrence Swan. Both players took time to adjust to the table, and the frame swung in Andy’s favour with a couple of really good snookers with a couple of reds left. This allowed him to have enough points to win the frame 60-51.
The final frame was between Mally Lancaster and Rob Woods. It was always going to be tough for Rob to win the frame by 90 or so points. So it proved, as Mally won the frame 48-31. The Rock won the match 337-226 and advanced to the final.
The other semi-final proved to be a really dramatic and tense affair that didn’t finish until after 11.30pm,
SECC A had a 75-point deficit to overcome and their team tactics for the night were to attempt to keep everything as tight as possible to try and restrict the D team from scoring any big frame scores.
Frame one was between Keith Graham for the ‘A’ team and Carl Short for the ‘D’ team. Carl started off very well, potting a couple of nice reds with colours early on, but the frame swung to Keith mid-frame with a good snooker that had Carl in trouble and he then potted the high value colours to win the frame 51-35.
Frame two saw Archie Walker play John Yeomans. This frame was all about Archie’s potting and positional play. After a quick start from John which gave him a 20 point lead, Archie started potting some lovely reds with pinks and blues. A couple of 18 breaks and all the high value colours saw him take the frame 88-35.
Frame three saw Mick Miller use all of his match-play experience against Dan Blenkinsopp. Dan started off well and the frame score was even until the colours, but that’s when the tide turned.
Dan was in a Chinese snooker and was badly hampered when trying to hit the brown (which was close to the pink). Unfortunately, due to the miss rule he had three attempts and each time he hit the pink rather than the brown. This cost him the frame as Mick won 77-28.
Frame four was between Martin Goodhead and Jim O’Donnell. This frame was all about potting rather than safety play.
Martin took an early lead, which Jim pegged back, and then took a ten point lead going into the colours. Jim missed a chance on the green and Martin pounced to pot the remaining colours and take the frame 71-42.
Before the final frame, the score totals were added up and SECC D had a 34 point lead over the club rivals.
The final frame was between the two captains Phil Wall and Jack Bowman and clearly neither player wanted to make the first mistake.
So there was a lot of safety play and all the colours went into very difficult areas of the table to score from. Scores were pretty even until there was only one red left on the table.
Phil was able to play a very good, and impossible looking, snooker to get out of, which helped him gain some foul points and then he potted up to the pink which put him 41 points in front.
If he potted the black, his ‘A’ team would win the match, if Jack potted it for the ‘D’ team it would mean a draw. Each player had three or four attempts to try and pot it and in the end it was Jack who knocked it into the yellow pocket.
So with the match drawn, the rules for this competition are a ‘Black Ball Shoot Out’. Each team had to nominate three players to play a black ball match and the team to win two of these would advance to the final.
First up was Carl Short against Martin Goodhead. Neither player wanted to miss, so after ten minutes of safety, the first chance came to Martin and he took it with a thin cut into the middle pocket.
The second match was once again between the two captains, Phil and Jack. Just like the first shoot-out, neither player wanted to risk going for it and missing, so safety was always the first option.
Eventually Phil left a half-chance to Jack. It was a difficult long-shot down the cushion along the length of the table. It hit the jaws of the pocket and to the groans of the crowd, the black rattled and stayed in the jaws around six inches from the pocket.
This left a chance for Phil and he was able to take it and put SECC A through to the final next month in Qzone.
It was an exciting way to finish an extremely close match, which for sure will be discussed between both teams for years to come.
