This week has seen the conclusion of this season’s action in the Carlisle and District Snooker League.
The Division One and Two titles were confirmed a couple of weeks ago with Qzone and SECC C winning their respective divisions.
There was the final relegation place from Division One still to confirm, but Tuesday night was all about discovering who would finish runners-up in Division Two to clinch the final promotion spot.
The Division Two promotion permutations were endless with five teams vying for the final promotion place.
In pole position were SECC holding a two point advantage over most of their rivals but knowing only a convincing win would guarantee promotion, meanwhile Qzone Originals would need nothing less than a convincing win away at the Conservative Club to snatch the second place.
Leading SECC off was Stuart Telford, who hit a little purple patch mid-frame and held the advantage against Jamie Corson from SECC D, who fouled on the final pink to hand the frame to SECC 47-28.
At the same time in the Cons Club, Matt Lowrie was in top form for Qzone Originals as he won a high scoring frame against Paul Watson 61-38.
Andy Foster up next against Archie Walker in the South End Club. Again, a mid-frame purple patch put Andy in charge. A late comeback by Archie faltered on the blue. 53-32 and a 2-0 lead to SECC.
Over at the Cons Club, Dan Sanderson was making it 2-0 for Qzone as well, when he beat Andy Butcher 58-35 in a game that was close until it got to the colours, where Dan got them to secure the much-needed win.
Martin Milner for SECC overwhelmed Carl Short 59-9 in the 3rd frame of the South End derby match to clinch the tie to give them a 3-0 lead on the night.
Kenny Alecock was in action for Qzone Originals against Peter Day in their third frame of the night.
Both players have had many close matches over the years, and it was no different on Tuesday. This time Peter came out on top 52-36, which made the score 2-1, which gave SECC some daylight in the promotion push.
Back in the South End Club, Harry Ruddick was constantly pegged back by Dan Blenkinsopp for SECC D and the frame went down to the black which was narrowly missed by both players until Dan slotted a simple pot to win 48-35 to make the score 3-1 on the night.
Peter Lowrie then made it 3-1 to Qzone Originals at the Cons Club as well, when he beat David Dixon 48-34. Another close game that needed Peter to pot the colours to win the frame.
In the final frame of the night at the Cons Club, Gordon Berry needed to win for Qzone, which would give them a 4-1 on the night (plus two bonus points for an away win) and hope that Jack Bowman could beat SECC’s Mark Taylor.
That score would mean a play-off would be needed to decide the promotion place. Gordon duly won his game against Ray Middlemore. He showed no signs of nerves to race clear mid frame and won comfortably 48-19. Final result on the night 6-1 to Qzone Originals.
So it was all down to the final frame in the South end Club between Mark and Jack.
Mark raced out to a 30-point lead over Jack Bowman before making several mistakes leaving the frame in the balance coming to the final blue.
An easy blue and the pink over a corner bag helped Mark run out 54-26. This won SECC the match 4-1 plus the one point bonus for winning at home (5-1 in total). So SECC were confirmed in second place for the season by just that one point.
In the Division One relegation battle SECC A had to match or better whatever result RAOB A achieved, and they did that comfortably as RAOB were beaten at home by DH Qzone 4-1, whilst SECC A won 3-2 away from home at The Rock A.
So the South End Club will once again play in Division One next season and RAOB A will return to Division Two, along with The Rock A.
With the snooker league season now completed, in the next few weeks the players that are left in the individual competitions will be concentrating on the semi-finals and finals that still have to be played before the end of May.
