The Joe Brisco Cup is the longest running individual snooker competition in Carlisle and dates back many decades.
Last night it was the final of the 2024 competition between Chris Forrester and reigning champion Mike Griffiths and the final in Qzone was the best of seven frames.
The opening frame started off as a tense affair, as both players tried to judge the speed of the table, with neither player willing to play the first risky shot that would open-up the game.
Eventually Mike was left a mid-range red into a corner pocket, which he nailed and it left him in perfect position to get the first break of the night of 34.
This put him in control of the frame. Chris was only able to respond with a couple of nine breaks and Mike was then able to clear the colours to take the opening frame 75-24.
The second frame was the quickest of the night (it just 11 minutes) and was dominated by Mike. His opening break was a 49, only running out of position as he had a 50 break in his grasp. A few minutes later he clinched the frame with 27 and 10 breaks to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Frame three was much closer, as Chris got off to a good start with a 12 break followed immediately by a 17 break which left him in control of the frame.
It went down to the colours and Chris potted the yellow to put him 19 points ahead. The green became the vital ball in the frame, as all the other colours were close to pockets. Chris elected to play a tough green along the cushion into the yellow pocket. Unfortunately, it rattled the jaws and didn’t drop.
This left Mike a chance to snatch the frame. He potted the green and brown, but when potting the blue, he finished on the wrong side of a pink into the middle. So he had a choice to make of just cutting the pink in slowly and taking a 6ft black, or play a forcing shot around fou cushions. He took the first option, took his time on the black and won the frame 50-44 to stretch his lead to 3-0.
Frame four saw Mike start off really well with 20 and 25 breaks. This gave him control of the frame despite an uncharacteristic miss of a red with the rest.
Chris was able to pull a few points back and needed a high value colour off the final red to give him a chance of getting a couple of snookers to keep the match alive.
When potting the red, he couldn’t get on the pink or black, so had to settle to try and lay a difficult snooker behind a baulk colour. He now needed to get three snookers and the colours to win the frame.
To increase his chances, he potted the yellow, green and brown in the hope of getting higher value snookers. Mike didn’t give him the chance to get any, as in his final visit to the table he potted the blue and pink to win the frame 67-31.
Congratulations to Mike on defending the trophy and now he concentrates on the Idris Ramdin Handicap Competition Final on Wednesday night against Dave Midgley.
