Week four of the Derwent Valley Asbestos Removals individual league saw the Division 1 title race heat up as Peter O’Hagan’s victory over Andrew Mitchelhill saw him draw level with league leaders Kevin Basnett and Ryan Ismay.
Mitchelhill begun quickly producing a 31 break on his first visit to the table and initially looked the favourite to take the opener.
O’Hagan closed the gap slightly and needed to clear the table with 22 points remaining.
A safety error from Mitchelhill gave O’Hagan the slight chance he needed and an excellent long Brown was the perfect setup to clear and take the opener against the odds.
Buoyed with confidence, O’Hagan begun the first frame strongly with a 39 break, which proved enough to extend his lead to 2-0.
Mitchelhill hit back in the third and a break of 35 along with a couple of breaks in the 20s led to a convincing frame win to reduce the arrears.
The fourth frame was the least fluent of the match so far, but it was O’Hagan who made the best of the scoring opportunities to ensure match victory. A superb long pot lead to a opening break of 34 from O’Hagan in the final frame.
Mitchelhill attempted to get a foothold with a good safety, but O’Hagan delivered another excellent opening long pot to set up a closing break of 59, and complete a 4-1 match.
Mark Tunstall continued to cement his mid-table position with a close fought 3-2 victory over Dave Chapman.
A well crafted break of 32 was enough to secure the first frame for Tunstall.
Chapman immediately countered with some fine potting of his own to level the match. Tunstall was able to grasp the momentum again in the third with some assured scoring of his own and re-established the lead.
Chapman demonstrated his resilience, levelling the match again and force the match into a deciding frame. With the momentum swinging to and fro, it was inevitable that the decider would be a tense affair.
In Division 2, Stephen Jackson maintained his perfect league record with a 3-2 win over debutant Paul Smith.
Smith made a promising start, with some steady play, to earn an early match lead. However, Jackson responded in kind, to bring the match level.
The third proved to be the most competitive frame of the match ending with a decisive black ball finish. Ultimately it was Jackson who was able to forge a chance to move into a 2-1 match lead.
Buoyed with confidence, Jackson found some of his best form delivering breaks of 30 and 32 to secure overall victory.
Smith proved his resilience to take a consolatory final frame and deny Jackson the opportunity to extend his lead at the top of Division 1 further.
Adam Sowden won a mid-table battle over Stephen Harrison in another close match. Sowden made a typical quick start taking the opener.
Harrison settled into the match in the second and as both traded chances the frame came to a final black conclusion, which Harrison despatched to draw level.
Harrison maintained the momentum to comfortably take the third and move within a frame of victory at 2-1.
Sowden battled hard to regain the momentum and restore parity in the match at 2-2.
Inevitably, the final frame became a scrappy encounter with neither player able to establish a telling advantage, such that victory hung in the balance with only the colours remaining. It was Sowden who managed to hold his rhythm to complete the mini comeback and earn his first victory of the campaign.
