The fifth iteration of the Carlisle and District league merit finals were played in their traditional slots during the presentation night, and they produced some exciting climaxes!
In the billiards final, second division merit champion Mark Beattie received a 37 start against first division merit champion and Glasson winner Paul Cowing.
Beattie was out of the traps very quickly and established a 51-3 lead before Cowing had been given a decent chance to score.
A missed short loser into the middle pocket by Beattie left Cowing with a first opportunity, and the score was reduced to 51-11 before a short jenny into the middle was missed by the smallest of margins by Cowing.
Beattie pushed on from here, belying the handicap and forging into a 88-21 lead with some excellent canons and in-offs in the 100-up match.
Cowing wasn’t done, however, and showed his quality with a nice break, reducing the deficit to 42, but a missed long pot allowed Beattie back to the table.
Beattie found an in-off from Cowing’s white, but the position was not favourable.
Cowing was left nothing, and Beattie was back in straight away for a chance to win the title, with a 10-break required.
Beattie confidently potted two reds and Cowing’s cueball and appeared to have perfect position to pot the red required to win, only to put the red onto the jaws of the pocket.
Cowing came roaring back and got himself to 89 with a couple of nerve-jangling visits, knowing any mistake could be his last, and left himself a tricky decision, a tough screw in-off into the yellow pocket or a tough safety.
An amazing safety was hit, sending the ball off four cushions around the table to lay a double baulk on Beattie.
Some protracted safety followed to see Cowing now needing only 7 to win after penalty points were applied, and he duly delivered, playing a lovely five shot including a long-range canon and an in-off with the extended rest to seal the title and prize money.
The snooker merit final was an equally close affair, the committee doing some sterling work on the handicaps!
Second division merit champion Neil Walby received a 41 head start from first division champion Mike Griffiths, and a scrappy start saw some quality safety and the odd missed positional shot from both players. Indeed the score was still at 41-1 after ten minutes!
Griffiths clawed some of the advantage back with a few reds and blacks, but with all the safety play the balls were not in a favourable position for breaks, but the small breaks added up and the score was 41-47 to Walby with five reds remaining.
Crucially three reds, the black, blue and yellow were all on cushions.
Walby found his potting boots and extended the lead to 41-57, and then Griffiths potted the penultimate red and followed with the blue.
However, attempting to move the white all around the table went in-off, leaving the final red over the hole and Walby now 16 to the good.
The red was potted by Walby but the follow up blue was narrowly missed.
Griffiths sank a fantastic yellow down the cushion and potted the green and brown to reduce the arrears, but missed a doubled blue into the middle pocket.
Walby sank an amazing long blue to go 13 ahead with 13 remaining on the table, but didn’t achieve position on the pink, narrowly missing a long pot into the yellow pocket for the title.
Griffiths came to the table and sank the long pink, but flicked the wrong side of the black attempting to canon it off the cushion.
However Griffiths rolled the black in down the length of the cushion to force a respot in front of a 41-strong audience.
Griffiths won the toss and elected Walby to play the initial shot. Walby tried the up and down the spots safety, and left the black slightly short, near the brown spot.
Griffiths’ first attempt was well wide, and indeed the white nearly sailed into the middle pocket, but the black was missed on the thin side and went safe.
Walby played a safety shot and left Griffiths with a long black into the bottom pocket, which he duly floated in to secure the merit title.
The league thanked everyone who attended the presentation night and finals, all the players, sponsors Peter Tyson and Woodpecker Kitchens and Bathrooms and the venues that have supported the events over the last 12 months – Spencer Street Social Club, Ex-Servicemen’s, Southend, The RAOB club and Upperby Social Club.T
