Matt Locklin won the Division 3 Individual in some style last week to put the icing on the cake after a remarkable season which has seen his side Wellington Billiard Hall C run away with the third division title with Matt himself claiming both the most wins and highest break prizes for this division.

In the final the Billiard Hall youngster defeated another of the league's young stars Ian Eldridge in a high quality match by two frames to one.

The Billiard Hall player, playing on his home tables, took the first frame by 79 points to 13 but Ian, winner of the John Bethell Trophy the week before, wasn't to be outdone as he replied with a 29 break in the next to level the frame scores at one apiece.

But Matt responded brilliantly and posted a 32 break of his own to secure the third frame and the title by 70 points to 29 to complete a remarkable season.

A total of 16 entries turned up at Wellington Billiard Hall and Matt kicked off on his road to the final with a first round win over Billiard Hall F's Rich Tranter by 60 points to 45.

A 67-20 success over John Yapp, conqueror of Dave Cartledge in round 1, soon followed before Matt accounted for Under 21 Champion Darren Wincott 50-39 in the semi's.

Darren himself looked to be in good shape as he opened the first round with a 31 break to defeat Billiard Hall C captain John Rawlins before scraping home against another home player Mick Birch who had beaten Ian Atkinson in round 1.

The other half of the draw saw Ian Eldridge win through to his second final in as many weeks with a close 57-28 semi-final win over Steve Weatherall having earlier beaten fellow Billiard Hall players Chris Durham (a first round winner over Brendan Wincott) with a 24 break in the quarters, and Alan Francis.

Domino man Brian Aberdeen drew a double blank as he took on Bayley D team-mate Dave Dudley in the opening round but having won that encounter 67-18 Dave was unable to repeat the feat as Steve Weatherall booked his place in the last four at Dave's expense having earlier beaten Chris Fletcher in round 1.

DIVISION 1

Maddocks A captain Dave France reached the final of the Division 1 play offs with a brilliant performance in the semi-final to book his place in next week's final where he will play the League's individual champion for the past two years, Paul Harper.

A disappointing turn out of just 16 players began the competition which was played at Wellington's Sir John Bayley Club last week. However the first round draw threw up some interesting matches with several players from the same teams drawn against each other.

Indeed, Dave France began his journey to the final with victory over fellow Maddocks A player Ian Skelton in the opening round before accounting for the Billiard Hall's Phil Whitby in Round 2.

A nail-biting semi-final soon followed with Keith Price opening up an early 37 point lead only for Dave to battle his way back to pot blue and pink to complete a fine comeback.

Keith had started the competition with a comfortable first round win over Bayley A captain Steve Fletcher and followed up by knocking out the only other home player in the field, Chris Morgan-Adams to book his place in the semi's.

Despite an early break of 38 Chris Morgan-Adams almost fell at the first hurdle as Adrian Barraclough fought his way back only for the Bayley man to double the pink into a corner pocket to progress to the next round.

The only other first round game in the top half of the draw saw Phil Whitby outpoint his Billiard Hall team-mate Steve Minshall before falling to Dave France in the next round.

The bottom half of the draw saw Paul Harper move into the final to complement his fine season in the league where he was undefeated all season.

However, he came close to losing out this time as he took on his doubles winning partner Spencer Rowley in the first round clash of the day.

Paul took an early lead only for Spencer to claw his way back and things seemed to be going Spencer's way as a brilliant cocked hat double on the brown left him requiring just one of the last three balls for a famous victory.

However, an attempted double saw the blue hit the knuckle of the middle pocket and when he went in off a few shots later Paul stepped up to clear blue, pink and black for the narrowest of wins.

Nick Oakley's win over Shifnal's Fred Harper secured a second round tie against Paul and despite a brave effort it was the Billiard Hall captain who progressed to the semi-final where Neil Price suffered the same fate as his brother Keith as Paul completed his third win of the evening to move into the final.

Neil had earlier accounted for Leigh France in round 1 before a close quarter-final went his way after his opponent Graham Darrall, having beaten Maddocks Phil Davis in the first round, ran out of position on the final pink allowing Neil the opportunity to pot the penultimate ball for a place in the semis.

DIVISION 2

A starting field of 23 was whittled down to just 6 as the Second division play-offs took place at Shifnal War Memorial Club.

The highlight of the first round was a brilliant 39 break from Hadley A's Andy O'Brien as he defeated Pot Black's Mike Thompson and he started his next match well too as he opened up a 25 point lead on Shifnal's Arron Sparkes.

However, Arron's new red chalk, obtained from the Crucible the previous week, worked wonders as he fought his way back to force an exciting conclusion by potting an excellent pink and screwing back the length of the table for position on the final black to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

In the quarter-final, to be played next week, Arron will play John Bethell Trophy runner-up Jim Lewis.

In the other remaining quarter-final, Wellington Billiard Hall's Ray Evans will play Pot Black's Tony Hall who fought his way through to the last eight after an excellent first round win over Hadley's Steve Hoof.

Indeed Hadley, the Division 2 Champions, have just one player left in the competition after Ali Jones battled his way past Newport players Ivor Hellyar and Colin Farge to reach the last four.

The other man to reach the semi-final stage is Jeff Sparkes who followed first round success over Paul Crookes by defeating two of Bayley C's hopefuls in the shape of Ian Johnson and Mick Healey, who himself had a fine first round win when he accounted for Newport's Welsh Wizard Paul Jones.

STEVE FLETCHER 

Steve.Fletcher@telfordsnooker.com

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