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Telford A failed in their attempt to regain the West Midland
Inter-Town title when they were beaten 6-1 by a strong Wolverhampton
A side at Club Dudley last week.
Telford will now have to wait at least another year to lift
the coveted trophy which they last won five years ago in 1997.
And the league's representative side were always going to
have a fight on their hands with their opponents fielding
two professionals and a former English Amateur Champion and
they soon found themselves trailing by three frames to one
after the opening four games.
Wolverhampton's Rob Mills set off with an early 39 break
before taking the first frame from Ian Duffy with a 28 break
to the pink. With Ian's Hills Lane team-mate Shaun Harris
unavailable Broseley's Richie Hulme was called in as a last
minute replacement and although he battled hard he was unable
to make any headway against professional Darryn Walker who
took the frame 67-13 to put Wolverhampton two frames up.
Matthew Davies was a member of the Telford team last to lift
the trophy, but these days the former English Amateur Champion
represents the town just down the M6 - and although he put
the Wolves 3-0 up his frame against Neil Price was anything
but one-way traffic.
Neil unluckily found himself snookered on the brown after
a fine pot on the green, leaving Matthew the opportunity he
needed to put Wolverhampton well and truly in the driving
seat.
Meanwhile Neil's brother Keith, who has had a fine season
this term, being runner-up in the individual only the previous
week, secured Telford's only point of the final when he played
superbly to deny former Midland Individual runner-up Kevin
Uzzell by 77 points to 38.
Kevin required several snookers with two reds remaining -
but fought valiantly to force his way back into the contest,
only giving up when he forced the last red off the table,
leaving Telford requiring each of the remaining three frames
to win the match.
However their hopes soon faded as captain Steve Fletcher
missed two good early opportunities allowing Lee Payne to
wrap things up with a 38 break and a run of 50 up to the pink
to ensure the cup went southwards.
Steve's Bayley compatriot Martin Watkins produced a fine
display against Wolverhampton professional Andrew Highfield
as he fought his way back from 40 points down with some superb
long potting and safety play only to unluckily lose out on
the green after failing to negotiate a tricky snooker behind
the black.
And Wolverhampton sealed their victory in style when John
Spencer claimed the final frame of the evening with a 47 break
against Little Dawley's Jesse Lowe to leave the final score
6 frames to 1 in their favour.
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