Champions-elect Anstice A kept their hopes of a league and cup double alive when they won a marathon encounter with second division Dawley A to book their place in the final of the Dones Bookmakers Team Knockout last week.

The Madeley side secured a place in the final when at 10-55pm Neil Price took the vital last pink against Dawley's Sean Nolan to win the match by just 10 points thus thwarting the Division 2 leader’s chance of lifting the cup.

In a match where big breaks were few and safety play was the main issue of the evening it always looked like it was destined for a final ball shoot out.

Rick Bailey and Keith Price were first out of the blocks. Rick knowing his team had 110 points in hand started well and looked to be cruising to add to their score but the last colours suddenly became hurdles and Keith fought back to take the frame 59-47.

Mark Jones then reversed that defeat by taking the next frame in excellent style from Noel Stones 59-37 before the pendulum then swung the other way again as Ian Duffy retrieved another 29 points at the expense of Chris Woods 64-35.

Nick Oakley, who is having a brilliant season for the Anstice, then turned the whole match around. His superb potting, coolness and safety play earned him a 93-24 win against Pete Nolan reducing Dawley’s last man lead to just 22 points

Sean Nolan had two good chances to steal the show but misses on pinks cost him dearly and Neil Price drew slowly away. Chances came back on the last four colours for Sean but then Neil coolly potted brown, blue and pink to see Anstice through and win by 320 points to 311 leaving Anstice as the bookies favourite to do the double.

My thanks to referee Nev Whitehead for the report on Anstice’s win.

In the final Anstice will play Shifnal E who made it through to the final at the expense of Broseley A.

The Shifnal boys received 40 points start and soon added to their tally when Aaron Sparkes took the first frame 64-44 from Simon McLeod.

Both players started well, in what proved to be a tight frame all the way through and some superb safety shots were played throughout. But it was Aaron who pulled away with a few good shots at critical moments, only from Simon to come back at him with the remaining colours.

Broseley’s Carl Walker then got off to a flyer in his match with Chris Petford forging into a 31 points to nil lead. Chris then got going and pulled a few points back, before the match turned into a stop and start affair, with both players potting good reds but unable to get position on a colour. However it was the Broseley man who finally took the frame 61-31 to bring his side back into contention.

Shifnal’s star man Matt Davies then set about securing his side’s place in the final against the unlucky Paul Humphries. Matt started well going 30 points up early on, and even though the scoreline might not reflect it, Paul and Matt both played some very good safety shots. Unfortunately for Paul though, the former English Amateur Champion produced a bit of class, his safety shots where awesome, and even though Matt went onto complete a comprehensive victory, Paul himself contributed with some good safety in this match.

In Frame Four all the reds where pushed onto one side of the table, thus inhibiting the chance of any big break, and with the Shifnal side going into this match 118 points up, Dave “The Rock” Peplow only had to keep that margin of points to ensure his side going through to the next round.

And this he did with some snooker shots that literally frustrated his opponent Mick Brezwyn to earn him a 67-44 frame winning margin to see Shifnal go 141 points in front with just one frame remaining.

The final frame was therefore always going to be an uphill struggle for Broseley’s Richie Hulme as he took on Jeff Sparkes, but the match was played in good spirit and both players potted superbly. But it was Jeff who took the frame by 64 points to 27 to cement his side’s place in the final.

My thanks to Competitions Secretary Nigel Stallard for his report on this match.

League Secretary Alan Turner was on hand to report on his side’s match with Shifnal A as the Consolation Cup also reached the semi-final stage.

Unfortunately for Alan his side were second best on the night and it will be Shifnal who contest the final against Coddon B who overcame Bayley A in the other semi.

In the first frame Andy Kendrick drew Lindsay Knox and at the start both players were missing chances. As the match went on Andy moved into a 19-point lead and eventually produced an excellent clearance from yellow to pink but missed the black ball. Lindsay potted a super black which left Andy giving the Billiard Hall a 32 lead to add to their handicap start of 20.

In the next frame Alex Turnbull played Angus Way and with the aid of a fluke during the match Alex knocked in a good 24 break and was playing really well.

Alex has been a revelation in his first season playing in the first division and it looked like Angus was under pressure but being the class player he his, came back to beat Alex by 19 points.

This was still a good performance by the Wellington side, who after all were only receiving 20 points from a superior team.

The next game produced one of the best performances seen this season when Simon Biddulph beat John Rawlings in remorseless style.

Simon's game was a complete display of good safety and regular potting. In fairness to John, he never had a chance to gain an advantage, and at the end of the frame had nothing but praise for the way Simon played, and that was echoed by all of the Wellington team.

Next up was John Fallows against Graham Darrell, and after gaining a few points start John then produced a good 69 break that left Alan Turner needing a snooker, and a maximum break to clinch victory for Wellington.

Alan snookered Andy Easthope off the break but Andy hit that one! They then both just enjoyed their frame and although Alan won by four points Andy did the honours and bought Alan a drink!

Alan conceded that it had been a smashing match against a nice bunch of lads and expressed his thanks to Rob Whithington and Frank Williams for refereeing and marking the board, in what was their first time of officiating.

In the final Shifnal will play second division Coddon B who comfortably saw off the challenge of division two rivals Bayley A by winning four out of the five frames.

With both teams starting off the same handicap the match was likely to be closely contested although the Donnington side were clearly eager to impose their authority on the match with Simon Yeats opening up an early 30 point lead against Spencer Rowley. The Bayley potter hit back though and could have reduced the deficit to just 14 points had an attempted pot into the middle given him the final black.

As it was Simon duly dispatched the last ball to give Coddon a 28-point advantage.

Chris Morgan-Adam’s attempt to turn the match around for the Bayley looked to be on track when he opened up a 40-point lead against Andy Jones – But a crucial miss on the penultimate red gave Andy the chance he was looking for and he clawed his way back into contention by taking high value colours of the last two reds.

Chris was then happy to pot the blue and pink en-route to a 58-35 win which brought the Bayley right back into contention.

However the Wellington side were not to win another frame on what was to ultimately prove to be a disappointing evening for them.

Mark Wall’s 59-40 defeat of Steve Nicholls increased Coddon’s lead still further and the Donnington side found themselves 29 points up with just one game remaining after a superb performance from Phil Szklarzewicz saw him come from 20 points down to defeat Bayley captain Steve Fletcher on the black.

That left Steve Downs to secure Donnington’s passage to the final with a solid 64-25 victory of Bob Mason who was unable to claim the reward of free drinks for the rest of the season that his captain had offered had he managed to reverse the outcome. Coddon were deserved winners on the night and will prove to be tough opposition for Shifnal in the final.

STEVE FLETCHER    

Steve.Fletcher@telfordsnooker.com

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