Little Dawley A’s John Bowen won this year’s John Bethell Memorial Trophy at the Sir John Bayley Club last week when he beat Danny Weaver of Anstice by three frames to nil.

The Trophy, which is in memory of one of the Bayley Club’s finest players, is for players who have not previously won a trophy in the league and so both players were keen to make an impression in what would be there only appearance in the final.

Frame one looked to be going Danny's way but some late safety play by his opponent earned him the opportunity he needed on the colours and John took the frame on the pink 63-49.

There was then a slight delay before the next frame began due to a somewhat comical incident.

When referee Nev Whitehead came to rack the balls there appeared to be only fourteen reds accounted for. After players and spectators spent the next ten minutes checking pockets and searching under the table the last red was eventually found wedged underneath in the hollow of the triangle.

After wiping the egg from his face Nev resumed the play and once again it was John's safety play that saw him through the second frame. If after potting a red there was no easy colour to take on John would snooker his opponent – a tactic which proved quite profitable as Danny had little luck in his attempted replies.

Having secured the all-important second frame on the brown 56-28 the Little Dawley man put together some useful breaks and a 24 and 38 in the next which proved enough to see him through to a 72-14 victory and ensured it would be his name that became the 21st to be engraved on the coveted trophy.

STEVE FLETCHER    

Steve.Fletcher@telfordsnooker.com

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