Gutted, humiliated, shocked. Just some of the Hadley lads' reactions to last nights defeat to the Bayley Q boys in their semi final match, such was their expectation of reaching their first (& probably their last) final. The evening started just as we hoped, with the draw panning out exactly to plan, however, Steve Weatherall put paid to any hopes we had of getting off to a good start by stuffing Ken Booty by 27 points, thus wiping out our handicap. Dan Francis then played an admiral draw against Chris Fletcher, justifying his inclusion into the team. Expectations were high as Kev Whitehead was next on against Chris Bates, however, only winning by 7 points was hardly the result we were hoping for.

Next on was Tugboat , drawn against Richard Tranter & true to form got dicked by 33 points, leaving the, by now ratted, Iain Atkinson to try & make up a 28 point deficit, and again true to form, he struggled! So, out of the cup, we can now concentrate on the league! However with games running out our chances of clinching the title look rather remote. Congratulations to the Bayley boys and we wish them all the best in the final, The Hadley boys decided to drown their sorrows with a few more beers (and a Chinese for a change).

In the other semi final of the Consolation Cup, division 3 leaders Dawley Social took on Little Dawley A from division one, with a handicap lead of 130 to the division three team. Things couldn’t have started any better for them, Kev jones taking on S Russell with a superb potting performance, knocking in shots from all angles of the table and leaving his opponent struggling to stay in the frame. Stuart did well to come back with some good pots of his own, but it was Kev who took the frame to extend his sides lead. In frame two B Mitchell faced I Ward, and this time it was the Little Dawley player who was in fine form, knocking in 20 and 30 plus breaks, and then making a 45 clearance with the remaining balls to pull 104 points back.

In frame three, Alex Jones played the league treasurer Darren Pountney, and yet again the LDS player shot out of the blocks with a quick fire 24 with his 1st visit. Young Alex did brilliantly to stay in touch and Daz needed to clear the remaining colours to record a 66-33 victory. In the fourth, Barry Roden took on Jesse Lowe in what was to be a very high scoring frame, both players taking their chances well, and with Jesse holding his nerve to clear the remaining colours to win 83-62.

It left only one point difference on the handicap in favour of Little Dawley going into the last, where Paul Harper took on Lee Elcock, this match started rather tentatively, with both players matching each other with some great safety shots, restricting the players to only small breaks, then with one red remaining and the score 37-19 to Paul, Lee potted a great red only to see the white go in off and hand the initiative to his opponent, then with ball in hand Paul took on the yellow only to see it jaw in the pocket, Lee came back to the table and knocked in the yellow and green, leaving himself awkward on the brown, which he then duly potted and got himself back into position to make a fantastic table clearing 27, to win the frame and the match for the Little Dawley side.

In the main cup matches, last years winners Minnesota Fats progressed through to the final again with a great win of Little Dawley G, and in the other semi final between LDS C and Bayley A, it was the Bayley side who progressed through, even though things didn’t start well with G Walls defeating Spencer Rowley in the first, then in the next 2 frames Chris Morgan-Adams and Steve Fletcher pulled back 150 points between them, with Steve probably still reflecting on his monumental win against N Stallard in the league a few weeks back!

In the fourth frame, Maxwell Hodson took on A Garbett in what turned out to be a tight nervy affair with Maxwell eventually winning by 10 points, leaving Bob Mason to face M Rhodes, with the Bayley side leading by 22 points. Bob never made things for the Little Dawley player, and saw the frame and the match out for the Bayley side.

My huge thanks to all the referees who put themselves out for the evening and to the Coddon, Bayley and Shifnal snooker clubs for letting the league stage our Semi-finals at their respective clubs.

Nigel Stallard

Nigel.Stallard@telfordsnooker.com

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