PHOTOS:
The victorious Saundersfoot Sports Club team
The unlucky Balfour A team
The Manchester Club A team were presented with their trophies for being Eddies’ Snooker League division one champions
Saundersfoot Sports Club won the Jimmy Allen Snooker Cup for the second year running in sensational fashion last Monday when Dai Wooles potted the black in the final frame to clinch victory.
The Sports Club’s opponents were the Balfour Club and the competition format was two frames of singles and two frames of doubles decided on aggregate scores.
Played at the Waterloo Club, the first frame saw Glyn Thomas (S’Foot) take on Alan Griffiths, and Thomas took an early lead against a distinctly out-of-touch Griffiths and then pressed home his advantage with a couple of small breaks to ran out a comfortable winner by 41 points.
Different story
It was a different story in the next frame when Balfour pair Terry McBride and Peter Smiddy were first on the scoreboard against Martin Durham and Darren Morgan and eventually potted really well to run out worthy winners by 46 points.
In the second singles frame Steve Barlow (S’Foot) was in excellent form and at one point was 40-odd points up on Anthony Griffiths. But the Balfour cueist pulled back the deficit and only lost when the pink and black were potted by his opponent.
All to play for
With the Sports Club only 13 points in front, it was all to play for in the last frame, when Mark Cleevely and Dai Wooles (S’Foot) played Raymond Hoare and Simon Pearce.
The Balfour pair took the initiative and a break of 23 by Pearce put them in a commanding position. But the Sports Club rallied and some good potting by Cleevely in particular put them back in the picture.
After potting the early colours, the Sports Club were six points in front with the pink and black on the table. Hoare went in-off the pink, but a few shots later Pearce potted the pink but unbelievably missed a relatively easy black, leaving the ball only inches from the corner pocket. Again the pressure told and Wooles missed the black, but he made up for it a few shots later when he potted the black to give his side a famous victory and retain the cup.