Crawley falls at final hurdle

THE final of the last competition of the season in the Ballymena and District Snooker league took place on Friday night.

The Open Individual , the only competition in the league to be played without handicaps, saw Minnesota A captain David McClintock defeat Dunloy United player Martin Crawley by four frames to one.

The opening frame started slowly with Martin being very unlucky not to have a pot on an easy red having opened the pack off the black ball.

The Dunloy man played what must have looked to him a good safety shot leaving the cue ball in the baulk area. David weighed up his options and then potted a great red to the corner pocket with the white finishing perfect on the black. What followed was a great display of cue ball control as David picked off red after red with high value colours.

With two reds to go the break stood at 70 and a long red again to the corner gave David a chance of a century break. He took the pink with the penultimate red but had no angle to cannon the last red from the side cushion.

The only chance to keep the break going was a shot at a double and David duly made the shot to a middle pocket and had to settle for rolling the black to the corner pocket having finished too straight on it to get close to the yellow.

A great pot on the yellow sent the cue ball in and out of baulk and down between blue and pink and back up the table before stopping in perfect position on the green. Now back in prime position David made no mistake in clearing the rest of the colours for a brilliant 112 clearance consisting of 11 reds, 8 blacks, 3 pinks and the 6 colours.

The second frame was somewhat less spectacular as David forged an early 20 point advantage. Martin began to hit back and several nice pots allied to some good safety play saw him edge in front by a couple of points at the final red.

David, however, produced a good snooker of his own and when Martin failed to escape from the snooker the Minnesota man seized his chance. A pot on the red ball was followed by the brown then yellow green brown and blue as David moved 21 points ahead with only pink and black remaining. Martin was again unlucky when he potted the pink in attempting a snooker to present David with the second frame.

In the third frame Martin made the early running and some steady potting helped him to establish a 10 points cushion with 4 reds left as David struggled in a frame for the first time in the match. David clawed his way back into the frame and when he took the last red the frame seemed to be his for the taking.

However, considering how well he had been cueing he missed for him a relatively easy pink to the centre pocket. Martin needed no second opportunity to get back into the match and yellow to blue saw him open up a 16 point advantage and when David failed to hide the pink a good pot to the corner pocket saw the popular Dunloy man reduce his deficit to only one frame.

The fourth frame was looking like being the scrappiest frame of the evening with David holding a 4 point lead with 6 reds left. Then a poor safety shot from Martin opened up the remaining reds for David to step in with a 37 break to extend his lead to 45 points with only one red left. Martin took the final red with a black to keep his slim hopes of winning the frame alive but when David potted the yellow and snookered his opponent on the green the Ballymena man was a frame away from winning the Individual trophy.

The fifth frame saw Martin gradually take control and with a couple of reds left he held a 23 point lead. A red and pink extended Martins lead to 30 and when David potted the final red but failed to take a colour it appeared that the Dunloy man had closed the gap to one frame again. Despite taking the baulk colours David still needed a snooker on the blue.

Martin’s attempted safety shot however saw the white disappear into the yellow pocket and David stepped in to mop up the colours and add his name to the list of winners of the Individual Open trophy.