Galaxy over the moon with cup win

AS the season draws to a close in the Ballymena and District Snooker League, the final of the Gerard Robb Memorial trophy was played last week.

Appropriately, the teams contesting the final were Gerard's old team Dunloy United and Dunloy Galaxy, a youthful side who, although too young to remember Gerard playing, would have been aware of how influential and well respected the Dunloy stalwart was both in the north Antrim club and around the league in general.

The final itself turned out to be a surprisingly one sided event with Galaxy recording a 5-0 win to add the Gerard Robb Memorial to the Robert McFall Memorial trophy they won last season.

Dunloy United were again left to reflect on another disappointing performance in a final having succumbed to Minnesota A by a similar score in last year's Charity Shield final.

The first match saw Galaxys Bobby Darragh take on Cathoir Cunning. Bobby was into his stride straight from Cathoir's opening break off and a couple of reds with blacks on his opening visit helped the Galaxy player to an early advantage.

Bobby had stretched his lead to 24 points with two reds left and although Cathoir potted the two reds he failed to add a colour to either and found himself needing the remaining six colours to win the frame.

Cathoir potted the yellow but his opponent took the green and when the United man failed with an attempted snooker on the brown a clearance from brown to pink by Bobby put the Galaxy one frame up.

The second frame followed a similar pattern only this time Bobby secured the last two reds with a blue and a black to go 27 ahead and only 27 points remaining. Cathoir potted yellow, green and brown to keep his hopes alive in the frame but his failure to leave the blue safe allowed Bobby to take blue and pink and put his side into a 2-0 lead.

On the other table United's Brendan McTaggart was battling against talented Galaxy player Miceal Murphy.

Brendan made the early running and produced several good pots on reds but unfortunately on each occasion he was unable to add a colour.

Miceal's first half-chance when in among the reds saw him lose position on the black after his initial red. Undaunted he conjured up a cracking pot taking the pink into the yellow pocket on his way to compiling a nice 30 break which allowed him to take control of the frame.

Brendan trailed by 38 points with just the colours remaining and although he left a great snooker on the yellow, Miceal replied with a nice two cushion escape. Brendan then fouled the pink and was forced to concede the frame and left his side trailing by three frames to nil.

The second frame was a much more even contest until the midpoint at which stage Brendan started to pull away from his opponent. Brendan led by 19 points at the colours and although Miceal potted yellow and green, the United man was still a firm favourite to take the frame and bring Dunloy United back into the match.

A loose safety shot on the brown by Brendan opened the door for Miceal and he stormed back to clear brown, blue, pink and black to nick the frame and left Dunloy Galaxy with one hand on the trophy.

United captain Michael Crilly attempted to kickstart his teams recovery against Galaxy’s Paul McQuillan.

Michael opted for a safety first approach in an attempt to force errors from his more attackingly minded young opponent and even though his tactics worked fairly well, a couple of timely flukes helped Paul to maintain his initial starting advantage.

Paul still held a fairly comfortable 14 points lead at the brown as the Galaxy side, who have improved greatly from their debut season when they failed to win a single game, closed in on the trophy.

Michael potted the brown and used his experience to win a long safety battle on the blue and keep the pressure on Paul. However a fine cut on the pink to the yellow pocket by Paul secured the victory and ensured the Gerard Robb Memorial trophy would stay in the Dunloy clubrooms following the success of Dunloy Cowboys in the same competition last year.

Galaxy reached the final with a 5-2 success against Rafters Aces in the semi final and Dunloy United recorded a good 5-2 victory over 147 Rockets in the other semi final.

The last Individual competition of the season is scheduled to begin on Monday, May 10, with the final to be played on Friday, May 14. This is a NON handicap competition.