In the Final, played on May 30th, we had two contenders who had already won various trophies in the past, suggesting this would be a tight contest for the Crosby Shield Handicap Snooker competition.
Ian Thomas had a 24 points head start on last year’s winner, Ryan Cairney going into the two consecutive frames match.
As is quite common for finals, the match began somewhat slowly with no pots, while both players carefully tried to not give anything away.
As the frame progressed, Ian potted a number of colours and with a few deliberate and some fluky snookers, slowly pulled ahead of Ryan increasing his lead to 42 points by the end of the first frame. Leaving the final frame appear to become a relatively one side contest as Ryan seemed unable to really get into a point scoring mode.
But in frame two, Ryan gradually started potting reds with colours, in breaks in the low tens. So, as the frame progressed Ian’s lead diminish until all the reds were gone.
With only the coloured balls left in play, Ian was still leading, and both players were even more cautious not to make a fatal mistake. Resulting in lots of safety play, with colours and the cue ball sent up and down the table trying not to give the opponent any chance of an easy pot.
Eventually with only Blue, Pink and Black balls left on the table, Ian potted the Blue and pulled to 20 points ahead of his opponent.
At this stage Ryan conceded and congratulated Ian on his victory. The final score being 116:96.
Congratulations to Ian Thomas and well done Ryan Cairney for a making it such a well contested finals match.
Thanks also go to all the other members who competed.
