The top eight players from the snooker rankings list competed in Isle of Man Billiards and Snooker Association’s inaugural Castle Cabs Grand Prix throughout last week.

All matches were played at the Cue Zone in Ballasalla on the Star table and there was plenty of hard matchplay snooker, with a couple of the contests going on past midnight and to the final black.

In the best-of-nine quarter-finals, Darryl Hill eased through the first with a 5-0 victory over major debutant Marek Kenny.

As predicted the Calum Gardner versus Peter Crellin match went deep, very deep in fact. In a dour struggle, Crellin fought back from 4-2 down to force a decider.

With more than four hours of play behind them, both were running on fumes in a final frame of twists and turns. Crellin led 32-50 but left the final green hanging before Gardner, needing them all, looked like clearing up and landed perfectly on the black, only to unbelievably miss it.

Having left Crellin a similarly easy shot, he conceded the match, but Crellin sportingly refused to accept it - he then also missed the black! Both players went close with tougher chances before Gardner was able to take a simple-looking pot to the yellow bag as the clock approached midnight.

The third quarter-final ended Jamie Wilson 2-5 Peter Kirkham in a match which could easily have been closer. Wilson, one frame to the good, had Kirkham needing a snooker on the blue in the next which he got to level the match.

From 2-2, Kirkham went away and sealed the win with a lovely pink to the centre, cuing from the jaws of the corner.

The last quarter-final between Tom Miller and Chris Dagnall thankfully didn’t require the possible last two frames, ending 5-2 in favour of Miller at 12.40am.

The semi-finals were probably the best games of the tournament. Number one seed Hill prevailed 5-3 after an entertaining battle with Gardner, while league team-mates and old adversaries Miller and Kirkham went all the way in the other semi.

After a valiant fightback from Miller to level from 2-4 down, Kirkham got the snooker he required on the colours of a deciding frame to win 45-46 in another match going into a second day.

The best-of-15 frames final had a couple of firsts. Kirkham was competing in his first two-session match and tournament sponsor Scott Campion of Castle Cabs took charge of his first major final as a referee.

After the first session it was Hill who took a 5-2 lead into the evening, yet the scoreline could quite easily have been the same in Kirkham’s favour, with a couple of missed pinks costing him.

The first frame of the evening session proved to be Kirkham’s last real chance, but at 46-46 a long battle on the brown went Hill’s way. Then in the ninth frame Hill hit the highest break of the event, a classy 67, before wrapping things up in the next for an 8-2 victory.

Frame scores (Hill first): 71-12, 25-56, 16-83, 65-49, 64-45, 62-46, 73-39, 61-46, 95-21 and 65-36.

Congratulations to Hill who dropped only five frames in three matches and took the £150 first prize, and also to Kirkham who nets £70, showed great fight throughout and the final scoreline didn’t truly reflect his efforts.

Hill also takes the £40 high break prize while the losing semi-finalists Gardner and Miller earn £30 each.

Thank go to tournament sponsor Castle Cabs plus all the referees, including Scott who did a faultless job in his first major final, and Dave Kelly and Paul Smyth.

Finally, thanks go to all at the Cue Zone for the use of the excellent facilities.

All matches were live-streamed and are available to view on the association’s Facebook page.