The second half of the Mac’s Builders Merchants-sponsored Snooker League season started last week with a reversal of the opening fixtures.

League leaders St Olave’s took their two-point advantage south to face Cue Zone Mob in a battle of two in-form teams, but it was the pacesetters who prevailed, repeating the scoreline from their earlier meeting.

Peter Kirkham’s 31 break wasn’t enough to overhaul Dave Kelly’s 56 start and the final score was Kirkham 82-95 Kelly.

The next two frames were shared by Steve Finnegan 66-49 Paul Smyth and Steve Oates 52-83 Darrell Thacker who now leads the individual rankings with this win.

James Kerr was the match winner for St Olave’s with a 21 break as he overcame Tom Miller 39-71. Lee Hunt is having a decent season for the Mob and beat Sean Corkish 89-59 in the final frame.

Hurricanes 4-1

Cue Zone Blinders

(report by Paul Smith)

Jamie Wilson 69-43

Brandon Forrester

As usual, some good potting and a break of 22 soon saw Wilson catch the 28 start he was giving but Forrester hung in there and was still in it going into the colours.

A timely fluke from Wilson meant Forrester needed a snooker and the former closed the game out soon afterwards.

Paul Smith 53-63 Ivan McMaw

Some tough matchplay snooker from Smith kept McMaw at bay and put him in front on the colours. A failed snooker attempt from Smith on the yellow turned the game though, as McMaw played a good safety that Smith managed to go in-off from.

McMaw then potted like he can do with an outstanding green the length of the table and it looked all over, but he somehow managed to miss when the remaining colours were at his mercy.

Smith had the first chance on the black but missed and McMaw stroked the black in to win the frame.

Stuart Littlewood 59-33 Josh Rigg

This was a scratch game as both were off 28 but Rigg never really got going as Littlewood kept him at arm’s length once he had got a lead with some excellent potting.

It was only a matter of time before he closed out the frame and he did so with the minimum of fuss.

Gary Conwell 79-75 Scott Campion

This was the second black baller of the night and proved to be a long battle.

Campion played some good stuff and potted several excellent balls, but couldn’t shake off the determined Conwell.

In the end it came down to the colours, with Conwell needing a snooker and it looked a lost cause, but a couple of snookers later and the game looked completely different.

Finally on to the black with several attempts from both players and somehow Conwell prevailed. Before the next frame we had to get the special accessory that the club had to scrape Conwell off the table!

Onlookers also gave Campion the number for some counselling as I’m sure he’s never suffered like this in a game before, but the experience will make him a better player.

Chris Dagnall 75-44 Sam Palmer

Although Palmer received a 28 start, he was up against arguably the form player in the league.

Dagnall, now playing off -7, soon reduced the headstart with some solid potting and a break of 25. Palmer tried his best to stem the scoring tide with a few good pots himself, but there was no stopping Dagnal who ran out a comfortable winner.

Another repeat scoreline from October and a good result for the Hurricanes that keeps them right on the heels of the leaders.

Cue Zone Reprobates 2-3

Finch Hill Rockets

Third-placed Rockets continued their good form with this win.

Marek Kenny, now down to a 35 handicap from 63 only two seasons ago, beat Rob Callister 42-65 in the opener before Paul Tangeman levelled with a wide margin win 95-32 over Ron Grogan.

Brendan Clague couldn’t cope with John Spellman in the next frame as the latter knocked in a run of 25 as he impressively won 15-72.

Dollin Mercer looked sharp from the start against Graham Ashton and potted some good long pots with a couple of mid-teen breaks to narrow Ashton’s start very quickly.

Ashton kept it very tight, pinching a few points here and there and managed to get a couple of snookers. It came down to the last few colours and Mercer’s failed safety left the pink over the yellow pocket which Ashton took to steal the frame and match 58-68.

Rhys Moore made the final score close by taking the last 60-46 over Doug Kinrade. The latter struggled to get any consistency going but did manage to eventually get into a winnable position but failed to get a relatively easy pink over the green pocket.

Moore had missed the same ball into the same pocket to seal the frame in the previous shot, but took full advantage of his second chance to win the frame.

Malew 0-5 PSM Legion

Complete revenge for PSM after losing to a similar scoreline at home to Malew in October.

Frame scores: Alec Oates 51-62 Shaun Roberts, Eric Drinkwater 49-76 Phil Joynes, David Quayle 58-72 Dave Pickersgill, James Goodwin 43-76 Marc Morley and Mark Quinn 57-58 Terry Boyle.

This was a great result for PSM, although their gracious captain Terry Boyle pointed out that they had an amazing run of balls all evening and he felt really sorry for the Malew boys.

Frames one and five were black ball affairs, the latter between Quinn and Boyle which was settled with Boyle playing a cross back double to win and the white rattling the corner pocket.

The icing on the cake was Phil Joynes registering a 37 break in his game, the highest of the week.

St Olave’s Musicians 3-2

Jacksons

(report by John Kennish)

Dave Hanlon 37-53 Lee Gale

This was Hanlon’s first return to league action since last season and after recovering from a broken ankle.

Both players potted some good balls but couldn’t really make any headway until Gale made a nice 17 break.

Both players exchanged pots on the final colours. Hanlon missed a couple of half-chances on the pink and black to take the frame, which resulted in Gale potting a nice long-range black to seal the win.

Peter Collister 38-72 Kam Virk

Collister was unable to make any inroads into the 42 deficit as a result of the balls going slightly scrappy and Virk picking off reds with some good potting.

Collister needed snookers on the final colours but was unable to get the amount he needed before Virk confirmed the win by taking a good green and brown.

John Kennish 119-73 Paul Kell

Kennish started well with a 22 break which ended after opening all the reds up from the blue resulting in the black being obstructed into one of its pockets and the pink going near to the side cushion.

Kennish got back in again immediately making a 34 break. Kell settled into the frame and played some good shots and safety plus a nice long-range red, but Kennish took the last red to clear with a 34 break and seal the frame.

Mike Doherty 74-36

Mike Reddington

Doherty benefitted both from his own scoring and a large number of foul shots by his opponent, resulting in a hefty early lead.

Despite needing a number of snookers, Reddington battled on until the bitter end but to no avail.

Matthew Dodd 50-12 Tony Dhadwal

This match started off scratch with both players on the same handicap.

Dodd began well with a couple of reds and black before pushing ahead further with a 13 break in the middle of the frame.

Dhadwal was unable to find his rhythm and found himself needing a snooker with only the colours left. He potted a nice yellow but Dodd took the green and brown to take the frame.

Peel Legion 4-1 DSB Wannabes

This was a basement battle between two struggling teams, but being best-of-five meant there had to be a winner.

Frame one ended Tom Curphey 50-38 Paul McKinstry which rolled on for an hour. McKinstry had a couple of decent pots and a few unintended, but sportingly called a foul on himself at one point.

Curphey came through at the end, doubling the pink into the middle to land perfectly on the black into the opposite middle and claimed only his second win.

Barton Beaumont 55-39 Stevie Cowin was a similarly lengthy frame, with Cowin one ahead going into the colours.

Beaumont edged away but a nice blue from Cowin still left him in it. Beaumont potted the winning pink with the rest but, typical of the night, he let the cue ball travel 12 feet to nearly go in-off as everyone held their breath.

Mike Crook confirmed a home win with three double-figure breaks, although Fred Corris was still battling all the way before losing out on the final blue, Crook 62-38 Fred Corris.

Peel’s John Kelly once again found it hard going against Wannabes’ one shining light Dave Corris. With the latter generally looking good and with a very nice green to blue finish took it 32-52.

With the clock already nearing 11pm, Geoff Hall versus James Teare was a slow burner that never caught light, although to be fair they’d had a long wait.

Hall was unable to produce the previous week’s form as he gradually homed in on Teare’s 49 start, although the latter did hit the best pot with a full-length red. Numerous fouls from both players and a messy table meant when Hall’s final green left snookers required, Teare had soon seen enough at 94-62 and there was a general sigh of relief with the clock at five to midnight.

Another dour night at the Legion but who cares - we were able to have a pint and enjoy the game we love!

Wannabes replace Peel propping up the league.

l St Olave’s A with 42 points have had heir lead cut to a single point, while the Hurricanes are on 41 and the Rockets 39.

Darrell Thacker leads the individual league alone on 12 wins, while Stu Littlewood, Mark Quinn and Jamie Wilson all have 11. John Kennish is now within touching distance of Dave Addinall in the high breaks league - Addinall is on 33 points, Kennish 30 and Sean Corkish 19.5.

Many thanks go to all contributors.