The final of this year’s Isle of Man Billiards and Snooker Association pairs competition took place at Finch Hill recently.

The match saw Johnny Hogg and Pete Kirkham go up against the father and son team of Vic and Martin Rigby. The format was best of five frames, two singles followed by a doubles frame then, if required, reverse singles all played using league handicaps.

The first frame saw Kirkham (handicap -14) giving Vic (49) a 63 headstart but the latter never really got going and his opponent capitalised on his mistakes with breaks of 23, 22 and 20 to win comfortably 94-68.

Next up was Hogg (35) and Martin (49), with the latter enjoying a 14 headstart. Hogg was sluggish in the opening exchanges and was always playing catch up.

At 30 points behind, Hogg then got out of first gear and started to put together some mini breaks of his own.

The pivotal moment was when he potted the 14th red and rolled up a snooker behind the green.

With the final red directly in front of the spotted pink, Martin took seven attempts to finally escape, with referee Dave Kelly rightly calling a miss every time as Hogg accrued 26 points in fouls.

This changed the whole dynamic of the frame, with Hogg potting the last red to be 32 ahead going into the final colours.

Martin failed to find the two snookers required and his opponent duly clinched the second frame.

Heading into the doubles, the Rigby pairing received a 39 start and needed a win to keep the match alive. It wasn’t long before Kirkham pulled this deficit back and went 10 points clear going into the final colours.

Vic then went in-off the yellow and, with cue ball in hand, Hogg produced a 20 break, clearing yellow to pink clinching the frame and the match 3-0.

Congratulations go to Kirkham and Hogg - for the latter, this was his first snooker title. Commiserations to the Rigby’s but well done on reaching the final.

Organisers wish to thank both match officials, Dave Kelly and John Spellman, and to Finch Hill club for the use of the facilities.