JWright

Last updated 00:00, Friday, 04 January 2008

AFTER the latest series of matches in the West Cumbria Snooker Championships the field is becoming stretched in the premiership title race.

Allerdale’s Peter O’Hagan strengthened his lead recently with three wins out of three games.

Firstly he came up against resilient opposition in the form of Maryport cueist Simon Holm and actually was well beaten in the first frame.

But O’Hagan hit back with an equally comfortable second frame including a break of 31.

Holm took the third well to leave the former county doubles champion requiring the final two of the evening which he duly did from two tight frames to take the match and bonus point to win 3-2.

O’Hagan also took on Whitehaven’s Vito Shipley and won the opening two frames against the Copeland player.

Shipley battled back with a 33 break and a comfortable third frame only for O’Hagan to step up a gear in the final two frames with breaks of 42 and 51 in the fourth and fifth respectively to record a very useful 4-1 win.

O’Hagan made it three wins from three when he took on his brother Steven in his latest fixture.

A tight opening frame saw a break of 37 from Peter and a reply of a 30 break from Steven before the league leader went into a 1-0 lead.

This quickly became 2-0 as Peter compiled this season's highest break so far with an excellent 88.

Not to be fazed Steven took the next frame with the aid of a 35 break before older brother Peter, with breaks of 31 and 57, grabbed the final two frames to record a 4-1 victory.

Workington’s Alan Moore leapt to joint second with, not so much a shock result, but certainly a shock score-line, when he came up against pre-season favourite Robert Sim of Whitehaven.

Moore had breaks of 34 and 30 on his way to a very useful 5-0 win over Sim in the battle of ex-county champions.

Sim compiled a consolation 48 break in the penultimate frame.

Another battle of ex-county champions saw Workington’s Mike Dawson take on Moore.

Dawson took the opening frame only for Moore to take the next two.

But Dawson, the league’s senior player, edged the final two frames for a 3-2 win.

Moore earned himself joint second place alongside Sim with a solid 5-0 away win against Holm, which included breaks of 43 and 31.

Sim recorded a narrow win against club colleague Shipley when he took the three opening frames with the help of 41, 34 and 32 breaks to guarantee the win bonus.

Dawson moved up to fourth after his encounter against Workington’s Mark Tunstall.

The elder statesman took the first two frames of the evening, including a comfortable second assisted by a break of 44 to record his first 30 plus break of the season.

Tunstall fought back with the next two frames to leave the match hinging on the final frame.

Dawson clinched the bonus in a low scoring but tight frame.

Ex-county doubles champion Steven O’Hagan remains mid-table after his latest result against club colleague Tunstall who has been out of sorts this season. O’Hagan won the opening two frames before Tunstall pulled the match back to 2-1 but O’Hagan took the last two frames to record a useful 4-1 win.

Copeland’s Stuart Shepherd managed to consolidate his grip at the top of the first division with mixed results.

First he took on young Maryport cueist Ryan Ismay, who is also challenging for one of two promotion places.

In a tight match Shepherd won the first frame but found himself 2-1 down as Ismay took the second and third.

However Shepherd settled the better to win the final two frames and gain an important advantage over his promotion rival. Shepherd had a reverse scoreline against another promotion challenger in Workington’s Alan Stephenson.

Stephenson had breaks of 38 and 30 to easily take the opening frame. Shepherd took a comfortable but low scoring second before Stephenson took the next two with Shepherd winning the final frame.

Cockermouth’s Paul Killingley recorded a 5-0 win over Seaton’s Shaun Moore with the help of 40, 36 and 34 breaks to hold onto second place but now has the advantage of a game in hand over Shepherd.

Stephenson has been playing catch-up lately and after what could be a key result against Shepherd added a further two wins.

Up against fourth-placed Ismay, Stephenson won the first three frames and guaranteed the win. Ismay won the fourth but Stephenson made it another key result, winning 4-1.

He also took a narrow win over Whitehaven’s Alex Chiesa digging deep to take the last two frames to record a 3-2 win.

Stephenson is now on the tail of the leading group with a couple of games in hand and looks the most likely to threaten the current two promotion hopefuls.

Promotion contenders Ismay and Workington’s Dave Chapman fought out a tight fixture with Ismay taking the first frame and Chapman a comfortable second.

Ismay pressed ahead again with a solid third and then Chapman again pegged the match back to 2-2 with a black-ball fourth.

Ismay narrowly took the final frame to keep in contention with the front runners.

Chapman maintained a similar hold on the leading pack with a 5-0 win over Maryport player Craig Denwood.

Denwood also went down to Cockermouth’s Paul Hoad with Hoad taking the first three frames before Denwood pulled the fourth frame back.

He eventually went down 4-1.

Denwood did record his second win of the season when he took on Chiesa. Denwood won the opening two frames before Chiesa pulled it back to 2-1. Denwood secured the bonus win point by taking a low-scoring fourth with Chiesa winning the final frame.

The quarter-final draw for the Intrim Trophy, to be played in the week commencing January 21 is: Ryan Henry v Stuart Shepherd, Mike Park v Peter O’Hagan, Vito Shipley v Alan Moore, Stuart Ryan v Mike Dawson.

Results to be in no later than January 27.

The draw for the second round of the County Championship is: Alan Armstrong v Robert Sim, Vito Shipley v Paul Wright, Vince Peet v Alan Moore, Steven O’Hagan v Kevin Basnett, Trevor Hildreth v Mike Park, Julian Plaza v Andrew Milliard, Mally Lancaster v Peter O’Hagan, Neil Harrison v Giles Finnigan.

The closing date is January 18 and results should be phoned to Joe Bell on 07753836742.

The next PRO-AM event is at the Portland Snooker Club on Sunday. Entry is £10 and players are advised to arrive by 11am.