8:20am Thursday 17th May 2012
As the various knockout competitions reach their climax there has has been some excellent and entertaining action.
In the semi-final of the district snooker handicap the in-form Phil King of High Royds was taking on Howard Dadge of Otley Cons.
King couldn’t have started better by taking the first two frames and was leading the third until Dadge suddenly made some superb pots and managed to force a respotted black.
A tense period a safety followed but Dadge cued a long-range effort superbly to take the frame and get himself back into the match. This clearly inspired the Otley player and he took the next frame to force a decider.
King was clearly rattled by the way the match had swung away from him but he recovered his focus and coolly built a superb 44 break that took the match beyond the reach of his opponent as he reach ed his second final of the year.
Two of the up and coming stars Sam Finister of Hollygarth and Josh Cooper of High Royds met in the new Otley League singles handicap competition.
Finister’s ability is reflected in his low handicap of just five while his opponent plays off the highest handicap possible of 30.
Both players started slowly with a long period of safety but Finister looked to be cueing nicely as he made some excellent long pots to take the initiative.
Unfortunately there were no colours to go with the reds to help him recover the handicap.
Finally things opened up and a nice 24 break saw Finister edge ahead and eventually seal the frame on the blue.
Cooper hasn’t played much snooker recently and a few missed chances left the door open for Finister to capitalise in the second frame and he progressed to his first- ever final and will meet either Phil King of High Royds or Richard Chadwick of Burley Social.
Andy Blamire of the Factory was in action in the billiards handicap semi-final against Mick Miles of Rawdon Cons on the newly-refurbished table at Hawkhill.
Miles found its smooth, fast running cloth a little difficult to adapt to while Blamire started well and made some excellent 20 and 30 breaks and was clinical around the spot to maximise his scoring opportunities.
Miles started to get used to the table and made some good scores of his own but by this time it was too late as Blamire was too far ahead and the Guiseley player closed the game out winning by 300 to 210.
In the best of five frame district pairs semi-finals the reigning champions Sarah Nicolson and Gary Waters of Hawkhill were up against the formidable pairing of Nick Padgett and Steve Parker of the Factory.
Both Parker and Padgett are negative handicap players and they are capable of some superb break building and so it proved as the Hawkhill pair’s handicap was reeled in methodically by the Factory duo and they soon found themselves two frames down.
Padgett had done most of the damage in the first frames but Parker came to the fore in the third and a really good 27 break sealed their victory to reach the final.
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