Champion Blamire retains his crown (From Wharfedale Observer)

Champion Blamire retains his crown

9:34am Thursday 24th May 2012 in Sport

Champion Andy Blamire retained his Wharfedale billiards open title with a repeat of his 2011 final win.

The Guiseley Factory ace defeated Mick Miles of Rawdon Cons at Hawkhill.

Local billiards legend Steve Crosland refereed the clash and it was Miles who built a small lead early in the contest.

Soon Blamire was starting to use his potting ability to build good breaks and he edged ahead.

Played to a target of 400 points it was Blamire who got to the halfway (200 point) interval leading by 80 and looked to be in control.

In the second half Miles also made some fine breaks but Blamire was just too far ahead for him to claw back enough points.

Blamire has also discovered who he will play in the billiards handicap final.

John Waite of Menstone, chair- man of both the WBSA and the Otley League, beat Mark Kaye of Guiseley Factory in the semi-finals.

Waite is a relative novice at billiards and if the players were to be playing on equal terms it would be no contest.

Kaye was giving Waite a 100-point start and quickly started to recover the deficit with some superb potting, cannons, break building and tactical play.

Somehow Waite managed to get to 120 points, 80 short of the 200 point target but crucially Kaye had closed the gap to just 16 points and looked set to overtake his opponent and go on to win but inexplicably his scoring seemed to falter.

A missed cannon by Kaye left Waite a good chance which he took to make a 17 break followed immediately by a 22.

Kaye just couldn’t seem to match his earlier scoring and Waite took advantage to win 200-135.

In the Otley League the Champions Cup was played between Division One champions Hawkhill and Division Two title winners Guiseley Bowls.

With aggregate scoring counting this format means that players and spectators have to keep a watchful eye on both tables to see how the match is progressing.

Gary Paton of Hawkhill was up against Alan Thomas and it was a close match that swung on a few touches of misfortune for Thomas.

Nevertheless the match went to the pink which Paton took to seal the frame.

On the other table Hawkhill’s Brian Dove was having a real tussle with Andy Durkin as the lead kept changing and the game could have gone either way but eventually it came down to the black and a half chance for Durkin was coolly potted to level the match.

The final two frames were very one sided as Hawkhill players Tim Nicholson and Des Coleman played some superb controlled snooker to take control in their matches.

Nicholson was up against up and coming youngster Joe Stockdale but despite Stockdale's obvious talent he couldn't match Nicholson's clinical potting on the night and was well beaten. On the other table Coleman was showing the kind of superb form he has all season and even though he was up against a tough competitor in David Kerton he comfortably took the win by a huge margin to seal the frame and secure the trophy for his team.