Donaghy wins convincingly

Ithe first of the semi-final round-robins played at Meadowfield, the holder, Charlie Donaghy of Tow Law came through with a clean sheet victory and was joined by Dickie Evans of Crowtrees to move on to the Final Round Robin.

In the first match of the night Donaghy played Evans and edged into an early lead. Evans never found his range and steadily the gap widened until Donaghy ran out the victor by 50 points. The second match between Lawrence Jones of Leeholme and Jim Phillipson of Crowtrees was a much closer affair. Phillipson established a good early lead and looked to be on the way to a comfortable victory but Jones came back strongly until both players needed just 20 for game. Jones got in with an 18 break but then suffered a few agonising minutes as Phillipson edged closer, a few points at a time. Eventually Jones potted his opponents white for a four points victory.

Phillipson was back at the table for the third game against his teammate, Evans. This time Evans showed the confidence of knowing his opponents game and put in a thirty break to open up a gap, which was never closed as Evans went through to win by 51 points. Jones made a good start against Donaghy but the lead soon changed hands and the gap widened until the Tow Law player ran out the winner by 49 points. In the decider for second place Evans raced ahead of Jones but was then pegged back as Jones closed the gap to less than 20. However he failed on a number of good chances and Evans took advantage to go through as the 30 points winner.

The final frame had little consequence but Phillipson did improve on his earlier performances to only go down by 25 points.

Final placings: 1st Donaghy (Tow Law) played 3, won 3, lost 0, points difference + 124; 2nd Evans (Crowtrees) 3, 2, 1, +31; 3rd Jones 3, 1, 2, -75; 4th Phillipson 3, 0, 3, - 80.