President Clegg is finally the winner in Handicap

two finalists.

In the semi-finals, Whitehouse defeated Rick Steer (80) of Berry Brow Lib.

Whitehouse, also a losing semifinalist in 2013, was kept in a tight contest until he managed a break of 20.

This gave him the confidence to build his lead further and he finally passed the winning post at 200-154.

In his semi, Clegg was up against a younger opponent in Sam Redfearn (90) of Upper Hopton WMC.

Redfearn is relatively new to Billiards and it was a pleasure to see a younger player taking up the game and reaching the final stages.

He demonstrated his ability at potting but he might have profited more had he played some basic shots, such as in offs and canons to maintain position and build bigger contributions.

Clegg was scoring fairly consistently with runs into the 20s, but breaking down when he looked like making a sizeable break.

He did eventually make a 48 to enable him to overhaul his opponent and went on to win 200-170. PADDOCK Con B won the John Needham Plate final against Netherton Con A at Crosland Moor Con.

In the first frame, D Johnson (16) of Paddock was paired against P Harrison (11) from Netherton.

With neither player really taking advantage of the chances offered, Harrison had managed to take a small lead of 44-29 with only three reds remaining.

Johnson took these last reds with colours to edge in front, but he then slipped up and Harrison took the frame for Netherton, 60-54.

Paddock’s C Allen (16) took on G Shaw (Scr) in the second frame.

Allen was the first to make his mark with a run of 16 to add to his handicap start to lead by 33-7.

When the Brown was reached, Shaw was 15 points adrift and when attempting a safety shot he inadvertently left it over the pocket.

Allen took his chance and took the frame for Paddock 67-37.

In the third frame, two ‘minus’ players were paired – M Goodier (owes 6) for Paddock and J Boylan (owes 2) for Netherton.

Goodier was first in with a break of 20, but Boylan had the chance to pull that back but missed a good chance on black.

Goodier went on to lead by 21 points with only 18 remaining. He snookered Boylan who, after failing in his escape attempt, conceded the frame for Paddock to go 2-1 in front.

Nertherton now needed the fourth frame to take the match into a deciding fifth frame, with F Beer (31) of Paddock against C Rhodes (20).

There was little to separate the two but Beer gradually started to pull away and with only three reds remaining he led 67-49.

Rhodes was finding it difficult to close the gap but with blue, pink and black remaining he trailed by just nine points.

However, Beer managed to fluke the blue to leave the Netherton player now requiring a snooker.

Rhodes sealed his own fate when he inadvertently potted the pink to give the frame to Beer and also the match to Paddock.