Sharks sink Copnor to come out on top in key battle of the title-chasers

Reaching the penultimate week of the season, three teams were still in contention to clinch the Portsmouth Billiards League title.

The top-two battled it out in a crunch meeting, as Stoke Sharks welcomed Copnor A & E. Mick Hall (200-172) and team-mate Tony Simmons (200-199) won their respective games to get Copnor off to a flying start, writes Steve Toms.

Back came the Sharks, with Chris Bishop (200-123) - hitting breaks of 43 and 42 - and Ian Lewis - despite his opponent Steve Toms firing a 56 break - both coming out on top.

Mark Tillison (200-182) took the next game for Copnor, but Stuart Burton won his match 200-186 to take Stoke Sharks to a 1153-1071 aggregate victory.

Pompey Royals and Cowplain

B played out a close encounter with the former securing a hard-fought 4-3 victory.

The opening games were shared with Pompey's Chad Wainwright claiming a 200132 win, while Cowplain's James Curtis offered an immediate response (200-133).

Will Garrett gave visitors Cowplain the advantage (200-188) and the next three games were just as tight. Steve

Orchard stepped up to win his game for the Royals (200175), then Gary Curtis took his 200-157.

It would all come down to the final game of the night, where Pompey's Paul Chivers held his nerve (200-186) to hand the Royals the slender 1078-1051 overall victory.

Bellair X breezed to a 5-2 victory as they came up against Cowplain Misfits.

Team-mates Dave Riddell and Bill Parsons won their respective matches 200-173 and 200-161 to get Bellair off to a solid start.

Steve Dewhurst pulled a game back for Cowplain with a close 200-196 victory. Bellair's Steve Scott proved too good for his opponent (200127) but Cowplain's Dean Bates hit back for his side (200-170).

It was left to Andy Howell to wrap up the victory for Bellair, who ran out 11661050 overall winners to keep the pressure on the division's top-two.

Portchester X came away with a 4-3 win on the road at Waterlooville C. Matt James (200-198), Lewis Johnson (200-167) and Justin Andrews (200-181) helped Portchester pick up three wins on the spin. Andrews played again – and won – for Portchester, who were a player down.