Parker in fightback to clinch Pro-Am handicap
WHITLEY A TEAM MEMBER LANDS WIN
ADAM Parker has won Whitley Bay Snooker Centre’s regular one-day Handicapped Pro-Am event
One of the club’s own A Team players, Parker was the only one of the 14 entries to be competing off a minus handicap.
He won the competition off minus 7 – meaning if his opponent is off 14, 21, 28 and so on he gets an extra seven points start.
After receiving a bye into the last eight, Parker – who was conceding 56 points a frame start – got off to a flier with a 3-0 straight sets victory over Gateshead’s Andrew Turner, which included breaks of 56 and 57.
Parker’s next success, a 3-1 win over Hartlepool visitor Vincent West, also booked him a place in the final against little-known local player Carl Jackson (off 21), who had won his way through three matches to reach the last two.
Starting his campaign by conceding 28 points a frame against Gateshead’s Brandon Crawford, Jackson just managed to scrape home 3-2 in the decider.
He then did just the opposite by taking 14 points off Craig Sexton and then hammered the Shields potter in a one-sided match 3-0.
Jackson’s last contest to clinch a spot in the final was another onesided affair against Blyth’s Ash Wilson (off 14), who went down by the same losing scoreline as his previous opponent.
Playing well and with a generous 28 points a frame start, Jackson soon romped into a 2-0 lead by winning the opening two frames 73(29)-51, 75(24)-53(28).
After regaining his composure, Parker staged a spirited fight-back to win the next two frames 85(38,26)47, 87(42,21)-52, to level the scores, before going on to wrap up the decider 71(20,31)-57(28) and the match 3-2 by clearing the colours in the fifth up to the pink.
With Parker taking the honours in the main event and Jackson the runners-up award, the two beaten semifinalists’ prizes went to Wilson and West, who also took the highest break award with a run of 69.
In the final of the best-of-threeframe Plate competition, Gateshead’s Malcolm Jones, conceding 35 points start, beat North Shields’ Carl Sexton 2-0.