Billy Hunts down rival to win final

WALLSENDS Billy Hunter edged past Blyth’s Brendan Erridge 3-2 to win the latest one-day handicapped event at Whitley Bay SC.

Compared to the week before when the competition had no minus players in its entry, a larger than usual field of 19 featured the two top handicappers Gary Wilson and Elliott Slessor (-40) plus four others.

Conceding a 50-point start to club player Dale Allan, Wilson rattled off a series of runs in the 30s, 40s and 50s - eventually finishing off with a fantastic 143 total clearance to register a resounding 3-0 victory.

Competing against one of his former Supa Snooker team mates in Hunter, Wilson found it difficult giving him a 35-point start and ended up going down 3-1 to the Wallsend potter.

Hunter then took out another minus player in Whitley’s Adam Parker (- 15) 3-0 to reach the final.

Although the more sizeable breaks in the opening match between Wallsend’s Elliott Slessor and Erridge were coming from Slessor it was the Blyth cueist’s 75-points-a-frame start which helped him inch his way over the winning line 3-1.

Erridge then reached the final by outscoring Gateshead’s minus player Brandan Hall by the same score with a 55-points-a-frame start.

Erridge began the decider by taking the opening frame 78-59 - only to see Hunter (left) level by claiming the next 81-63. After pegging back the third to go 2-1 up, Erridge could do nothing as the confident Hunter came back strongly to clinch the next two frames 83-67, 72-59.

Highest break of the day went to Wilson’s 143, while Dale Allan won the plate with a 2-0 success over Gateshead’s Mathew Wilson. ■■WHITLEY Bay SC’s cancelled match against Blyth Comrades A kept them in first place in the Ashington Chisholm and LWC League.

They are eight points clear of Stakeford B, who moved up to second with a 5-1 success against Guidepost. In third place are Stakeford A.