Sexton not Slo to stake title claims

SNOOKER

NORTH Shields’ Craig Sexton defeated Wallsend’s John Slocombe 3-0 to win the final of the latest Whitley Bay Snooker Centre one-day handicapped pro– am event.

Sexton, who was conceding seven points a frame to Slocolme, took the opening frame 61-43 with small runs of 26, 19 and 13.

The Shields player then made the score 2-0 by winning the close-fought second 49-38 on the colours.

Both players had 20-plus breaks in the third - but it was Sexton’s bigger break of 29 plus two runs in the teens which earned him the decisive frame 62-39.

There was no difference in the frame scores in the semi-final shootouts.

Sexton beat Stanley’s Ash Wilson (off 21) 3-1 while Slocolme came home by the same score line against local player Dale Allan (off level).

Burnley visitor Lewis Ullah (off 14) collected the plate following a 2-1 deciding-frame victory over Whitley’s Mark Faichen (off 35).

The highest break of the day award went to Elliott Slessor with a 104 against Tony Robson. ■■GARY Wilson (below) won both his qualifying matches in the 88 German Masters at the Merodome Centre in Barnsley to reach the last 32, which will be played in Berlin next month.

Wilson started by taking out Glasgow’s highly-rated Stephen Maguire 5-1 with runs of 70 and 91.

Trailing 1-0 and 2-0, in his next match Wilson had to fight back strongly to level the scores against Leeds’ David Grace.

Grace bounced back to take the next with a 59 and lead again 3-2.

However, Wilson pulled out all the stops to win the next three frames and the match 5-3.

John Astley won his first-round match against Farnsworth’s Craig Steadman 64-58 in the deciding frame but was then totally outplayed by Wales’ Ryan Day.

Sam Craigie went down 5-2 to China’s Zhao Xintong despite breaks of 72 and 121.