JWright

Last updated 00:00, Friday, 23 November 2007

THE last eight places in this season’s singles knockout competition were decided in a break from regular league fixtures for the Individual Snooker Championships.

The competition is sponsored by the Intrim Fitness Centre in Workington and the stand-out tie was the clash of former county singles champion Robert Sim and former county doubles champion Peter O’Hagan.

The opening frame went to Sim by a comfortable margin but from that point onwards O’Hagan progressed. He managed to take the next two frames narrowly, both on the black, to grab a 2-1 lead.

The Workington cueist then stepped up his game to compile a match-winning break of 49 and a rare second home defeat in as many weeks for Sim and go through by three frames to one.

This was the only all-premiership tie of the second round but there were two all-first division matches.

Whitehaven’s Ryan Henry and Workington’s David Chapman went head-to-head and it was the Copeland player who took the first frame comfortably, before taking a closer second frame for a 2-0 lead.

Chapman fought back with a solid third frame only for Henry to close out the match in a tight and high scoring fourth frame to win 3-1.

The second all-first division tie matched promotion challenger Paul Killingley of Cockermouth against division one front-runner Stuart Shepherd of Whitehaven.

Shepherd eventually went through to the last eight with a solid 3-0 win on his opponent’s table to underline his credentials at the top of division.

The remaining ties saw mixed divisional encounters and the most surprising result of these four fixtures was that of division one player Stuart Ryan who had good win over John Street Club colleague and former county doubles champion Steven O’Hagan who plays in the premiership.

Ryan booked his place in the quarter-finals with a convincing 3-0 result in what were three tight frames.

There was almost another upset on the cards in the clash between Cleator Moor’s Alex Chiesa of division one and premiership player Mike Park of Maryport.

Park took the opening frame comfortably only for Chiesa to battle back to take the next two frames on the pink and black respectively for a 2-1 lead.

Park then dug in to take the final two frames of the evening to steal the match 3-2.

In the remaining two ties of the round premiership player Alan Moore had a comfortable away win over Cockermouth’s Paul Hoad of division one, with the former county champion going through 3-0.

It was the youngest versus the oldest - there are over 53 years between the players - in the West Cumbria Snooker League as another former county champion and premiership player Mike Dawson achieved the same score-line against current division one second placed promotion contender Ryan Ismay of Maryport also 3-0.

It is currently a busy time in the local snooker calendar with the Intrim Trophy singles knockout, the earlier than usual start of the Cockermouth & District Snooker League, and the preliminary and first round proper of the County Individual Snooker Championships underway.

Despite this there were a handful of singles league games completed of late.

In the premiership Whitehaven’s Vito Shipley defeated Maryport’s Mike Park.

Shipley took an opening tight frame on the pink and then a further two frames more comfortably to guarantee his league win bonus point.

Despite a break of 30 from Park in the fourth Shipley went 4-0 up before his opponent compiled a break of 36 to take a comfortable final frame of the evening for a 4-1 score-line. Shipley leapfrogs three places into fourth place.

Workington’s Stuart Ryan recorded his second win of the week when he beat Ryan Henry who plays out of Marchon Club.

Ryan took the opening two frames clearly before Henry hit back with a comfortable third and a beak of 40. Ryan then closed the match out for the win bonus point with a solid fourth frame with Henry taking the final frame to record a useful 3-2 victory.

Workington’s David Chapman had a much needed 5-0 win over Seaton’s Shaun Moore to keep himself in promotion contention while Cockermouth’s Paul Killingley consolidated his third place position with a narrow win over Marchon Club player Chiesa. Killingley took the opening two frames convincingly whereby Chiesa won the third and fourth frames equally well to leave the match poised at 2-2. Killingley proved to be the stronger finisher, coming out the 3-2 winner in the final frame.