Carlisle: Billiards club holds Cumbrian tournament

Sunday, November 3 saw an early start for some of the top billiard players from the North of England and South West Scotland descend on Qzone in Carlisle, to take part in the inaugural Cumbria Open Billiards Competition, with one hour long matches beginning at just after 9am in the morning. 

There was a full allocation of 32 places taken up including 19 local league players and were split into eight groups of four, with the top two from each group advancing to the knockout stages. The players who didn’t qualify were then transferred to play in a secondary plate competition.

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In the first session, which was made up of just some of the local players, there were notable breaks of 53 and 57 from Nigel Lewthwaite, 48 from Peter Stanyer, 43 from Paul Whelan and 32 from John Metcalfe as they won their first matches. Brothers, Tony and David Steele from Longtown also played against each other and Tony came out on top in their sibling rivalry.

Darren Kell in action (Image: Supplied) Session two saw some of the visitors from out of the county begin their group games. Darren Kell from the Jack Hatfield Sports Club in Middlesbrough hit the ground running with breaks of 52, 54 and 63, as he beat Chris Achilles from Runcorn. Paul Roberts also started well as he beat Terry McAdam in a high-quality match that saw Paul compile a 60 break.

Mark Graham from the North East also got off to a good start in the competition with a 57 break against John Hughes from Merseyside. In-form Mike Griffiths from Carlisle also started his tournament well with breaks of 32, 40 and 45 as he beat Chris Appleton from across the A66. The most dramatic game in session two, saw a 172 points each draw between Keith Green from Ashington and Ron Bickerdike from Teeside, with neither player being able to hit a scoring shot in the final minute of their hour-long match.

In session three, Chris Achilles got his first win in his group with a win against Sten Muir that including a wonderful 68 break which took the lead for the high break prize. Unfortunately, his place of that leader board didn’t last for long, as Darren Kell put together breaks of 31, 37 and 83 in his win against John Metcalfe.

Local player Ian Cleminson won his first game of the day with a comprehensive victory over John Shipley from Newcastle and there was a good performance in defeat from Bob Sewell against Keith Green, where he had 41 and 53 breaks. Bob was obviously in form and there would be more to come from him later in the day.

The finalists, Darren Kell and Craig Fitzpatrick (Image: Supplied) In session four, Keith Green had a 78 break for his second win and a draw from his matches to secure his place the the knock out stages and Darren Kell also joined him with his win over Sten Muir, that included a new high break of 116. There were also nice wins for local players, Dave Midgely, Peter Stanyer, Mike Griffiths and Paul Whelan.

In the final group games in session five, Craig Fitzpatrick from the North East quietly progressed through with another comfortable victory and Dave Turley from Carlisle gained his first win of the day with a victory over Terry McAdam from Merseyside. Local player Paul Cowing needed to beat his North East opponent Paul Roberts to qualify and he did so, putting in his best performance of the day in the process.

After a short break, the last 16 KO began and the class of the North East and North West contingents started to shine through, as Craig Fitzpatrick, Darren Kell, Keith Green, Mark Graham, Paul Roberts and John Hughes also progressed through to the quarter finals. There would also be local interest in the next round, as there were also victories for Mike Griffiths, who had a 58 break in his win and Peter Stanyer, who had a very close game against Paul Cowing which Peter won 194-192.

In the Quarter Finals, Darren Kell continued his great form with a 226-159 victory over John Hughes, which included another 80+ break, Craig Fitzpatrick beat Peter Stanyer 235-188, and Keith Green beat Paul Roberts 249-157. Mike Griffiths became the only local player left, as he joined the other three in the semi final which he beat Mark Graham 230-210 in a match that was neck and neck throughout, but Mike just had enough to get over the line in the final few minutes.

Plate winner Chris Appleton (Image: Supplied) The Semi Final draw saw Darren Kell play Mike Griffiths, with Craig Fitzpatrick playing Keith Green in the other match. Keith had a 61 break in his game against Craig, but it wasnt enough to win, as Craig won 281-190, which included two breaks of 56 and 58. In the other game Darren was too hot for Mike, as Darren ran out a comfortable 346-117 winner to end the local representation in the main competition

The final of the Plate Competition was between Chris Appleton from Teeside and last remaining local player Bob Sewell. Bob has played in our local leagues for over 60 years and it was a great achievement to reach this final. He had multiple breaks of 40+ to reach the final. Chris meanwhile, had been unlucky not to qualify for the main competition KO stages and his class was showing as he breezed through his qualifying rounds to reach the final without much trouble. The winner of the final needed to be the first player to score 200 points. It was Chris who was triumphant, and everyone agreed that he was the worthy winner on the day.

So on to the final, which began at 8pm, between Darren Kell and Craig Fitzpatrick, which was live on the internet and had over 100 people watching from around the world.

Craig got off to a flying start with breaks of 19 and 73 to take an commanding early lead as Darren struggled to get any scoring opportunities in the open 15 minutes of the hour long match. Eventually he was able to get on the scoreboard with some teen breaks and a 38 break which got him back to with 40 points before he really found his stride with the highest break of the whole competition. He scored a wonderfully controlled break of 119 which got him front by around 70 points with 10 minutes remaining. Chris had to respond to give him a chance of winning and was on his way to doing that, but broke down on 38 with three minutes to go. This allowed Darren to come to the table and play out the final minutes to stretch his lead and take the title by 251-200.

All the spectators agreed it was a high class final and the worthy winner was Darren Kell. Not just for his performance in the final, but for his consistent high scoring throughout the day. As for the local players, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience of meeting and playing against players from outside the area and are looking forward to the next event. For now, they go back to their local league matches on a Tuesday night, but they take with them lots of tips on how to improve their billiard skills.