ACOMB ‘A’ suffered a scare before extending their good run of form with a 4-3 victory over Fulford ‘B’ in the York Conservative Clubs’ Carlsberg UK Snooker League.

Fulford got off to a perfect start with Andy Ogley inflicting a first defeat on Dan Potter, while Arthur Pegden beat an out of sorts Richard Lillie.

Keith Thornhill got the home side back into the game and maintained his perfect record for the season.

He took early control of his match against Jim Rollinson and closed out the frame with all the colours remaining.

Trevor Ventress held off John Adcock’s fight back to level the match and Nick Marchant overcame Dean Smith despite his tip coming off mid-frame.

Andy Hurley levelled as he made the best of some good luck when potting the blue while getting out of a snooker to beat Paul Holmes, but Mick Borg won the decider for Acomb.

Bootham ‘B’ saw off Heworth ‘A’ 4-3, but the match was only decided in the last frame.

Adam Scaife beat Ian Robinson but Matt Smith hit back defeating Mark Hodson. Nick Dyson then won for Heworth and Paul Mahoney Borg staves off Acomb ‘A’ upset League leaders hit back to snatch last-frame triumph levelled, defeating Mark Winskill.

Heworth took the lead when Jordan Worobec overcame Andy Proud, only for Bootham to run out winners with Paul Powell (39 and 20 breaks) and Lionel Barnes (37 break) victorious over Gary Douglas and Steve Burdett respectively.

Acomb ‘B’ kept up their challenge for the ‘B’ team trophy with a 4-3 win at Fulford ‘A’ in yet another final frame decider, Andy Stone clinching it with a good victory over Jim Lee.

Prior to that, Jeff Winters had got the visitors off to a winning start as he beat Andy Marshall.

But Sam Wass hit back with a convincing win over Nick Goodacre, only for Kevin Ventress to give Sam England no chance with an emphatic display of potting and safety play.

Fulford responded with Jamie Husband (29 break) defeating Brian Henry, followed by Alan Reed beating Steve Rodgers on the pink.

Chris Nicholson levelled the match with a black ball win over Sam Parkinson before the final frame win by Stone.

Heworth ‘B’ made it a good night for ‘B’ teams as they ran out 5-2 winners over Bootham ‘A’, despite losing the first two frames.

Rob Barron (22 break) and John Darley (22 break) defeated Rob Paylor and Dave Beattie before Heworth took control.

John Sherlock beat Steve Carroll, Pete Rivis beat Colin Robinson, Martin Johnson (22 break) defeated Tim Fillingham, Simon Whitely was victorious over Barry Rankin and captain Ian Strickland rounded off a good team performance, beating Stuart Martel.

Acomb ‘A’s win increased their lead at the top of the table to ten points as the chasing pack failed to make any inroads. Heworth ‘A’, Fulford ‘A’ and Bootham ‘B’ are all on 36 points in the runners-up spot.

Thornhill leads the Worthington player of the year standings with a 100 per cent record, having won all nine of his games.

He is closely followed by fellow Acomb ‘A’ player Borg, who has played ten and won nine.

Heworth ‘A’s Whyte still leads the Pasema Paving highest break contest with a run of 68.

 

THE York Masters snooker tournament will have a new name inscribed on the trophy this year.

The competition, which will see many of York and North Yorkshire's best Conservative Club and division one CIU players going head-to-head over the coming months, was won last year by Steve Gregson.

But the Huntington player is not among the 24 entrants who have been drawn into eight groups of three ahead of the 2015 competition, which gets under way on February 22.

Beaten finalist Dan Potter will have another go at taking the crown, while European Tour player Ashley Hugill will fancy his chances of bettering his quarter-final finish of 12 months ago.

The top two in each group will go through to the last 16 in an event which is being played on Adrian Barraclough's World Snooker standard tournament table above his Quickslide showroom in Layerthorpe.

The group stages see matches played over a best-of-five frame format. The final, over best-of-nine frames, is scheduled to be played on May 1.

Potter, in Group E, will need to get past multiple Scruton Cup winner Clive Whyte and Rob Kettlewell to reach the next stage, while Hugill faces Andi Ireland and Mark Hodson in his bid for qualification.

The winner will take home £250 with prize money paid from the quarter-finals onwards. The tournament's highest break will win its recipient £50.

First round fixtures: Feb 22, Group 'A' - John Dowd v Adam Scaife; Feb 23, 'B' - Pete Glover v Keith Thornhill; Feb 24, 'C' - Paul Holmes v Rich Lillie; Feb 27, 'D' - Tim Lister v Phil Hart; Mar 1, 'E' - Dan Potter v Clive Whyte; Mar 2, 'F' - Ashley Hugill v Andi Ireland; Mar 3, 'H' - Roland Cox v Justin Morris; Mar 6, 'G' - Kevin Gall v Adrian Barraclough; Mar 8, 'A' - Dowd v Mick Borg; Mar 9, 'B' - Glover v Paul Mahoney; Mar 10, 'C' - Holmes v Jordan Worobec; Mar 13, 'D' - Lister v Pete Rivis; Mar 15, 'E' - Potter v Rob Kettlewell; Mar 16, 'F' - Hugill v Mark Hodson; Mar 17, 'H' - Cox v Nick Marchant; Mar 20, 'G' - Gall v Martin Johnson; Mar 22, 'A' - Scaife v Borg; Mar 23, 'B' - Thornhill v Mahoney; Mar 24, 'C' - Lillie v Worobec; Mar 27, 'D' - Hart v Rivis; Mar 29, 'E' - Whyte v Kettlewell; Mar 30, 'F' - Ireland v Hodson; April 2, 'H' - Morris v Marchant.