MONDAY February 13 saw the final round of matches in the Alan Atkinson and John Smith League Cup.

This is a non handicap small league, six in each, round robin competition. Three winners and best runner up go into the semi-finals.

In group 1 Pockets B cemented their place in the semi-finals with a 5-0 win over club rivals Pockets D. The stand out performances were those of Tony Kidd who scored 73 in his victory and Andy Smith with a score of 67 in his frame.

In the next match Chester Road, chasing the best runner up place, took on Cookley. Chester Road got off to a good start with Neil Chapman scoring 64 points to win. Cookley hit back with Simon Gellately scoring 64 in his win. Cookley took the next frame through Tom Barker but then did not have a fourth player and had to give away the final singles frame. Thus making it 2-2 into the doubles frame. The Chester Road pair managed to win a scrappy frame and thus the match 3-2. Chester Road finished second in the group but on 18 points they were one point away from best runner up.

The final match in this group was another inter-club clash between St Johns D and St Johns C. The D side got off to a super start with Glyn Summers scoring 72 including breaks of 22 and 24. Then Roy Dickinson for the D side scored 74 to win his frame. Dave Hayward clinched the match taking the black to score 63 in his frame. This trend continued with Pete Smith for the D side scoring 63 as well. Winning the doubles meant the D side took the match 5-0.

In group 2 the first match saw Pockets A take on club rivals Pockets S. The S side got off to the best start winning the first frame through Charles Newey who scored 65. The A side hit back to take the second frame. Craig Homer of the A side then took the third frame scoring 71. Alan Turner of the A side seemed to have settled the match when he potted the black only to go in off and thus give the frame to the S side. This put the match at 2-2 going into the doubles frame. The S side pairing of Charles Newey and Phil Dunn managed to take a low scoring frame, giving them a victory 3-2.

The second match saw the group leaders Pockets E take on Three Lions. Pockets proved to be far too strong on the night and won 5-0. John Betton scored 70 in his frame. Tom Pepperall had a 57 break in his score of 78 and Wayne Dobson had a 33 break in his score of 74. Thus Pockets ran out 5-0 winners and secured a place in the semi-finals as group winners with 25 points.

The final match in this group was between St Georges and Wribbenhall. St Georges won the first frame with Matt Adleton scoring 84 points. Wribbenhall took the second frame but St Georges hit back taking frame three with Ken Humphries scoring 61 points. Wribbenhall took the final singles frame with Gary Smith scoring 70 points. The doubles frame thus became the decider with the Wribbenhall pair of Gary Smith and John Roberts scoring 61 points to win and claim a 3-2 victory for the visitors.

Group 3 saw St Johns E progress to the semi-finals with a win over Pockets G. The Pockets team took the first frame through Mark Donovan, but this proved to be their only success of the evening with St Johns taking the rest of the frames to claim a place in the semi finals with a 4-1 victory and ending the group stage with 25 points.

The second match was to provide the best runner up of the groups. Workmans A needed as many points as they could get against their B side. Things did not go to plan as the B side took the first frame. The A side then hit back taking the next two frames with Andrew Brooke scoring 73 in his frame. The B side then took the final singles frame meaning the match was still in the balance in the doubles frame. The B side pairing of rob Southall and Colin McMurray took the frame scoring 72 in the process. Even though losing 3-2 on the night to their B side the Workmans A side went through as best runner up in the groups with 19 points one above Chester Road in group 1 and two points above both Pockets S and Pockets A in group 2.

The line up for the semi-finals will be Pockets B, Pockets E, St Johns E and Workmans A. The matches will take place on April 24.