CARDIFF & DISTRICT SNOOKER ASSOCIATION

Malcolm Keenor Trophy Match 1

Mackintosh Sports 3 v 2 Cuesaders Z
RBL Warriors 0 v 5 Trecenydd Snooker
Taff’s Well 3 v 2 Cathays Cons

Plate Match 1

Fairwater Cons 4 v 1 Mackintosh Snooker
Canton Libs 2 v 3 Rumney British Legion
Savoy v Bye

Breaks

Luke Haines 61
Jason Hewett 47

Trecenydd Snooker have started their defence of the Malcolm Keenor Trophy in style with a 5-0 win away to RBL Warriors in the first round of group matches. Chris Garwood’s side started well with wins for Tony Williams and Mike Pardoe against Chris Johnson and Simon Takata respectively. Dan Bridle sealed the win with a victory over Jason Veal before captain Garwood defeated Nick Davis with David Birkenshaw completing the whitewash with a win over Mike Watts.

Taff’s Well and Cathays Cons played out the closest match of the week after all five frames were decided on the colours. Rob Hayes got them off to a good start with a superb long brown to seal the win over Darren Gill, before James Llewellyn won on the blue against Mike Rathkey to make it 2-0. The next was the frame of the match with Kevin Brown and Dave Earls both producing excellent match-play, but a superb clearance from Earls pulled one back for Cathays.

The next frame saw Nick Jones start strongly and take an early lead but some solid potting from Dave Standage again took the frame to the colours. An excellent green-to-brown positional shot set up the clearance for Standage and he won it on the pink to take the match to a decider, with Tom Cross playing well to beat Johnny Davies and with it the match 3-2.

In the other match in the group, Mackintosh Sports overcame Cuesaders Z 3-2 as they seek to win the Malcolm Keenor Trophy for the first time, and they went 1-0 up with Alan Hurley beating Mike Kinman in a high-scoring frame, before Dave Reynolds levelled things up after beating Clive Marsh. Paul Butcher then won a pivotal black-ball frame against Bill Bainton to make it 2-1, and the win was sealed by reigning Player of the Year Jason Hewett with a 47 break to beat Rob Richards, before Paul Chichester won the final frame against Ronnie Allen.

The Plate is also a round-robin group with the top two sides qualifying for the final, and Fairwater Cons put themselves into a strong early position with a 4-1 win over Mackintosh Snooker. Twm Sion Jones got his side off to a winning start against Mike Nessbert, but he had to come from behind to do so after the Mackintosh captain built an early lead, but Jones hit back with breaks of 34 and 21 to seal the win. The next frame started in similar fashion with Nathan Dunne establishing a lead after the first few reds against Steve Flanagan, but some excellent safety play from Fairwater’s captain including a profitable snooker saw him restore parity before a very good blue won him the frame to put his side 2-0 up. Mackintosh only had four available players meaning the match was lost, but Satinder Singh won a consolation frame with a win over Shaun O’Connell, before Terry Garland made it 4-1 with victory over Deepak Singh.

Rumney British Legion produced the performance of the night with a 3-2 win away to Canton Libs inflicting the first defeat of the season on James Wigmore’s side. Andy Magill won the opener against Tony Chick and Alex Ellis looked like he was going to make it 2-0, but an excellent comeback from 40 points down by Rory Wigmore levelled the match at 1-1. The individual highlight of the night came in the next frame with Canton’s Luke Haines compiling a superb 61 break against Tony Parkin. However, it could have been a lot more and the first century of the season looked likely with four reds remaining, but a missed black as he tried to develop a red cost him the chance of the clearance. An excellent performance from Albert Columbo then made it 2-2 with a win over captain Wigmore, and Ben Harding followed it up to defeat Declan O’Callaghan and give Frank Deriu’s side a deserved win.