Breaks

Ben Harding 65 (Rumney British Legion)
Khurram Khan 43 (Caerphilly A)
Craig Bolton 40 (Mackintosh Snooker)
Tony Storer 36 (Roath Cons)
Chris Johnson 35 (Taff’s Well Warriors)

Caerphilly A and Mackintosh Snooker are favourites to qualify for the Malcolm Keenor Trophy final, after they both registered impressive 4-1 wins against Fairwater Cons and Taff’s Well respectively in the first leg of their semi-finals.

A 43 break from Khurram Khan against Terry Garland got Caerphilly A off to the perfect start, but Dan Bridle defeated Steffan Davies to levelled the match. Nural Khan’s win over Steve Flanagan restored Caerphilly’s lead, before the pivotal frame of the match saw Ben Griffiths clinch the match with a black-ball win against Twm Sion Jones. The final frame was a crucial one heading into the second leg next month, and Rob McKenna won it for Caerphilly versus Jason Hewett to give his side the advantage.

Mackintosh Snooker had to come from behind in their match against Taff’s Well after Glyn Jones beat Nathan Dunne in an entertaining frame, finishing the match with a 31 clearance. Craig Bolton drew his side level though with a very good 40 break to defeat Jimmy Llewellyn, before Mike Nessbert won a close frame against Tom Cross to put the Mack 2-1 ahead. Carlos Schiazza’s win over Rhys Carpenter gave the Mack an unassailable lead heading into the decider, and Eassa Din defeated Kevin Brown to complete a very good night’s work for his side.

In the CDSA Plate, both semi-finals are on a knife-edge after close 3-2 wins for Rumney British Legion against Macky Misfits and Canton Libs over County Cons.

A closely-fought contest at Rumney went the way of the Legion as they beat Macky Misfits 3-2, but they found themselves 2-0 behind after Renato Ridoloni beat Andy McGill in the first frame, before Steve Wellbeloved doubled their lead against Tony Parkin. A very close third frame was won by Paul Chichester versus Jacob Boyle to keep the Misfits in the match, before the individual highlight of the week came in the next frame with Ben Harding registering an excellent 65 break against Bill Bainton to take the match to a decider, with Ethan Chichester defeating Satinder Singh to give his side the win.

Canton also take a slim advantage into the second leg but found themselves 1-0 down after Mike Rathkey beat James Wigmore in the opening frame. Wins for Ed Topham against Dave Earls and Tony Chick versus Dan Wardle turned the match around and put Canton 2-1 up, before Rory Wigmore’s win over Dave Standage sealed the victory, but crucially, a walkover in the final frame for Darren Gill keeps County in the tie.

Taff’s Well Warriors are in pole position in the medal match against Roath Cons after a 4-1 victory at home leaves them in a strong position for the return leg at Roath. However, Tony Storer won the opener for Roath against Geoff Sheppard thanks to a 36 break, before Simon Takata build a good early lead versus Andrew Champion and did enough to hold it on the colours and level the match at 1-1. The third frame was a marathon as Mike Watts faced Alan Wright, with safety dominating proceedings, taking the frame to the colours. Wright looked favourite after a superb long green and brown, but a missed blue gave Watts the opportunity and he made no mistake to give his side the lead. A strong start by Dave Richards in the next gave him an early lead against Phil Storer, who managed to chip away and take the frame to the colours but Richards did enough to clinch it and seal the match for the Warriors. A very good 35 break from Chris Johnson helped him to cancel out a 21 handicap start for Rob Reid in the final frame, but Reid managed to make a frame of it and battle to the colours but Johnson did enough to win and give his side a very good result.