Away Wins Dominate Knockout Cup
By Graham Clark

In this weeks matches of the Formby & District Snooker League attention has moved away from the League to Cup action in the form of the Allan Parker Knockout Cup.

Out of the six first round ties being played, five were won by the away teams. Only one game needed to be decided on the aggregate, Legion D’s home win over Holy Trinity which proved to be a very tight contest.

Bob Graham scored comfortably for the Legion while James Holman won well for Trinity to halve the opening exchanges. Luke Palethorpe then stepped up to the plate and impressively defied a big handicap to beat Eric McLean 114-42. However Alan Swifts defeat of Kenny Woodward again levelled matters with Trinity holding a 21 point lead on aggregate. The final frames were also shared but the Legions Chris Wagstaff sealed the tie, winning 79-36 to overturn the aggregate deficit and send his side through to the Quarters.

Robbie Wilson starred for Crosby Comrades, hitting a 42 break in his 89-71 defeat of Les Dodd’s C’s Brian Hardy having conceded a 54 point start on handicap. Crosby went on to a 4-2 win.

Breaks by Jimmy Tristram (29 & 21), Bill Clare (25 & 21) and Ian Dickinson (22) dominated Our Lady’s A’s 5-1 win against the Brook Club while the Bellas Brother’s, Mark and Tony, along with Graham Clark all successfully conceded large starts to help steer Con Club B to a 4-2 win at Our Lady’s B.

Les Dodd’s B were the only team to have their match won after the first four frames. Paddy Tyndall, Peter Tomlin, Mark Hopgood and Dave Hartley were the victors with only Colin Bennett offering serious resistance, Colin went down 66-65 against Peter Tomlin.

The Final match of the week saw Con Club A record a 5-1 win over the Ince Club. This match was a lot tighter than the score looks with 5 frames going down to the last colours. Adam Maylor was the pick of the performers with his 73-45 defeat of Mike Pope having conceded 14 points on handicap.

The Six winners will join Legion B and Les Dodd’s A in the Quarter Finals who both received byes.