Right on Cue

Bradford No 1 maintained their 100 per cent start in pursuit of retaining the Yorkshire Inter-District League snooker title with a 4-2 victory against Harrogate.

Wayne Cooper once again opened in emphatic style, taking little time to compile an 82 break on his way to an 82-0 victory against Andy Blamire to put the hosts 1-0 up in the Division One contest at Undercliffe Cricket Club.

Cooper did not have it all his own way in the second frame as Blamire found his feet and kept the Bradford cueman quiet with a combination of good safety and consistent potting. But a rare mistake on the brown left Cooper to clear and win 56-40.

Bradford captain Kevin Firth could do little during his match as Harrogate counterpart Gyles Behbood brought his A game to the table and hardly missed a ball.

In their first frame, Behbood made an early 37 break and finished with a 43 to win 100-0, then wrapped up their second 86-0 with an impressive run of 82.

But Mark Slater was as reliable as ever and won both his frames comfortably 65-30 and 73-12 against Callum Waite, the second including breaks of 42 and 31.

In Division Two, Bradford No 2 ended up with a 3-3 draw against Huddersfield at Bullroyd Social Club.

Bradford captain Hanif Rafiq, Boover Singh and Tanveer Mohammed all shared frames with their opponents.

Meanwhile, Bradford’s billiards side faced a mountainous challenge against defending champions Leeds at the Northern Snooker Centre – and so it proved.

John McEachran was on the wrong end of rapid breaks of 35, 37 and 42 from Bob Patterson in going down 200-109.

It was a similar story for captain Stephen Kershaw, with opponent Jonathon Bagley making runs of 67 and 49 in a 200-95 victory.

Paul Devitt put up a good fight, an early 38 break looking good for a Bradford point, but Dave Barker made a 44 on the way to a 200-163 win and a 7-0 whitewash for the hosts.

The three Bradford players are in action again on Sunday at the Manhattan Club in Harrogate in the English Grand Masters regional qualifiers.

* The first round of the Hey’s Trophy will be played on successive Thursdays, December 12 and 19. All details are due to be sent to clubs by tournament director Eddie Ratcliffe (07790-379832) before the weekend.