A fascinating Bradford Snooker Championship final is on the cards on Saturday, with defending champion Gareth Green (Lifeline Leisure) taking on eight-times winner Wayne Cooper (Laisterdyke Cricket Club) at Eccleshill Victoria Conservative club (7.45pm).

Green – who defeated Undercliffe Cricket’s David Stirk last year – faces an experienced campaigner in Cooper, who makes his first final appearance since last lifting the trophy in 2008, just prior to joining snooker’s main tour.

The match is the best of seven frames and spectators are welcome.

The English Snooker Championship finals took place last weekend at the Star Snooker Academy in Sheffield, with Bradford’s Kevin Firth involved in the seniors final, where he took on Nottingham’s Steve Judd.

Having qualified from his group with wins against R Spencer and A Kerr – both 3-0 – Firth then beat Phil Hartley 3-1, Paul Norris 4-2 and former England amateur champion Mark Rowing 4-0 on the way to the final.

Judd, a former winner of the England Amateur title when he beat a very young Ronnie O’Sullivan, had a similar path to the final and took the opening frame 68-31.

He then cleared from the brown to pinch frame two 50-43. A break of 47 helped Firth win the third 65-21 but Judd hit a 38 break to take a 3-1 lead at the interval.

A break of 39 saw him take the next frame 84-12 but Firth won the next 98-6, making an excellent 87 break.

Firth made a 40 break and looked like making it 4-3, only to inadvertantly touch the black with his waistcoat.

Judd made the most of his chance and he eventually pinched the frame 62-42 and with it the match 5-2.

Some consolation for Firth was the prize for the highest break of the tournament, a superb 130.

Defending Bradford Pairs champions Firth and Dave Stirk (Undercliffe CC) enjoyed a 3-0 victory in the semi finals over Craig Davies and Chris Smith (Tong Libs) at Great Horton Conservative Club, with Firth making breaks of 43 and 39, while Stirk hit a 46 and 38.

They now play Cooper and Lee Atkinson (Laisterdyke CC) in the final on May 25, also at Great Horton.

The E Rosse Hopkinson Plate final at East Ward last week produced a script that would be hard to beat, when Tong Liberals ‘A’ took on Wibsey Liberals ‘A’.

Conceding 200 points handicap, Wibsey got off to the perfect start, with Dave Brownsett pulling back 88 points against Chris Smith, winning 71-25 and 86-44, the highlight being a well-taken break of 50 by the Wibsey captain.

Tong’s Andy Carroll pushed Tom Bell all the way in their first before falling 54-46, while Bell claimed a good win 81-27 to narrow Tong’s lead to only 50 at the interval.

Alex McCann was in good form for Wibsey against Craig Davies, making a break of 31 in winning the opening frame 88-19, while Tong captain Andy Hodgson produced some good snooker himself to gain a valuable first-frame win 72-27 over Wibsey’s Jim Newton, meaning Tong’s lead was now only 26.

McCann made breaks of 36, 28 and 22 before missing a crucial green and Davies took the colours to claw back to 86-44 to McCann, but Wibsey had the initiative with a 16-point lead and Newton was leading by 15 with only one red remaining. Hodgson, however, took the red with black, Newton potted yellow, before Hodgson cleared with a 25 break to tie an incredible match.

Neither team deserved to lose but a respotted black was needed to seperate the sides and it was Newton who won the toss and put Hodgson in.

What happened next was awfully bad luck, as Hodgson attempted to play a half-ball safety on the black, which double kissed and sent the white agonisingly into the black corner pocket, handing the trophy to Wibsey.

The final of the Heys Trophy takes place tonight at Undercliffe Cricket Club (7.30pm) with Northcote Cons taking on Upper Bolton Cons ‘A’ in a big local derby contest.

The first round proper of billiards’ Moorhouse Shield starts next Thursday and all clubs involved will now have full details.