Grinders celebrating after Dano Fitzpatrick Cup win

5 April 2017

DRUMANESS Grinders dragged themselves from the bottom of the league to secure the Dano Fitzpatrick Cup in a dramatic late night black ball finish reminiscent of the world snooker championship of 1985.

Peter Rogan faced off against Bobby Douglas in the opening two frames. With the balls open early, Bobby started to make inroads on the 28 handicap deficit. With a commanding 31 break and a timely 22 clearance, Bobby took the first frame 87-59.

Peter managed to shrug off the first frame defeat and started to show that he knew his way around a snooker table — a full length pot red down the cushion only adding to his confidence.

Bobby, sensing danger, managed four reds and four blacks for a 32 break to get himself back into the frame.

With the colours remaining it was nip and tuck to the finish line and Peter ended it in a flurry to take him over the line with a 76-73 win.

Drumaness captain Stevie Anderson was up against this year’s player of the year, Mark Mc Keown.

Mark , also giving away 28 points on handicap, found Stevie hard to handle and with the balls running very awkwardly Mark found it difficult to score.

Stevie was happy to pick off reds and colours to protect his handicap, which he duly did with a fine 94-49 win.

After three frames of snooker there was very little in the overall scores as the next frame was racked up.

The fourth frame saw the balls open more favourably and Mark regained some of the fluency that has served him well all season.

Although Stevie managed some great pots he couldn’t manage to string any breaks together, allowing Mark to capitalise and win the frame 84-65, remarkably setting up the last match with only one point separating the two sides.

Sean Burns stepped up for St Michael’s, while Seamus McGivern, having already won this year’s individual title in a final frame decider, was well used to tense situations on the table.

As the balls broke there was nothing separating both players as the frame progressed with both players playing some great safety, giving little away.

The break came on the colours as Seamus managed to nudge in front winning the frame 71-61, giving Drumaness an overall lead of 11 points going into the last frame.

Tension was beginning to show as both players failed to capitalise on early chances. With ten reds gone nothing was separating them. The last few reds were shared and it was looking clear to all in attendance that this match was going right to the wire.

Seamus managed to nose in front on the colours, but Sean potted green and brown to keep himself in the match. Then came the chance Seamus was looking for as he only required blue and pink.

After potting the blue he didn’t manage to gain good position on the pink and over-cut it to the middle pocket, giving hope to all the travelling St Michael’s fans.

A few safety shots later, Sean got a great chance to steal the match. After potting the pink the desired position on the final black was not achieved and he left himself a one-in-ten thin cut on the black.

Sean’s attempt on the black failed and he was horrified to see the black and the cue ball travel up to the middle of the table, finally resting over the middle pocket. Seamus got up, composed himself and ped the black into the middle to take the title.

Drumaness captain Stevie Anderson thanked those in attendance for a wonderful night of snooker and the St Mary’s club for hosting the final, in which the last snooker cup of the season was handed over.

DRUMANESS GRINDERS 407

ST MICHAEL’S A 396

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