Mitchell captures individual title in his first year

IT was standing room only for spectators at the Clevedon Conservative Club for the Monty Cooper individual snooker final of the Clevedon District League between Mitchell Stockham (Dundry B and Jay Snook (Triangle B)

In a tense opening frame, both players realising how important it is to get off to a good start, were level at 40 points each with four colours remaining. Snook looked favourite to take it when taking the brown, but missed a good opportunity on the blue in the middle pocket.

A reprieve for Stockham saw him pot blue and pink to go seven points up. Then it was Stockham's turn to miss the black in the middle pocket.

A safety battle then followed, but Stockham made up for his earlier error potting a long black in the corner pocket (58-44).

Stockham seemed to be growing in confidence in Frame 2, and took it with still two reds remaining to go, 2-0 up (51-17).

In the third, Snook potted a terrific long red to land nicely on the black. Another red and black followed, but he was unlucky not to be on a red when splitting the pack up from the black to end up on nothing.

However Snook was 20 points up and seemed to be finding the form which got him to the final, but once again Stockham showed why he is such a tough player to beat. Some clever safety shots got him back in the frame. Snook was behind and only scored another eight points, before Stockham pulled within one frame of the title in his debut year.

Snook found some good form in the fourth. His potting, positional and safety play was the best all night, and won it comfortably (30-59).

Stockham seemed to re-gather his concentration in frame five and soon was 20 points up. Snook did try his best to claw his way back in the match, but Stockham was too strong. The shot of the frame was when Stockham swerved around the blue when snookered, potting the red in the middle pocket to land perfectly on the pink. A foul on the brown by Snook sealed victory and match for Stockham (62-16).