Cue cup retained

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 30

Cue cup retained

Canterbury’s long spell of dominance over Otago in billiards and snooker seems over. Last year Otago had a rare win in the annual Stevenson Cup fixture and at the week-end it retained the cup in Dunedin with another impressive win. Canterbury finished ahead in its traditional strength, billiards, by five games to four, but Otago was far superior in snooker and a 7-2 success gave it over-all victory, 11-7. Canterbury’s top two billiards players, Brian Kirkness and Eric Simons, each won two of their three games, the losses in both cases being to the experienced Lance Napper. Napper beat Kirkness convincingly, but he only just held out Simons, who with a

70 break was only five points in arrears at the bell. Canterbury’s third billiards player, Bill Burney, had one win and two losses. Kirkness had the two highest breaks, 126 and 131, These were the only centuries.

Most interest in the snooker centred on the meeting between the New Zealand champion, Dave Meredith (Canterbury), and the man who previously held the title, Dale Kwok. Kwok won in three straight games, although two of them were decided on the black. Meredith won his other two games to earn Canterbury its only snooker points, the other two players, Barry Edlin and Dick O’Callaghan, failing to win a game.