Snooker to Meredith

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 4

Snooker to Meredith

Dave Meredith won his sixth Canterbury snooker championship last evening, but he was made to work hard by a regular rival, Brian Kirkness, in the final at the association’s headquarters at Cuthberts Green. His previous wins were in 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982. The final was over the best of nine frames, and it went the full distance, the two protagonists being at the table for more than four hours before Meredith prevailed, five frames to four. Kirkness had his best break of 32 in the first frame, one which he won comfortably. He looked more solid than Meredith early on and had a chance of taking the second. He was ahead, 51-49, when he missed the yellow and Meredith, thankful of the chance, cleaned up the colours. In the third and fourth frames, Meredith potted much better. He had a break of 43 in the third frame, which he won in quick time and by a big margin, and he had his best break of 49 in the fourth

frame. Even then Kirkness had a good opportunity of taking the fourth frame. He miscued a shot on the yellow, which was right over a pocket, and all the colours were in good positions for him to polish off. Ahead 3-1, Meredith b&iame

a little negative and Kirkness played the safety game to a nicety. Although both missed several relatively easy pots, Kirkness was more reliable at crucial times. He potted the brown, blue and pink to take the fifth frame and the last three colours in the sixth to level at three-all. Meredith tried to give Kirkness no latitude in the seventh frame. It was a long frame, both players looking for safety shots rather than risking setting up openings. Both played some excellent snookers and it was 56-all when Kirkness stylishly potted all the colours. Down 3-4, Meredith decided if he was to lose it would be by playing positively. He went for his shots, looked a much better player for it, and had a break of 32 on the way to winning the eighth frame. The deciding frame was close initally and the lead changed four times. But with the reds widely scattered, it was only a matter of time before one player made telling breaks. Meredith did just that, with consecutive breaks of 28

and 22, and when Kirkness missed the last red, Meredith completed his victory with an unfinished break of 26. The prize for the best break of the championship went to last year’s champion, Stan Maffey, who had one of 65 in section play.