Gritty Arnold close to famous victory
SALISBURY’S Richard Arnold gave the runaway leader of the Cuestars South Wilts Snooker League plenty to think about in the ninth round of matches at Salisbury Snooker Club.
Although Arnold eventually went down 3-2 to Andover’s John Hunter, excellent safety combined with gritty matchplay saw the 48-year-old lead 1-0 and 2-1.
Hunter levelled with a 38 break and his underlying quality came to the fore as he dug deep and produced an excellent run of 64 in the decider.
Arnold is pictured above (left) with the 1986 world champion Joe Johnson.
Elsewhere, Alex Thorn (Shrewton) hauled himself off the bottom after a “good scrap” against Gary Hart (Porton).
Thorn won the first two frames on the black and the fourth on the pink to lead 3-1. The 36-year-old polished off the fifth with a long blue.
“I was pleased to win,” he said. “It was a good boxing match.”
In a re-arranged game, Thorn suffered what appeared to be a mauling by the title favourite.
Although Hunter took the third frame with a 68 and the fourth with breaks of 30 and 40, Thorn had chances in the first, failed to pinch the pocket on a clearance in the next and suffered a hammer blow in the fifth.
Trailing by ten points, Hunter fluked the green, fluked the brown and cleared the table.
Thorn said: “The outcome was a bit difficult to take.”
Gary Hart (Porton) may have lost 3-2 to Paul Burt (Britford) but he certainly had the last laugh.
Failing to escape from an “evil” snooker behind the brown in the final frame, Hart was put back in with a chance of a long pot down the rail.
“Paul didn’t fancy me getting it, understandably,” explained Hart.
“I potted probably my best pot of the match and managed to make 21 which left Paul needing snookers on the colours.”
Results: Alex Thorn 4 Gary Hart 1, Richard Arnold 2 John Hunter 3, Trevor Pittman 3 Jeremy Dawson 2, James Bolton 1 Neil Carroll 4. Re-arranged games: John Hunter 5 Alex Thorn 0, Gary Hart 2 Paul Burt 3.