King John VII?

BARRING the sort of serious injury that befell Alex Thorn, defending champion John Hunter should secure his seventh Cuestars South Wilts Snooker League title.

The Andover cueman needs just one frame from two re-arranged games against Neil Carroll and Martin Hill to overtake long-time leader Gary Hart.

Hart (Porton) kept the pressure on with a 4-1 victory over Hill (Durrington) in the final round of matches at Salisbury Snooker Club. “The frame score didn’t reflect the match,” insisted Hart. After his opponent equalised at 1-1 with a 38 break, Hart took the next two with runs of 33 and 31. Hill missed the frame-ball brown in the next and Hart forced and won a re-spotted black. And he nicked the last on the final black.

Richard Arnold (Salisbury) dented Hart’s title hopes with a 3-2 victory. The pair shared the first two frames before Arnold surged ahead, winning the next two by large margins to secure the bonus point. Hart rallied with a 46 in the fifth.

Providing Hill does not beat Hunter, Steve Ashton (Salisbury) will finish the season in third spot after seeing off fourth-placed Paul Burt (Britford) 4-1.

And 14-year-old Callum McDonald ended his debut season with his best result. The Bishopdown teenager, who had picked up his first frame in his previous match following six 5-0 defeats, narrowly lost 3-2 on the pink to Nick Bevan (Salisbury).

Thorn (Shrewton), forced to retire from the league after sustaining two broken wrists in a snowboarding accident, has had all his results deleted from the table.

Richard Arnold 3 Gary Hart 2, Gary Hart 4 Martin Hill 1, Callum McDonald 2 Nick Bevan 3, Steve Ashton 4 Paul Burt 1.