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The Amateur Billiard Player : February 1999

INTER-COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Finals

The four surviving counties from the qualifying rounds gathered at the Pocket Snooker Centre in Kidderminster on Sunday 3rd January 1999, to decide the title of English County Champion and the distribution of the £500 prize fund.

Pre-match favourites, Cleveland "A", suffered an early setback as David White established a 115 point advantage for Cornwall in defeating Darren Kell. However, after this the Cleveland side had things entirely their own way, as first Lee Lagan then Paul Bennett put together a string of big breaks to cruise through to the final.

Norfolk´s Phil Welham set his side off to a winning start, including a 59 break in his 61 point victory over Tony Keeling. Fos Wilson then increased this advantage to 202 as his opponent, Ernie Houghton, struggled to find his form. This left Peter Shelley with too much to do for Staffs/West Midlands, and although he won his match against David Nichols, the Norfolk team went through with an aggregate win of 119 points.

Semi-finals
Cleveland A  Cornwall A
Darren Kell 179 David White (72) 294
Lee Lagan (99 94 64 61) 448 Keith Olver 168
Paul Bennett (101 66 59) 407 Charlie Gay 174
 1,034  636
 
Norfolk  Staffs/West Midlands
Phil Welham (59) 241 Tony Keeling 180
Fos Wilson 232 Ernie Houghton 91
David Nichols 207 Peter Shelley 290
  680  561

Phil Welham, with a string of early breaks, establish an early lead of almost 200 points against Paul Bennett, but could not maintain the momentum as the English Champion pulled back to within 49 points at the close. Darren Kell also started brightly for the Cleveland side, putting together early breaks of 89 and 60, but thereafter had difficulty in shaking off the challenge of Fos Wilson, eventually winning by 73 points. As the last pairing came to the table the match could hardly have been more balanced, with Cleveland holding an advantage of just 24 points. For most of the game, neither player could establish a dominant position. Then, with just 15 minutes left on the clock, Lee Lagan settled the matter with breaks of 103 and 91 unfinished to take the title for the Cleveland side.

Final
Cleveland A  Norfolk
Paul Bennett 237 Phil Welham (66 48 45 47) 286
Darren Kell (89 60) 288 Fos Wilson 215
Lee Lagan (103 91 unf) 414 David Nichols 217
  937  718

Third place was secured by Cornwall "A" when they defeated Staffs/ West Midlands in a play-off. David White was particularly impressive, running in consecutive breaks of 101 and 109 to defeat Peter Shelley by 280 points. Tony Keeling redressed the balance for the Staffs/West Midlands side with a 233 point victory over Keith Olver, which included a break of 73. However, the come-back was halted at this stage as Charlie Gay steered the Cornwall side to victory with a comfortable win over Ernie Houghton.

EABA Chairman Peter Shelley presented the winning Cleveland side with a cheque for £200 and Norfolk took £150 as runners up. The superb playing conditions at the Pocket Snooker Centre brought favourable comment from several of the competitors who hoped that this venue may again be used for EABA competitions.