English Champion Lee Lagan tried his hand at snooker with some measure of success, reaching the final of both the Southfield and Redcar League Pairs competition, in partnership with Hemlington snooker star, Chris Jones. Unfortunately the pair were defeated in both finals, losing out in the Southfield competition to another of the area's top billiard players, Paul Boden, who was partnered by Brian Durham from the Ironopolis Club.
Although he lives in Newcastle, Alf Nolan has been representing Middlesbrough's Western Club for so long they have named their billiard room after him. Although now 72 years-old, he showed recently that he was still capable of beating the best when he defeated the current English Champion Lee Lagan, 120-48 in the Friendly League's end-of-season cup match.
In the Southfield League Individual Billiards, Paul Bennett (Hemlington) defeated Darren Kell (Ironopolis) by 68 points in the 250 up final. With neither player producing anything like the standard of which they are capable, only Kell with breaks of 52 and 51 could exceed the half-century.
In the League, Ironopolis had travelled to Hemlington knowing that they needed to win all the three billiard games to take the championship. Although successful in two of these, Hemlington won the single game they needed to clinch the title by just 1 point. Last season, the two teams had finished level at the top of the billiards section. The League's knock-out cup came to its climax in June and once more brought together the rival teams of Ironopolis and Hemlington in the final. The three games of 120 up all went to the Ironopolis squad, Darren Kell providing the start performance with a break of 115 unfinished in his game against Lee Lagan. Earlier, team-mate Geoff Charville had recorded breaks of 40 and 57 unfinished to defeat Paul Bennett, and Paul Boden had come from behind to pip Hemlington's Mark Hatton by just two points.
Paul Bennett set a new record for the Stockton Games League with a run of 124 unfinished, strategically completing his 120 up game with a five-point shot. Bennett additionally took the league's Individual Championship, defeating Tony McKinder (Elm Tree) in the final. His team, Cowpen SC, also won the billiards division of the League.
The League's Individual Championship was this year renamed “The Albert Hanson Memorial Trophy”, in honour of Albert's years of work in making the League successful. The final, between Robin Wilson and Martin Shutt, was played in the presence of World No.6 Chris Shutt, who was there to support his younger brother. If this was a distraction for Wilson, it was not apparent, as he completed a 191-128 victory.
The "Ralph Macklin" under-15 Individual Championship was assured of a new champion as Robin Wilson—who had won the event the previous four years—was no longer eligible to enter. After winning his semi-final by just 3 points, Andrew Fairley (Redcar) took the title by defeating Danny Cornwell (Eston) 115-98.
The League celebrated the completion of it's 25th season with a presentation night at the Elm Tree Social Club, home of the League winners. Captain Ben Hooton was playing his last season, having reached "retirement" age, and had contributed 18 wins over the course of the season. Team-mate Martin Shutt also had an impressive record with 17 wins from 18 appearances and an average aggregate of 174 in the 30 minute games. The Elm Tree squad, which additionally includes Jeff Henderson, Billy Bousfield and Glen Blythman also secured the knock-out cup.
Darren Pinchbeck of Grangetown St. Mary's won the individual billiards championship by defeating Paul Mackell of Grangetown United 400-395