Hunter misses ton but reclaims South Wilts lead
BACK-to-back 5-0 victories and the highest break of the season helped defending champion John Hunter reclaim his customary spot in the Cuestars South Wilts Snooker League.
The Andover cueman, 46 next week, missed the black off its spot on a run of 94 against Neil Carroll (Southampton) and added a 53 for good measure at Salisbury Snooker Club.
Long-time league leader Carroll dropped to second, one point behind Hunter.
In a re-arranged game, Hunter added breaks of 40 and 46 as he whitewashed Alex Thorn (Shrewton).
But the scoreline didn’t tell the whole story. The first three frames went to the blue, the pink and the black respectively.
Thorn said: “I gave him a really good battle, the best I’ve played against him probably.”
Again unfortunate to go 3-0 down to Steve Ashton (Salisbury), Thorn mitigated the loss by securing the last two frames.
“I felt good,” he said. “My cueing was good.”
Meanwhile, Nick Bevan (Salisbury) took a 1-0 lead against Gary Hart (Porton) but lost 4-1.
Hart said: “It was more like a competition to see who could play worse. And luckily I lost!”
And Stuart Dreyer (Salisbury), trailing 2-0 to Richard Arnold (Salisbury), changed tactics and pulled off a remarkable 3-2 victory.
“I decided to play a slightly more attacking game, which paid off,” he explained.
Arnold, who said his opponent “fought back well” to take the third frame, missed a straightforward pink for the match. And he claimed Dreyer nicked the decider “with a pink potted at the opposite end of the table from the pocket aimed for”.
Results: Stuart Dreyer 3 Richard Arnold 2, John Hunter 5 Neil Carroll 0, Alex Thorn 0 John Hunter 5, Gary Hart 4 Nick Bevan 1, Steve Ashton 3 Alex Thorn 2.
Highest break: John Hunter 94.&