Return of Mid-Ulster League
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
THE new season started last week and this year's league will run on a handicap basis for the first time. A pre-league competition (League Cup) will be used mainly as a way of assessing handicaps prior to the commencement of the league.
The first match of the new season had last year's champions Mitchell's from Cookstown playing against St Patrick's B of Magherafelt. First to play was Seamus Mitchell against Sean Doyle: Sean was the league's unbeaten player of last season but lost out 2-0 to a fine display from Seamus who had a 37 in response to a 38 break from Sean in the second frame.
Ciaran Cassidy of St Patrick's was in top form with 30 breaks in both frames to beat Declan Callan 2-0.
In the final match, the frames were shared between Enda McCusker and Paul McGuckin of Mitchell's.
Longfield A travelled to play Ardboe A but went home with only one frame. Paul and Martin O'Hagan from Longfield both beat 2-0 with only Noel McAllister taking a frame of Seamus Devlin from Ardboe.
Smokers of the Loup were unlucky not to share the points when they played Ardboe B at home, Kevin Murray captain of the Smokers lost two close frames against Kyle McIvor. Cathal Devlin and Dessie Murray drew their matches 1-1 against Paddy Teague and Chris Collins.
The first derby of the season was Longfield A and B teams who play out of Desertmartin. Both teams had a point to prove who really was the A team. It turned out that the B were victorious with a 5-1 victory. Philip O'Hagan beaten 2-0 by his younger brother Enda, one of the top players to watch out for this season. Marty for the A team was beaten 2-0 by Gerard Murray and yet again it was left for Noel McAllister to get the single frame to stop the first whitewash of the season.
Ardboe A and St Patrick's B played their second match of the season and shared the frames 3-3.
Ciaran Cassidy of St Patrick's lost 2-0 to Paddy O'Neill but Sean Doyle bounced back with breaks in his two frames to beat Seamus Devlin and leave the match score 2-2. Going into the final match, Conrad McCann shared the final two frames against Enda McCusker.
The match between Johnny's and St Pat's A was postponed due to the death of Gerard McAuley's father.
Fixtures
Monday 17th November
St Patrick's B v Longfield; Smokers v Johnny's; Mitchell's v Ardboe A; Ardboe v St Patrick's A.
