Team Bradford UK League Snooker Annual Championship Runners-Up 2015
Right On Cue
“Arco Sponsored Bradford so close to National Title”
With the backing of clothing and equipment specialists Arco Workwear, Bradford’s snooker team came agonisingly close to taking the title at the National Snooker League Championships, held at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.
Having won the Yorkshire Inter-District League title for the last 3 seasons, this was the first time Bradford had been invited to play in this event and Bradford 1 trio of Wayne Cooper, Kevin Firth and Mark Slater were boosted with the addition of Gareth and Anthony Green.
There were two divisions of 8 teams, with the focus on a top 4 finish to qualify for the quarter-finals. Saturday saw the team start well, Gareth Green setting the tone with a 50 break in the first match, a 4-1 win against Bristol, followed by 3-2 victories against Cleveland and Norwich, before closing the day with a 5-0 drubbing of Newbury to head Division A overnight. Despite an opening match loss to Ormskirk 3-2, Yorkshire and Bradford Champion Cooper hit breaks of 62 and 60 in the next match against Reading, with Firth making a 73 break and Slater finishing with a 45 break for a 4-1 victory, this being the same score the team ended the group with, beating Stourbridge and Cooper hitting a 67 break.
The Quarter Finals drew Bradford against defending champions West Midlands, a side which had been in the previous 6 finals, winning 4 of them. Cooper and Gareth Green gave Bradford a 2 nil lead and although Anthony Green came unstuck in frame 3, Firth hit a 57 break to set up a mouth-watering clash with near-neighbours Leeds in the semi-finals.
The top two ranked players up to this point were Cooper and Leeds’ Kuldesh Johal with 8 wins each and a 100% record. Johal got the first chance, making a 29 break before missing a red, after which Cooper showed true class to smash a 78 break and a 1-0 lead. Gareth Green took on Scott Raper in a repeat of their 2010 Yorkshire Final clash, with Green taking the honours again and brother Anthony secured a final place with a comfortable win against rising star Lewis Gillen for a 3-0 Bradford win.
The Final saw Bradford face Norwich once again and Gareth Green set off well, making a break of 62, but opponent George Pragnell made a superb 67 break to snatch the first frame. Cooper fell to Grant Miles in the next, his only frame defeat of the competition, with Sam Betts wrapping up the 3-0 victory for Norwich, beating Anthony Green, meaning Firth and Slater were frozen out once again.
This was an excellent achievement against some of the country’s best sides and Cooper claimed the best-ranked player award, but having experienced defeat in the Final, the team are already looking forward to trying to go one step further next season.
In the Bradford Snooker Championships first round, Cooper and Firth play Thursday night at Undercliffe Cricket Club 7pm, where the duo will battle out the full best of 7 match. The deadline for matches to be played is this weekend.
