No 2's ARE IN THE PINK AFTER WIN OVER STRUTT RIVALS

BELPER STRUTT CLUB No 2 with the Jimmy Harper Plate Trophy.
L-R: Chris Stubbs, Adam Winson, Steve Buckley and Dave Needham.

THREE finals took centre stage this week, one of which saw the two teams from Belper Strutt Club contesting a cliff-hanger in the conclusion of the Jimmy Harper Team Plate aggregate competition.
Dave Needham struck a significant blow for the No 2 team with a 73-21 win over Paul Jarrett in the opener and things looked even bleaker for the B Division champions when Steve Buckley edged out Mark Newby 58-38 to leave a 72pts margin after just two frames.

But Wayne Shooter defeated Adam Winson 63-38 and then Steve Bullock with a 68-35 win over Chris Stubbs brought the game back to the brink as just 14pts separated the teams going into the final doubles.

And it remained nip and tuck until eventually Steve Buckley potted the decisive pink to give the No 2 outfit a hard fought success.

The Individual Handicap final, also at Strutt, saw Kevin Holmes going for a quickfire double after lifting the "B" handicap last week, and he was in pole position here receiving 40pts per frame.

KEVIN HOLMES (left) with eventual winner ANDREW GRATTON before the
Open Individual Handicap final.

But his opponent Andrew Gratton was in no mood to make things easy and soon clawed back the deficit in the opener before powering on ahead. Kevin had a chance on the colours but a missed pink proved his downfall and the Marehay ace made no mistake.

A scrappy frame went to Kevin to make it 1-1 but from thereon Andrew notched a string of quality breaks to run out a 4-1 victor, 25 in the third, 35 and 20 in the fourth and 22 in the fifth to name but a few.

The beleaguered Jaxx player cried enough at this stage even though he held a slight lead in the frame at the time, citing his lack of form on the evening as being an insurmountable burden.

DENIS MORTON Pairs finalists L-R: Jimmy Gratton and Hannah Jones with winners
Troy Brett and Dwayne Martin.

Also taking place was the Pairs Handicap final for the Denis Morton Trophy, played at Matlock Club. Jimmy Gratton and Hannah Jones were off to a flyer here, soon racing 2-0 ahead before opponents Troy Brett and Dwayne Martin found their feet, instigated by a 53 break from Troy, with three straight frames of their own.

Jimmy struck back with a 56 break to equalise before Dwayne potted the match winning blue in the final frame for a thrilling 4-3 triumph.

Jimmy Harper Team Plate final: Belper Strutt No 1 244, Belper Strutt No 2 264.
Individual Handicap final: Andrew Gratton (Marehay) 4, Kevin Holmes (Jaxx) 1.
Denis Morton Pairs Handicap final: Dwayne Martin / Troy Brett (Gladiators) 4,
Jimmy Gratton / Hannah Jones (Jaxx) 3.
Breaks: J Gratton 56,27,23; T Brett 53,24; A Gratton 35,25,22,20; D Needham 21.