WAYNE Cooper and Kevin Firth won the Bradford Snooker Pairs title for the sixth time together, this being the tenth occasion Cooper has won the event in total and Firth the seventh.
The first frame at Great Horton Conservative Club went the way of their opponents, Mark Slater making a superb clearance on the colours to give himself and partner Jason Murgatroyd the lead with a 62-61 win.
Cooper then got into his usual rhythm and made a frame-winning break of 59 for 1-1, taking the second frame 74-43, with partner Firth producing a break of 40 in the next to take it 88-0 and a 2-1 lead.
The last frame saw Cooper at his best and showed just why he has been consistently brilliant for the last 20 years. He made a clinical break of 86 to win the fourth frame 94-1 and seal a 3-1 victory for the pairing.
The final of this season's Bradford Billiards Championship will be between reigning champion Mark Hirst and Stephen Kershaw at Great Horton Conservative Club next Wednesday (7.30pm start).
In two contrasting semi-finals, played at Clayton Conservative Club, Richard Bowes took an early lead against Mark Hirst but was pegged back almost immediately before breaks of 75 and 61 took Hirst to a comfortable 432-249 victory.
On the other table Stephen Kershaw took advantage of the early running to lead 78-22. He held that lead until the last half-hour, when a couple of breaks around the 40 mark put Steve Wilman in front for the first time, before Kershaw played out time with 26 unfinished to win 273-257.
The final will be played over two one-hour sessions and spectators are welcome to attend.
Bradford Handicap First Round Draw: J.Walker v C.Bottomley, M.Sharp v N.Storr, P.Davey v L.Szula, R.Denny v A.Whitehead, S.Moore v D.Crossan, J.Halliday Jnr v S.Sandhu, M.McAvoy v W.Randviir, R.Betts v M.Unsworth, H.Mawson v S.Flannagan, J.Buchan v J.Burrow, G.Cooper v S.Naughton, D.Norfolk v S.Hird, A.Hodgson v C.Davies, D.Peel v C.Gott, M.Glen v S.Harker, A.Austin v S.Rushforth, C.Buchan v C.Weir, M.Rhodes v M.Yeadon, A.Craven v L.McLoughlin, M.Crompton v R.Lovett, S.Glen v S.Ratcliffe, J.Kormoczi v C.Sneddon.
The remaining players have received byes and ties have to be played by June 10.
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