Heworth 'A' achieved their fourth league and cup double in five years when they beat Acomb 'A' 4-3 in a hard-fought York Conservative clubs' Team Snooker Cup final at Bootham Conservative Club.

Acomb came within one ball of winning after being 3-0 down and there was a surprise defeat for Heworth's Neil Wood, the league player of the year.

Clive Whyte won the first frame for Heworth with some panache. Ian Gillies left a red over a black pocket with his break shot and Whyte made a four blacks 33 break.

He went 46 up before Gillies potted his first red and Whyte increased his lead to 57-1. Gillies scored six points but after Whyte had sunk red, pink and the last red Gillies conceded when trailing 66-7.

Jason Milner made it 2-0 for Heworth when he recovered to steal the frame from Richard Harris 37-36.

Harris led 36-19 and needed only one of the last three colours, but Milner sank blue and after a poor safety shot by Harris he cut the pink into the yellow pocket and played the white ball the length of the table. This left a simple black which Milner sank to win the frame.

Strong, positive potting saw Steve Burdett take control of the third frame against Acomb's Marcus O'Boyle. Burdett made breaks of 20, 28 and 24 and after he had potted the last red his opponent conceded with the scores 83-12.

Paul Clark won the first frame for Acomb, coming back from 18-13 down against Richie Burdett to win 62-33.

Mick Frampton attacked from the start of the fifth frame and quickly went 29-2 up against Neil Wood. He potted the last red and a green to go 33-12 ahead, a lead which should have been greater as he had taken seven reds without colours.

Wood gained eight points from snookers and he added yellow and green to trail 33-25. Frampton took the brown with a long diagonal shot to green pocket but left the blue available.

Wood potted it before playing a delicate shot off the pink on a cushion to lay a snooker behind black. Wood gained six points from Frampton's miss and two shots later added the pink to lead for the first time, 42-27. But he was unable to repeat the shot on the black and Frampton clipped it into the middle pocket to win 44-42, cutting Heworth's lead to 3-2.

Heworth captain Keith Lawrence went 35-1 ahead of Trevor Ventress in the sixth frame and went on to win 59-38 which gave Heworth a match-winning fourth frame.

Meanwhile, Ged Mackenzie had moved 28-8 ahead of Heworth's Dave Taylor in the seventh frame. Taylor came back to trail 33-23 but Mackenzie potted the last red and the yellow only for Taylor to pick off yellow and green then brown and blue to lead 37-36.

Mackenzie gained the pink to make it a black ball frame and he won when Taylor just failed with his shot. Acomb won the frame 49-37 but lost the match 4-3.

The cup and trophies were presented by competition sponsor Roy Walker of Kutters and Shannons.

Updated: 13:09 Thursday, April 19, 2001