by Colin RobinsonCLIVE Whyte and his Heworth club colleague Neil Wood retained the York Conservative clubs' Turnbull Mazda Pairs Snooker Cup when they beat Ken Taylor and Terry Ward of Bootham club 3-0 in the final at Fulford.

Whyte and Wood made steady progress in the first frame to lead 32-21 in a period when all players missed pots. The Heworth duo stretched their lead to 42-21 as a result of two reds, a brown and a foul by Taylor.

Ward potted the last red and took yellow to get position. He sank the yellow on his next visit to the table but, with an ideal opportunity to make a clearance to win the frame, he missed a green while using the rest.

Wood took the green to make the score 45-26 and when Ward fouled on black the Bootham pair needed a snooker to stay in the frame.

Taylor potted brown but he and Ward failed in their attempts for a snooker and Wood was left with an easy blue.

The frame was conceded by the Bootham duo when their opponents led 57-30.

The early stages of the second frame featured a lot of safety play until Whyte and Wood were leading by 9-6.

After a mistake by Ward, Wood opened up the frame with a red and an excellent yellow and went on to compile a break of 40 comprising six reds, four blacks, a brown and a yellow.

At his next visit to the table Wood made 23 which included the last two reds, a green, a brown, and the colours up to an including blue, which wrapped up the frame at 72-6 and put the Heworth pair 2-0 ahead.

Wood continued his good form in the third frame, making 23 with four reads, two pinks and a black for a 32-0 lead.

Taylor replied with red, blue, red, but went in-off after potting the yellow. He followed this with another foul, making the score 40-7 to Heworth.

Whyte increased the lead to 60-8 with red and blue followed by two reds, black and blue after Taylor had missed another black of its spot.

Following fouls by Taylor and Wood, Taylor potted the penultimate red and a black and gained four points from a snooker to narrow the gap to 64-24.

Unfortunately, while escaping a snooker, Ward left the last red over a pocket and Wood took it then potted the black at which point the Bootham pair conceded when 74-24 down.

Bob Ventress and Colin Neal were the match officials and the trophies were presented by match sponsor Peter Turnbull.

In the semi-finals Whyte and Wood beat Paul Clark and Ged Mackenzie (Acomb) 2-0 and Taylor and Ward beat G Hopper and W Puleston (Fulford) 2-1.

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