BEN CHUNG was crowned the Cardiff University Snooker Club Cuefactor League Premier Division champion despite a 4-2 loss in his final match against Huw Carpenter.
The Cuefactor League is a year – long handicapped snooker singles league split into two phases. The first phase consists of random groups and the second covers the final divisions which are decided by players finishing positions in the original groups.
In Phase A, Chung topped a tough group, containing last year’s champion Neil Fairbrother. Chung topped the group thanks to 4-0 wins over Michael Lee and David Eames, and 3-1 over Rachit Jain and Darren Jones – recording 8 breaks of over 25 in the process.
Dan Peacey would pip Fairbrother to second place and a place in the Premier Division after both recorded victories over most of the other players in the group before Peacey defeated Fairbrother 3-1 to condemn the champion to a place in the second tier competition. Peacey was also in break-building form with breaks of 33, 32 and 31.
The yellow group was another hotly contested group with Piyush Goyal defeating Sunny Arora and Jon Hagger 4-0, Jon Hillard and Matt Cheng 3-1 and drawing 2-2 with Tristan Perrett and Huw Davies on his way to topping the group with a high break of 38.
Perrett edged Hillard for the final Premier Division spot whilst Arora beat Hagger 4-0 to avoid the bottom division.
David Blake and Huw Carpenter progressed to the Premier Division from the blue group with Carpenter hitting the highest break of a 48 in a 2-2 draw between the two whilst Rupert Taylor dominated the red group, which also saw Richard Jones secure a surprise Premier Division spot.
Taylor stormed off to an early lead in the Premier Division thanks to 4-2 victories over Chung, Peacey and Jones with Taylor recording breaks of 38 and 33.
Taylor’s form dipped badly though as his hopes were dashed by 5-1 defeats to Blake and Goyal and a 4-2 defeat to Carpenter in which Carpenter compiled a brilliant 67 break only to be denied the chance of a century by a kick on the black.
Following his win over Jones, Chung put himself in the driving seat with 4-2 wins over Blake, Goyal and Peacey in which Chung continued to rack up the breaks with runs of 35, 34 and 31.
It was Blake who would provide the title challenge to Chung as he recorded 5-1 wins over Taylor and Jones whilst drawing 3-3 with Goyal and Peacey.
Chung led the pack going into the back straight but a 4-2 loss to Carpenter left Blake ahead on 25 points to Chung’s 24.
However, due to instances of unsporting behaviour by Blake and Peacey they were both deducted a point each, which drew Blake and Chung level at 24 points apiece. But Chung was declared champion, as he had defeated Blake 4-2 in their earlier match.
Goyal finished 3rd (22pts) ahead of Carpenter (20pts), Taylor (19pts), Peacey (17pts) and Jones (14pts).
Fairbrother strolled to the First Division title with a series of 4-0 wins and a 2-2 draw against Hillard, who finished second.
