Snooker: Dunedin pair top of South Island tables again

Garry Hale (left) and Alan Gill (Dunedin Metropolitan) won their seventh South Island snooker...
Garry Hale (left) and Alan Gill (Dunedin Metropolitan) won their seventh South Island snooker pairs title in Christchurch at the weekend.
Dunedin snooker players Alan Gill and Garry Hale (Dunedin Metropolitan) dropped only two frames on their way to a record seventh South Island pairs title in Christchurch at the weekend.

They comfortably beat the hometown combination of Kelly Pritchard and Eddie Jackson 3-0 at the Richmond Working Mens Club in a one-sided final.

The event has been held annually for 33 years and only two other teams have won the title three or more times.

New Zealand representative Dave Meredith paired with his St Albans-Shirley clubmate Barry Edlin to win the first three events from 1977-79. Meredith won the New Zealand singles title on four occasions.

Another Christchurch pair, Greg Sands and Brent Jones (Papanui), won the title in 1989, 1990 and 1992.

Gill and Hale first won the title in 1995 and added titles in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2008 before winning again this year.

Next year's championships will be held in Gore, and Gill and Hale are keen to win their eighth title.

Gill (47), who won the South Island singles in 2000, was ranked No 3 in the country in 1996 and showed that he still has the skills to compete with the best.

Hale (37), a hospital orderly, was the top-ranked amateur in the country in 1995 and 1996. He now plays seriously only once a year, at the South Island champs, but was still good enough to get a break of 60.

Hale started playing snooker in 1986 and won the national junior title in 1990 and was runner-up in the senior event in 1995.

He first represented New Zealand in 1990 at the world under-21 championships in Brisbane and was a member of the New Zealand team that won the Oceania championships against Australia and Fiji in 1994 and played in the world amateur championships in New Plymouth in 1996.

• The results were:

Quarterfinals: K Pritchard, E Jackson (Richmond) beat R Wilson, D Stuart (Invercargill) 2-0; P Lewis, T Haerewa (Commerce) beat B Campbell, M Herlihy (Cashmere) 2-1; B Baxter, J Jackson (Cashmere) beat A Robertson and G Robertson (Hornby) 2-1; G Hale and A Gill (Dunedin Metropolitan) beat M Boys, O Ord (Waimea) 2-0.

Semifinals: Pritchard and E Jackson beat Lewis and Haerewa 2-1; Hale and Gill beat Baxter and J Jackson 2-0.

Final: Hale and Gill beat Pritchard and E Jackson 3-0.

 

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