Moray Snooker teams pot best-ever performance at national championships with one team reaching semi-finals

A Moray snooker team just missed out on a place in the national championship final.

For the second consecutive year, Moray Snooker sent two teams to the Glasgow tournament.

The competition started with Scottish County Singles, with Adam Macleod and Gary Pope bowing out at the last 32 stage. Stephen Hepburn made it through to the last 16 but then fell to eventual finalist Marc Davis (Aberdeen).

Neil Owen made good progress in the plate event where he went on to reach the semi finals, losing out in a tight match to eventual winner Michael Bisset (Glenrothes).

The team element broke off on the Saturday morning with Moray A competing in a tough group at The Red Triangle, Cumbernauld, winning three matches and losing two to progress to the last 16.

Moray B played their group games at The Q Club, Glasgow and progressed by winning two games, losing two games and drawing one.

It was the first time that two Moray teams reached the knockouts, and they were drawn in the same section of the draw with Moray A facing Dumfries A and Moray B taking on Edinburgh A.

While the B team exited the tournament after a 6-2 loss, Moray A won 5-3 to earn a quarter-final tie against Edinburgh B.

The team had Ali McDonald to thank for a superb brown and blue finish to secure a blue ball shootout for a place in the semi finals. Craig Campbell, Kenny MacPherson, Mark Bell, Owen and McDonald slammed their blues home to mark down Moray’s best-ever performance in the tourney as they marched on to the semis.

Against Dundee A, the Moray lads were firmly in the contest at 3-2 down but couldn’t recover, and missed out on a place in the final with Dundee losing narrowly to Q Club who claimed the trophy.