Ng’s 3-0 win fails to fire Dragons

LAST Friday at the Temple Snooker Room, Waigani, Lamana and Starland Dragons 2 went head-to-head to decide the premier division of the PMMI Corporate team snooker competition.
Lamana and Dragons 2 were the best two team in this year’s competition and they did not disappoint, with the match going to the wire.
Lamana’s David Jones was up for the first single against a determined Kametan Sibunakau in a five-frame battle. Jones won the first frame 52-17 but Kametan fought back to take the next two frames 34-54, 33-55.
Jones forced the game into a deciding fifth frame by taking the fourth 48-37.
On table two, Noel Ramos allowed big leads to slip against Ong Beng Huat, before he found his composure to take out the match 3-2 with scores of 42-54, 58-22, 55-27,42-53, 52-9.
On table three, a one-sided affair took place with PNG number one Marcus Ng dispatching Lamana’s captain Ralph Kaina 3-0 (8-63, 27-48, 27-75).  At this stage, with the match between Jones and Sibunakau still in progress, the match score was one game all.
Both teams turned to experience, Lamana with Yiannis Nicolaou and Dragons 2 with John Chan.
This match was a seesawing contest, with Nicolauo winning the first frame 54-11.
This stirred Chan into action and he came back to win the next two frames 26-45 and 37-59. Nicolauo regrouped to win the next two frames 47-29, 60-32 to take out the game 3-2 and give Lamana an overall two frames to one lead.
The deciding frame between Kametan and Jones was crucial in keeping Dragons 2 hopes alive with the fire breathers’ captain prevailing on the pink to take out that decisive game 47-54 and tie the match scores to 2-2 with one single to go.  Lamana’s Chan went up against Helen Samuel, who folded under pressure to concede Chan the inaugural premier grade championship for his team with an emphatic 58-23, 59-34 and 55-15 victory, wrapping up the match 3-2 in Lamana’s favour.
This week sees the lower division playoffs. All winners will play their semi-finals tomorrow night.
Fixtures: A grade – Topshooters v Starland/Laguna Dragons 1, Dragons 2 v Phoenix Kasens; B grade – Starland/Laguna Dragons 1 v Topshooters, Originals 3 v Phoenix Kasens; C grade – Topshooters v Cannons, Lamana v Dragons 2.