THIS year's singles' final of the Okehampton and district Snooker league was contested between Julian Bray (Royal British Legion E) and Lance Turner (Sheepwash B) in the best of seven match held at Winkleigh snooker club.

The opening frame was a tense affair and soon settled into a pattern which would persist throughout the rest of the match.  During prolonged bouts of tactical play, Turner played some shrewd safety shots in an attempt to disable Bray's naturally attacking style and pounced on any mistake by Bray with a series of nicely taken small scoring flurries.

Turner had soon opened up a 3-0 advantage and was playing some solid snooker before a turning point took place in frame four. Both had committed a series of misses during the frame, before Bray finally got a chance to get his hand on the table after Turner had gone in off the final green. With ball in hand, Bray pulled off a gutsy, fluent clearance under pressure to reduce his arrears to 3-1.

Frame five saw Bray finally find his natural game and the tide looked to have turned with Bray now potting more freely. Turner stayed in the frame, again by showing tactical awareness and canny potting.

The pair battled down to the final blue with Turner needing the blue and pink to take the title and Bray needing to pot all the remaining balls to stay in the match. Bray potted a tremendous blue to leave himself a half chance at the pink which bobbled in the pocket agonisingly.

The pair traded safety shots until Turner finally potted a great pink to seal a thoroughly deserved crown at 4-1.