Summer League individual fixtures took a backseat this week as the opening round of the newly sponsored singles knockout competition got underway, writes GREEN BAIZE.

Workington-based MT Cleaning Services Ltd has kindly backed this season's event.

There were a host of inter-divisional ties drawn out for the first round with the shock being that of Division One's Steven O'Hagan from Workington going down by two frames to one to Division Two's Craig Denwood of Maryport.

Another Division One casualty was Maryport's Mike Park who went down 2-1 away to Keswick's Chris D'Leny of Division Two. The tie was decided on a black-ball third frame.

Elsewhere the first tier players overcame their second tier opponents.

Whitehaven's Robert Sim went through 2-0 against Workington's Stuart Ryan. Sim compiled a 76 break in the opening frame.

Workington's Mark Tunstall went through by the same score-line away to Keswick's Tom Mattinson with the help of a 30 break in the first frame.

Newcomer Richard Nelson of Clifton (pictured above) came through 2-0 over club colleague Gary Mattinson.

Workington's Clive Lister had a harder time of it against Division Two's Paul Killingley of Cockermouth. Killingley took the opening frame before Lister took the final two for his narrow victory.

Maryport youngster Ryan Ismay eased through 2-0 against Whitehaven's Ryan Henry. Ismay made breaks of 32 and 31 to book his place in the next round.

Finally Workington's Dave Chapman battled back from a frame down against Maryport's Shaun Moore to win through on the pink in the deciding frame.

The next round will be drawn shortly and week 13 has been set aside for the quarter-final ties.

There were a handful of league fixtures completed alongside the knockout ties. Sim extended his lead in the top flight as he defeated Nelson 4-0 notching up breaks of 53, 38, 32 and 101 in the final frame to set the highest break of the season so far.

In Division Two Henry completed several fixtures and had mixed fortunes as he beat Tom Mattinson 3-1; drew with D'Leny 2-2 and was beaten by Gary Mattinson 3-1.

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