It is getting even more interesting at the top of division two in the West Cumbria Snooker League summer campaign.

With a holiday break for the top flight last week it was the second-tier fixtures that took centre stage.

Coming up fast on the rails, third placed Dave Chapman earned his most crucial victory of the season to close the gap on his immediate competition, current division two champion Clive Lister.

In the all-Workington contest and in what proved to be a relatively low-scoring match, Chapman took an early lead only to be pegged back by Lister.

Chapman regained the lead and maintained the intensity to secure the match win with the fourth frame. Lister left the tie with a more respectable 3-2 reversal, taking the final frame.

Chapman has now closed the gap on second placed Lister to a single point from last week’s three.

Due to the close result between Chapman and Lister this provided an opportunity for front-runner Paul Smith to re-extend his lead.

Smith was up against the steadily improving Dave Holland in what is now clearly a three-horse race for the title.

Smith made his intentions clear from the outset as the Seaton cueist compiled a 34 clearance to take the opener. Smith then claimed a very low-scoring second for 2-0.

Holland dug deep to take the third but was unable to maintain the consistency as Smith secured the vital win 3-1.

Despite Holland matching his highest break of the season with a 39 in the final frame, Smith was still able to take the final frame for an even more valuable 4-1 win and extend his lead at the top from three to six points – albeit his two nearest rivals hold a game in hand.

This week sees the first ties of the Gray’s Luxury Ice-cream Trophy semi-finals take place with opening fixtures: Group 1 – Lister v K Kirkham, Group 2 – M Tunstall v Holland. The winner of each group will compete in a best of five frame final on presentation night.