MATTY Hill added another trophy to his growing collection after whitewashing fellow Furness player Matthew Lamb in the final of the Cumbria County Snooker Championship plate final.

Hill, who won this year's Barrow Individual Snooker League, overcame Lamb 3-0 in the county plate decider at Carlisle's Portland Snooker Club this week.

The tournament was played between those eliminated in the first round of the qualifiers for this year's County Championship, which saw a strong Barrow contingent taking part among the 36 players involved.

The best performer from the town in the main competition was Martin McDonald, who reached the semi-finals on the back of two 4-1 wins in the first and second rounds.

He found himself up against Flimby's Kevin Kirkham in the last four, with his opponent having started in the preliminary round and coming through three tough games – including beating Lamb 4-1 in the first round – to reach the last four.

Some fine potting ensured it was opponent Kirkham who went 1-0 up.

Nevertheless, and with some fantastic support from the rest of the Barrow players involving, back came McDonald to go into a 2-1 lead.

A 68 break by Kirkham pulled it back to 2-2 and in adding the fifth frame as well the Flimby cueman was 3-2 in the lead.

Having none of this, McDonald dug deep and as every pot was cheered the Barrow player took the match into a decider.

The final frame started in the usual cagey fashion. However, it was Kirkham who broke the deadlock and with a contribution of 44 he took the match to move into his first county final.

His opponent in the final will be Carlisle's Mally Lancaster, which means there will be another new name on the trophy this year.

Of the other Barrow players, Hill was eliminated in the first round after a fightback from six-time champion Mike Nixon from 2-0 down saw him win 4-2.

Tom Millington and Danny Macdonald both reach the second round, but were beaten 4-0 and 4-2 by Kevin Basnett and G Edwards respectively.

Meanhile, Tony Mason was involved in a thriller with Workington's Peter O'Hagan in the second round as well.

O'Hagan managed to come back from needing two snookers to clinch a 4-3 win.