LUCKVINDER LANDA is the only player who now stands between Robert Read and an eighth Huddersfield Open Snooker Championship title.

The two men won the right to face each other in the May showdown with tight semi-final victories which both belied the frame scores.

Read, from Lindley WMC, overpowered his chief adversary, Robert Armitage from Marsh Liberal Club, 4-1, the two men having met in the last two finals, with the honours shared.

And Landa, also from Marsh Lib, then booked his first-ever berth in the League's showpiece final with a 4-2 win over Golcar's former Open champion, Trevor Liversidge.

In the first semi at Lindley Lib, Read took two of the first three frames - Armitage missing a black off its spot to lose the opener - but the crucial frame was the fourth.

Armitage was holding a useful lead and looking likely to level the match, but Read then laid a tricky snooker which his opponent had several goes at before getting out of the problem.

By that time Armitage had lost the advantage and Read stepped in to win the frame and take a 3-1 lead, which he quickly made 4-1 to wrap up the contest.

Read had a best effort of 68 and a 54, while Armitage had a couple of half-centuries.

Landa and Liversidge shared the first two frames, before the Golcar man took the third with a 46 break.

All the frames were close affairs, with no big breaks to speak of, but it was Landa who grabbed the initiative after the interval and won the next three frames in succession to reach his first-ever Open final.

Read, meanwhile, will bid to reach a third final on Monday, when he and Andy Boothroyd meet Trevor Liversidge and Robert Taylor (Golcar Con) in the semi-finals of the Leonard Oldham Pairs at Crosland Moor Con.

Read has already reached the final of the Huddersfield Snooker Handicap, having beaten Meltham's Phil Headey, and will now face Hillhouse & Birkby's James Mead, a semi-final winner over Billy Comerford.

* Huddersfield No1 snooker team lost their Yorkshire League Division II title chance when they were beaten 4-2 at Wakefield.

It could easily have been a different story, with Huddersfield taking two of the frames on the black, while the other two losing frames were both relatively close.

Mark White lost his opener to John Spooner on the black ball before winning the second, Luckvinder Landa lost 2-0 to Mark Ramsbottom, while Robert Read went down by two points in his opener with Keith Hartley before running away with the second.

Huddersfield followed up with a 3-3 draw against Bradford No1, Read beating Alex McGann 2-0, while Landa had a brilliant second frame to destroy Sajid Khan 114-13 with breaks of 49 and 45.

Wakefield 4 Huddersfield No1 2: John Spooner halved with Mark White 65-58, 35-53; Mark Ramsbottom beat Luckvinder Landa 62-51, 57-45; Keith Hartley halved with Robert Read 57-55, 19-63.

Bradford No1 3 Huddersfield No1 3:Alex McGann lost to Read 4-74, 45-60; Sajid Khan halved with Landa 63-21, 13-114; Mark Hirst bt Glenn Wilkinson 69-40, 75-23.

* Huddersfield's Yorkshire League captain Mark White clinched the Holme Valley Snooker Championship beating Dave Crossland 4-2 in the final at Kirkburton Liberal Club.

It was a fine performance from Meltham player White, who certainly had to do it the hard way, beating Neil Armstrong in the semi-finals, having earlier knocked out Tony Clegg in quarter-finals.