Papatoetoe/ABSA Invitation Snooker
December 8th, 2008
Winner Papatoetoe/ABSA Invitation Snooker Singles
Held at the ACBS Clubrooms : 22-23 November 2008
This was the last Snooker tournament to be held in Auckland this year. A very strong field of 40 players, including 11-year-old Leonard Toh. The last time we had a player this young playing in a ranking tournament was probably when Dene O’Kane played in the Auckland A-Grade in the late 1970’s.
Leonard was well supported by his family for this event and certainly potted some very good balls in all of his matches and was made very welcome by all of the players and hopefully this is the start of a budding future NZ champ and also the start of young players taking up the sport.
There were lots of surprises in Section Play including Regan Williams not qualifying. Sani Roberts (playing in his second ranking tournament) won all of his matches – one of them over Rocky Cribb who was just back from qualifying in the World Masters Tournament in Austria. Matthew Scarborough, who in Clive Thomson’s own words “blew his off the table” also won allof his matches. Paul Bason was another, with four wins and not dropping a frame and ended up first qualifier.
In the first round of Post Section play, the Belmont family dominated, winning all of their matches : Ramona beat Clive 2/1, Wayne beat Jackie Chu 2/0 and Wyn beat John Williams 2/0.
The Quarter-final matches were drawn agasint the tournament sponsors and the sponsor that had the highest break on their drawn table won $1000.
The highest break in this round was by Vanny Ry with 47. Guy Burt6 beat Vanny in that match 2/1 after Vanny missed as easy brown ball and with the scores 38/39 Guy potted the brown, blue and pink to win.
The Semi-final match between Paul Bason and Steve Robertson was pretty much an open game; Steve winning 2/1. In the third frame Paul elected to play a 2-way shot on the last red but unfortunately left it over the centre pocket and Steve potted through to the pink to win the match. Wyn Belmont beat Guy Burt in the other Semi-final 2/0 and seemed to be in control most of the time.
The Final between Steve Robertson and Wyn Belmont showed Steve finding some of the form he’s been struggling to find all year. He was 1-nil up and in the second frame Wyn was 59-16 in front, when Steve produced a 47 break leaving a black ball game which he won after Wyn left it over the hole. Wyn won the third frame but in the fourth Steve found his form again having a 75 break to win 3/1.
A shortened Plate Final was won by Regan Williams over Sam Wilson 1/0. It was a re-spotted black frame.
It was good to see four ladies in the field and they acquitted themselves well.
Highest break of the tournament was 78 by Wyn Belmont.
Last Sixteen: P Bason bt D Sinclair 2/0, R Belmont bt C Thomson 2/1, W Belmont bt J Chu 2/0, S Robertson bt D Estocapio 2/0, L Holmes bt S Roberts 2/1, Wyn Belmont bt J Williams 2/0, R By bt R Clark 2/1, G Burt bt M Scarborough 2/1.
Quarter-finals: P Bason bt R Belmont 2/0, S Robertson bt Wayne Belmont 2/1, Wyn Belmont bt L Holmes 2/0, G Burt bt V Ry 2/1.
Semi-finals: S Robertson bt P Bason 2/1, Wyn Belmont bt G Burt 2/0.
Final: S Robertson bt W Belmont 3/1.
Highest Break: Wayne Belmont (78)
