Held at the ACBS Clubrooms : 25-26 July 2009

No major surprises in qualifiers, but Glen Coutts, having not played in many tournaments lately and coming in at #6 seed in his section, was always going to upset the seeding system!

Glen lost to #1 seed Jimmy Henry 5/2 and then to #2 seed Matt Edwards 5/0.  Glen went on to win the remainder of his matches and qualified fourth in his section, which was won by Matt Edwards.  Matt had seven wins with a +7 diffential.

In the other section, Jamie Walker seemed to be playing well, but lost two matches 4/5 after leading in both of them and this cost him qualifying.  Jon Grimley and Michael Zhang both had five wins and also the same differential.  Chris Bowman qualified third and Aaron Shaw, fourth.

In Post-Section play Michael Zhang demolished Jimmy Henry 7/2.  Chris Bowman fought back from 6/2 down against Kevin Zhang, and at 6/5 he went in-off.  Kevin missed a pot but snookered Chris, which he didn’t get out of and Kevin cleared to win 7/5.  Glen Coutts beat Jon Grimley 7/5, and eight qualifier Aaron Shaw beat first qualifier Matt Edwards 7/3.  Coutts won his semi-final against Michael Zhang 8/4.  In the other semi-final between Aaron Shaw and Kevin Zhang both players missed easy shots with the score 6/3 to Zhang.  Zhang won the tenth frame, Shaw fluked the 9-ball to take the eleventh.  Zhang was looking like clearing the 12th frame to take the match, but snookered himself and failed to get out of it and Shaw cleared to leave the match poised on 7/5 to Zhang.  Zhang set himself up for a 9-ball plant in the next frame, winning the match 8/5.

The Final was always going to be a fast match with both players very quick thinkers and always going for a clearance or a 9-ball plant at any opportunity.  The match see-sawed all the way, with neither player holding the lead by more than one frame.

There were approximately 20 spectators and the atmospher was electric, you could almost hear a pin drop!

At 8-all in just 45 minutes, Coutts break failed to get a ball, but left them safe.  The next shots were attempts at planting the 9-ball using the 1-ball.  The fifth attempt, by Glen Coutts, was a beautiful billiards shot and successful to take the win 9/8.

It should be noted that Kevin is only 19 years old and this was his first APA tournament.  I’m sure we’re going to see a lot more of him in tournament finals.

Quarter-finals: A Shaw bt M Edwards 7/3, K Zhang bt C Bowman 7/5, M Zhang bt J Henry 7/2, G Coutts bt J Grimley 7/5.
Semi-finals: K Zhang bt A Shaw 8/5, G Coutts bt M Zhang 8/4.
Final: G Coutts bt K Zhang 9/8.