Held at the ACBS Clubrooms : 06-07 June 2009

This event attracted a very strong field, as it was a World Championship Qualifying event.  The World Snooker Championship is being held in India in November 2009.

Clive Thomson started the tournament well with an 85 break in his first match, jawing the pink with two reds still on the table.
Gary Gillard, NZ Number 2 from Christchurch, had a tough match against the fifth seed in his section, Martin Jones.  Jones needed a colour clearance in the third frame after Gillard had gone in off.  Jones potted through to an easy black but had to wait to play it, then jawed it, leaving it sitting on the edge of the pocket giving Gillard a 2/1 win.  Jones also had a “down to the wire” match against Gordon Dong.  In their third frame with Jones needing all the colours to win, he potted to the black.  They each had three attempts at potting the black with Jones finally managing to pot it, giving him the 2/1 win.
Guy Burt, seeded fifth in his section, had an upset win over first seed, Wyn Belmont, winning 2/1.
Graham Backman must have thought he was on the comeback trail again, before narrowly going down to both Steve Robertson and Wyn Belmont 2/1.
Henry Killian didn’t give Gregory Moreton a chance in their match with Killian having a 108 break, narrowly missing the pink.
In post-section play Killian started like a rocket getting breaks of 83 and 59 in his match against Rocky Cribb.
Gordon Dong and Clive Thomson had a 3/2 match with Thomson coming out on top.  Dong shared that he had learned a lot in that match, in particular how to be patient.
Guy Burt carried on his previous day’s form beating Wyn Belmont 3/0, then Martin Jones 3/0.  Burt then, however, had a long wait until his next match against Eldon Lai.  It was a scrappy match with neither player performing well.  They ended up on the black towin in the 5th with Burt going in off the black.
Lai and Thomson had a five frame black to win match; Lai was leading 2-nil and missed an easy brown in the third, which would have sealed the match 3-nil.  Thomson equalled at 2-all and held the head in the fifth until Lai, 24 points behind with the green up left on the table, had an incredible “do or die” 25 clearance, winning the match 3/2.
The final between Henry Killian and Eldon Lai looked like Killian was going to win 3/0 but Lai hung on and managed to equal at 2-all.  Killian got out to a big lead in the 5th frame and took the title 3/2.
Our congratulations go to Eldon Lai on reaching his first ranking tournament final.  He also played the most snooker on the day, 20 frames in all.

Last Sixteen: H Killian bt R Cribb 3/0, G Gillard bt W Belmont 3/0, P Bason bt S Kumar 3/1, M Hannah bt R Williams 3/1, G Burt bt W Belmont 3/0, M Jones bt A Maher 3/1, E Lai bt S Robertson 3/2, C Thomson bt G Dong 3/2.
Quarter-finals: H Killian bt G Gillard 3/2, M Hannah bt P Bason 3/0, G Burt bt M Jones 3/0, E Lai bt C Thomson 3/2.
Semi-finals: H Killian bt M Hannah 3/0, E Lai bt G Burt 3/2.
Final: H Killian bt E Lai 3/2
Highest Break: H Killian (108)

Individual player profiles have been updated
Tournament History has been updated