Hosted by the ABSA and held at the ACBS Clubrooms : 02-04 October 2009

A very strong field for this event with the current NZ Champion, Chris Maltby, Henry Killian, Clive Thomson, current North Island Champion, Mark Hannah and defending champion Regan Willians, plus three-times winner of the NZ Snooker Championship, Steve Robertson.

One of the first upsets in Section play was Roy Clark beating Hannah 3/1.  Clark compiled a few breaks in the 20′s plus a 32, 38 and a 54 which kept Hannah in his seat for a lot of the match.  Hannah then struggled in his next match against Vinny Gounder, but finally won 3/0 with two of the frames being black to wins.  Hannah then had to play Eldon Lai and he had to win this match to qualify.  There was a lot of drama in this match with Hannah 2/1 up and both players missing easy pots to win the fourth frame.  Lai potted the yellow, green, brown and blue and then jawed an easy pink.  The referee somehow put the score up incorrectly, Hannah looked at the scoreboard and thought he wanted a snooker.  Instead of double-checking the score he managed to clear the pink from over the hole but Lai then potted it and the balls were put back on the table before Hannah decided to count back on the scores and it turned out that he hadn’t needed a snooker but could have won with a pink and black.  Hannah went on to win the fifth and deciding frame, which then left him tied on differential with Roy Clark for runner-up in the section.  In the one frame play-off both players missed easy chances to win the frame and in the end it was Clark who potted the green, brown, blue then pink to take the frame.

Martin Jones was in good form having two 3/0 wins and only losing to Maltby 3/2, and Robertson 3/2, and so failing to quality for Post-Section play.

Post-section play went according to seeding but Killian was too strong for Clark and then Lai winning both matches 3/0.  On the other side of the draw, Thomson beat Robertson 3/2, Maltby beat V Ry 3/1, and in the Semi-finals Maltby beat Thomson 3/1.

In the Final, Killian had a 39 and 38 break in the first frame, then a 46 in the second to take a 2/0 lead.  Maltby then came back with a 64 break to take the third frame.  The fourth frame was a scrappy one which Killian looked to be dominating which Maltby eventually took, to level the score at 2-all.  Killian won the fifth frame while Maltby opened up the scoring in the sixth and was on 29 and missed an easy black off the spot.  Killian took the black and the next red, splitting the bunch open.  But he then also missed the black off the spot.  Maltby came back with a 69 break to level the match at 3-all.  Maltby missed an easy red in the seventh and Killian capitalised with a nice 54 break.  Maltby then missed an easy green on 17, Killian then followed with a 33 break to take the title 4/3.

Finally, the Foul & Miss rule was once again queried.  M Beehre was called to a match by the player who had played the snooker.  Malcolm advised him that he was unable to change the referees decision as he hadn’t seen the shot and his decision was final, but did agree to listen to the argument.  The referee explained on the first attempt the player missed by about a foot and he called a Foul & Miss.  On the second attempt he missed by about six inches and just called a Foul.  The referee’s interpretation was that the centre pocket was in the way to enable a natual angle and therefore the shot needed side and in his opinion the second attempt was better and decided it was a genuine attempt, therefore only calling a Foul.  M Beehre said that he would call this a fair decidison based on the evidence provided.

Quarter-finals: H Killian bt R Clark 3/0, E Lai bt G Dong 3/0, C Maltby bt V Ry 3/1, C Thomson bt S Robertson 3/2.

Semi-finals: H Killian be E Lai 3/0, C Maltby bt C Thomson 3/1.

Final: H Killian bt C Maltby 4/3.

Highest Break : C Thomson (90)

Individual player profiles have been updated