City of Auckland Open Snooker
June 9th, 2008
Held at the ACBS Clubrooms, 07-08 June 2008.
This tournament was a World Qualifying event and there were a few upsets!
The first upset being Gary Gillard who was leading the points table for the World Qualifying tournaments, failing to qualify for Post Section Play. Number 4 seed of the City Of Auckland Open Snooker (Section 2), Tony Van Wijk was top qualifier in that section, pipping Ben Farnworth by a two frame better differential. In the other five sections all Number 1 seeds won their sections with no-one losing a match.
There was a scramble to find the next four best thirds qualifiers and some players in that scramble had a better frame differential than some of the automatic section runner-ups.
Giant “killer” of the tournament was Greg Moreton defeating the Number 1 and the third seed on the way to a spot in the final again Henry Killiam. However, Henry was too strong, winning 3-1 on top of winning the Heretaunga Classic (held Queens Birthday weekend).
Other good performances were Gordon Dong and Eldon Lai. Eldon beat Paul Bason before going down to Clive Thomson in the quarter-finals 3/1. Highest Break of the tournament went to Steve Robertson with a 94.
Last Sixteen: H Killian bt S Farnworth 3/0, B Farnworth bt T Van Wijk 3/1, E Lai bt P Bason 3/2, C Thomson bt J Chu 3/1, G Moreton bt D Meier-Bailey 3/2, W Hill bt R Cribb 3/2, G Dong bt D Sinclair 3/1, S Robertson bt L Rudolph 3/0.
Quarter-finals: H Killian bt B Farnworth 3/2, C Thomson bt E Lai 3/1, G Moreton bt W Hill 3/2, S Robertson bt G Dong 3/0.
Semi-finals: H Killian bt C Thomson 3/1, G Moreton bt S Robertson 3/1.
Final: H Killian bt G Moreton 3/1.
Highest Break: S Robertson (94).
