NZBSA NZ Open Snooker
October 15th, 2008
Held at the ACBS Clubrooms : 03-05 October 2008
Lots of surprises with some lower ranked players having their best ranking tournament results ever. Paul Olsson was one of those people. He was the only player to beat Ramona Belmont in Section Play and he ended up 9th qualifier over all.
Ramona has played all year in the Men’s tournaments and is off to the World Champs in Austria shortly. We wish her well over there.
Lee Rudolph had a solid performance and achieved his highest ranking tournament break, a 79, which was almost certainly going to be a 100+ break until it dawned on him what he’d actually achieved and missed an easy black off the spot. This was the highest break of the tournament.
Pat Lynch, who doesn’t ordinarily play in ranking tournaments, gave Harry Haenga a run for his money going down only 3/2.
Eldon Lai had a great win over Henry Killian 3/1, and looked like making his first major final. However, Regan Williams came back from 2-0 down to win 3/2. In the fifth frame with a score of 42-1 to Eldon, Regan had a nice 56 break and went on to win the frame on the pink. Both of these players have had solid performances in the recent tournaments. Regan won his Quarter-final match against Ramona, 3/2, and David Meier-Bailey beat Stephen Alderson 3/0. Stephen had a good performance in Section Play including a nice 66 break. David beat Harry in the other Semi-final 3/2, even though Harry looked to be in control most of the time.
The Final was a lacklustre affair with both players appearing to show a few nerves and rushing some shots and therefore throwing away winning opportunities. Regan got out to a 3/1 lead and was looking like winning the title 4/1, but David scrambled in to take the frame and the following one to an even 3 all. In the 7th frame both players missed easy chances to take the title and it was Regan who eventually managed to win 4/3.
Quarter-finals: H Haenga bt P Lynch 3/2, D Meier-Bailey bt S Alderson 3/0, R Williams bt R Belmont 3/2, E Lai bt H Killian 3/1.
Semi-finals: D Meier-Bailey bt H Haenga 3/2, R Williams bt E Lai 3/2.
Final: R Williams bt D Meier-Bailey 4/3.
Highest Break: L Rudolph (79)
