Grand Final Victory

Grand Final Victory

Thursday, July 29, 2010

A good weekend overall
It was a double grand final weekend for the Malcolm Thornes Under 16's and the under 21's event also known as Riley's ( Willie Thornes) Leicester.

I felt confident that I could go far as I had faired quite well last year. The event itself is quite a popular one and years gone by big names such as Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump have won both titles.

In the under 16 event I was lucky to gain a bye into the last 16 where I faced Adam Bobat in a close match which I eventually won 4 frames to 3 with a break of 56.

In the quater final I produced breaks of 48 and 46 to see off Grant Miles,
the semi finals proved to be my best match of the day as I was up against my pal Sam Craigie who is a great player himself I did well to score heavily with breaks of 52, 120, 44 and 63 the match ended 4 1 and I was in the final.

The final featured current north west under 19 champ and myself A 40 break (65-5) squared the match, Ashraf then led 2-1 (59-14) with the next two frames shared (31-66) and (61-36) both settled on the latter colours, I seemed to have won the 6 th frame easily with a run of 46 but handed Ashraf a unexpected life line knocking the yellow off the table I eventually won the frame on the black (55-67).

Ashraf strode away with the decider (100-24) the last frame ever in this age group finishing at 11.30pm after 12 hours overall play.

The under 21's was played the day after on the sunday and I wa sstill tired from the late finish the night before. In the last 32 I beat Thomas Brown 4 frames to nil with modest breaks of 73,54,50.

I drew Nathan Jones in the last 16 and agin produced some good breaks of 47,105,95,54 to win 4 1.I beat Yates 4 0 in the quater's and Liam Highfield 4 1 in the semis to secure a final spot for the under 21 title.