The Snookerbacker Blog

Some shock news today as Ronnie O’Sullivan withdraws from the World Open in China next week.

Rocket Ronald, having secured his top 16 place for the Crucible with a superb performance in the German Masters and a semi-final appearance in Wales has found it all too much and he feels that both he and Damien’s private jet just aren’t up to the trip to China.

He’s got a doctor’s note for Glandular Fever. I got one of them once and had a fortnight off work, it was ace!

(insert sarcasm here)…………….anyway, this is what he said.

“I am very sorry that I have to withdraw from Haikou; despite my illness I have been competing well in recent weeks and was greatly looking forward to taking part in the World Open and meeting my fans in China. However, I have to listen to my body sometimes and I have decided that I will be in better shape for the climax of the season and the World Championships if I listen to my doctor and spend the next few weeks resting. I hope I can make it to Ireland and China in March and look forward to seeing you all soon”.

Let’s hope that Ronnie makes a speedy recovery in time for the PTC finals in nearby Ireland and the next two main ranking events that carry more points or have more prestige than this one starting with the China Open in March.

Having largely missed the Welsh Open Qualifiers and with wanting to crack on with a full Welsh Open preview tomorrow I will be drawing the Finals of the Snookerbacker Classic LIVE ON TWITTER at 7.30pm tonight.

THE DRAW

Martin O’Donnell v Sydney Wilson

Johnny Williams v Jamie Barrett

Allan Taylor v Zak Surety

David Gray v John Sutton

(all start times will be confirmed tomorrow)

The Captain, before Mrs SB told him to clear off.

Yesterday saw the final qualifying round of the Snookerbacker Classic in Essex with the Chelmsford Snooker Club hosting the last of the four events before Finals Day. 

We arrived in Chelmsford the previous night to find the whole place covered in snow and quickly located the club, which turned out to be right next to a University campus. We were greeted by Mike, the club manager who showed us around and explained the layout of the tables. Seven downstairs including Ali Carter’s Star Table and nine upstairs, which can quite easily be described as standard club tables.

Having got to grips with things we headed into town for an Indian meal at an excellent restaurant called Gulshan recommended to us by Mike, it was here that Mrs SB took a shine to a metal lemon squeezer (she does these kind of things sometimes) and the waiter was so amused by her fascination with such a simple device he said she could keep it, the trip was already a success in her eyes and she left extremely happy with her new kitchen gadget.

After the excitement had died down, the next morning we arrived early at the club to find Ali potting away on his table. Having met a couple of times we had a brief chat and he wished us both the best of luck with the day, I couldn’t help but notice a grin appear on his face as Mrs SB set to work on the registration table, her now legendary and much travelled ‘antique’ cake stand again taking pride of place. Some last minute icing on her cakes kept her busy while I did all the boring stuff like match sheets and getting tables allocated.

It wasn’t long before the players started to arrive, Racing Post snooker correspondent Adrian Humphries being one of the first and keen as mustard to get started. He is very passionate about snooker and obviously lived and breathed it as a youngster so we had plenty to talk about throughout the day. Even after he had lost in the first round he stuck around to soak up some snooker and paid us a lovely compliment at the end when he was leaving, for which we are very grateful.

Paul with his wages.

Also early to arrive on duty, despite a late finish the night before at Crondon Park was World Snooker referee Paul Collier who had very kindly offered to officiate for the day and I can say here and now that a nicer, more down to earth guy you could not wish to meet, a real snooker man through and through and the ultimate professional at his job.

The players drifted in and the matches got underway on time. There were early wins for Zak Surety, James Burrett and Lawrence Millington who all completed whitewashes. A good quality match between Sydney Wilson and Scotsman Andrew Clark went the way of Syd, who was sporting a very trendy sheepskin coat which was kind of a cool version of an old John Motson number, he took it off to play obviously as that would have just been silly.

Ryan Causton won a marathon 3^rd frame against Brian Cox which prompted a comment from the Captain who was still potting away as ‘the longest frame ever’. But despite this, Ryan and Brian were not the last to finish as Shaun Murphy’s sponsored player Nikolas Charalambous fought out a 4 hour epic with Ricky Norris, a last minute reserve in the event, Nikolas winning 4-3. There were also wins for Greg Davis and Marc Harman in round one.

Because of Nikolas’s epic we were a little behind schedule, his subsequent ordering of a chicken curry dish threatening the success of the whole event at one point, but eventually he got himself back on the table to play Ryan Causton, a match which Ryan would eventually win with a daily high break of 82 to secure a final place against Zak Surety, who had already completed his second whitewash of the day. The quicker top half saw comfortable wins for the attacking Sydney Wilson and the laid-back Croydon player James Burrett who then paired up for the other final.

Paul Collier donned the white gloves for a final which saw some scrappy play from both but eventually saw Sydney become the seventh man through to Finals Day. The other final was a real thriller and a tense affair between Ryan and Zak, it had decider written all over it from the beginning between two evenly matched players. Ryan, a runner-up at the first event in Leeds, looked to be heading into Finals Day before missing a red over the black pocket to allow Zak in. Some quality pots under pressure saw Zak land on a straight final black to win, he missed and there were gasps around the table, but local favourite Ryan didn’t take advantage and duly left Zak a black into the centre pocket to win, he held himself together and became the 8^th and last and most dramatic finalist to qualify.

The medals were dispersed and we stayed for a few drinks with a few of the people that had been around for the day, including losing finalist James Burrett, with whom we later shared a comedy car ride.

Again I think the event was a success and for that my thanks go to the players, Paul Collier, Ali, Mike Blower and Gemma at the club and everyone that came along to watch. As ever, the addition of cakes to a venue was seen as being long overdue and Mrs SB left with an empty antique stand and a few punters gasping for more of the sugared delights, including four pensioners, two men and two ladies who came to have their weekly game of doubles and were delighted to be offered a fancy with their afternoon tea. Charming and thoroughly English.

Sydney with his medal

Whilst we did enjoy our time in Chelmsford we did find the charge a little out of kilter with the other venues considering the standard of a few of the tables there, this will probably mean we won’t return to this venue next year, but as I say, everyone we met there yesterday was great and very supportive. It just would have been nice to have the usual table rate for what after all is a first time amateur event.

On the plus side it will also mean that we will never have to stay at the Travelodge in Chelmsford again. An absolute heap of a hotel and totally disorganised.

Today we have spent a bit of time sussing out some Central London venues for next year’s event and will hopefully get a decent place there to hold a qualifier. This obviously opens the event up to any European players that would like to try their hand next year, with accessibility not being as much of an issue.

On that note, we are happy to receive any correspondence from clubs interested in holding a qualifying event next year. We are not sure of the format just yet but will be making a few tweaks to this year after we hold a de-briefing meeting at the local pub with the whippet taking minutes.

But the trip was all about finding the last two finalists that will join Allan Taylor, Jamie Barrett, David Gray, Martin O’Donnell, John Sutton and Johnny Williams on the 24^th in Gloucester. Sydney and Zak complete what is a high quality field that will battle it out for the two Q-School slots and further prizes. Each player is now two wins from free Q-School Entry and 3 wins from being crowned the first ever Snookerbacker Classic Champion.

Zak with his medal

Round 1

Lawrence Millington 4-0 Chris Stripple
James Burrett 4-0 Marianne Williams
Andrew Clark 2-4 Sydney Wilson
Marc Harman 4-2 James Sumner
Ricky Norris 3-4 Nikolas Charalambous (61)
Ryan Causton 4-2 Brian Cox
Adrian Humphries 1-4 Greg Davis
Zak Surety 4-0 Ben Finch

Round 2

Lawrence Millington 1-4 James Burrett
Sydney Wilson (65) 4-1 Marc Harman
Nikolas Charalambous (76) 2-4 Ryan Causton (82,68)
Greg Davis 0-4 Zak Surety

Qualifying Finals

James Burrett 1-4 Sydney Wilson (65)
Ryan Causton 3-4 Zak Surety

Highest Break: Ryan Causton 82 wins the £1 a point break prize sponsored by Amarya.co.uk

Anyone seen the strait jacket?

*Advanced Warning of Tabloidesque Phrases*

Newly crowned German Masters Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has ‘launched’ a ‘rant’ at World Snooker today in The Sun claiming that the clamping down of players expressing themselves on Twitter has gone too far.

Ron claims that he feels ‘gagged and strangled’ which can’t be any fun from what I’ve heard which he confirms when he goes on ‘it’s not much fun’.

He points the finger firmly at the governing body claiming that what he sees as their draconian, almost dictatorial type control methodology (my words not his) is not to his liking. It seems our Ron doesn’t like being told what to do and that he ‘can’t be controlled in that way’.

He reveals that unlike Mark Williams and much like Mark Allen he was fined for his colourful language on the social networking site to the tune of £250. He claims that he isn’t even allowed to say if a snooker table isn’t playing well, but I wonder if he is simply misiniterpreting the guidance when he says that? Let me give a quick example:

Good Tweet: ‘This table is rather slow and has a slight roll off when playing with drag towards the middle pockets, I do hope they can fix it before my next match’

Bad Tweet: ‘F****g table is a pile of f****g w**k. The f*****s in charge should be shot in the b******ks’ 

He summarises his displeasure by saying ‘I don’t need the grief. There are a lot of predators who twist your words and get you into trouble with the governing body’. I’m not sure what he means by that, but I’m sure he has his reasons for saying it.

So what do you think? Should Ron be allowed to speak his mind as most of the rest of us can? Where should the line be drawn? Do the players also have to watch what they say to reporters? Is the current clampdown stifling personalities when this is exactly what snooker needs?

Personally, my understanding of World Snooker’s guidance is that the players just need to be careful not to offend or bully anyone, which is totally correct. I’d say that if there is a blanket ban on swearing that this isn’t the way to go. OK, using a swear word in every tweet or excessively isn’t on, but now and again when they feel passionately about something or are highly amused by something I really don’t see the problem. Mike Dunn is up against it for telling a joke, which I find quite frankly, a joke in itself. 

Total censorship very rarely leads to anything positive.

The draw will be made at 6pm live on Twitter for next Friday’s final qualifying event and will appear on here shortly after that will all the details for players.

You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here. 

Here is the draw

Lawrence Millington v Chris Stripple

James Burrett v Marianne Williams

Andrew Clark v Sydney Wilson

Marc Harman v James Sumner

Charon Parker v Nikolas Charalambous

Ryan Causton v Brian Cox

Adrian Humphries v Greg Davis

Zak Surety v Ben Finch

All players should report to the venue for 10am on Friday. Play will commence at 10.15am.

Please be aware that there is a reserve list in operation and if any players fail to appear the first on this list will play in their place.

First reserve is Ricky Norris

Congratulations to Johnny ‘The Sniper’ Williams and John Sutton who today became the 5th and 6th qualifiers to the Finals Day of the Snookerbacker Classic on the 24th February in Gloucester.

They join Jamie Barrett, Allan Taylor, David Gray and Martin O’Donnell in the finals with one event to go in Essex, the draw for which will be made live on Twitter by myself and Mrs SB tomorrow at 6pm.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Fin Ruane at the Crossguns and David Caulfield of SnookerHQ blog for helping out today in Dublin. I had hoped to attend all the events but unfortunately it was impossible for me to go today, but they kept me fully briefed on things here.

A full report on the day by David at SnookerHQ is here

Here are the snaps of the winners outside the Crossguns.

John Sutton

Johnny 'The Sniper' Williams

Live Updates from the SB Classic will appear on this post. To find out more about the tournament and see previous results click here.

THE DRAW – All matches Best of 7 Frames

Robert Bell 0-4 Joe Delaney (79)

Ray Whelan 0-4 Johnny Williams

John Sutton 4-1 Andrew Doherty

Robbie Redmond 2-4 Keith Sheldreck

Final Qualifying Matches

Joe Delaney (88) 1-4 Johnny Williams (Qualified)

 John Sutton (75) (Qualified) 4-1 Keith Sheldreck

UPDATES

And that’s it. Huge thanks to the players and to David Caulfield and Fin Ruane for all their help.

3.22pm RESULT: John Sutton joins Johnny Williams at Finals Day. Well done to him.

3.09pm Sutton wins the 4th on the pink and is one frame away from qualifying

3.06pm SnookerHQ says ‘bit of a slog here, neither playing that well at the moment, important frame to win though whoever can. 

2.40pm 2-1 to Sutton on the black after ‘a very odd frame indeed’. SnookerHQ says ‘he’s just informed me he had a 75 to go 1-1 earlier. Gutted to hear about Joe’s 88 ha’

2.30pm A slower paced match between Sheldreck and Sutton but might we have the only decider of the day?

2.17pm RESULT: Williams beats Delaney 4-1. Congratulations to Johnny Williams who qualifies for the Grand Finals of the Snookerbacker Classic in Gloucester on the 24th.  

2.15pm From Fin ‘Think I’ll have to get a photo of these two playing, along with the picture of the bombed hall in Soho, I have another picture of Joe Davis playing Horace Lindrum on the same table, I wonder what those two greats would think of the pots these two guys are pulling out today?’

2.05pm From Fin at the Crossguns: ‘Joe and Johnny are playing on the clubs oldest table, it’s a Burroughes & Watts table, it came from the old Burroughes & Watts hall in Soho Square London. I have a picture of the hall when it was bombed by the Luftwaffe during WW2, the hall was badly damaged and the tables were covered in debris but the tables survived and here is one of them today hosting a qualifier for the SB Classic.’

2.03pm Delaney pulls a frame back with an 88 break, highest of the day so far.

1.56pm 3-0 now to Williams ‘going for everything and getting it’ 

1.55pm ‘Johnny Williams is known as ‘The Sniper’, can see why. potting machine and lightning around the table’ says SnookerHQ 

1.53pm Williams is 2-0 up on Delaney

1.42pm Williams playing like his namesake MJW according to SnookerHQ on Twitter

1.41pm Sutton and Sheldreck underway for their on Final 

1.36pm Fin says ‘this old club has seen some great matches in the past and this Delaney v Williams game could be up there with the best of them.’ Williams leads 1-0.

1.25pm RESULT: Keith Sheldreck beats Robbie Redmond 4-2

1.20pm Williams and Delaney now underway

1.10pm RESULT: John Sutton completes a 4-1 victory

12.55pm John Sutton 3-1 up but no news as yet on the Sheldreck/Redmond clash. Delaney and Williams chomping at the bit to start their final eliminator.

12.33pm Delaney and Williams play each other to set up a clash for a Finals slot – described by Fin as ‘Crash, Bang, Wallop with these two’

12.30pm RESULTS: Delaney and Williams both through.

12.25pm Everything running ‘Smooth as Silk’ according to Fin

12.20pm Latest is that Delaney and Williams look on course for a clash for the right to join Finals Day.

11.55am – Really hard to pick two qualifiers, some big names in there, Delaney would be local favourite but Johnny Williams is a dark horse. In the other section John Sutton and Keith Sheldreck have PTC pedigree whilst apparently Robbie Redmond hit a 147 last week in a league match, all to play for. 

11.30am – Play now under way, according to Fin Ruane the Crossguns is like a library ‘you can hear a pin drop’

The Snookerbacker Classic hits Dublin tomorrow at the fantastic Crossguns Snooker Club and I’d like to wish everyone taking part the very best of luck.

Random stereotypical picture of a shamrock for visual effect

As it’s a little different to the other events, entries will be taken tomorrow morning and whether you have entered the event or wake up tomorrow morning thinking that you would like to. Here are the details.

Either way, this is why anyone involved in snooker around those parts should visit the Crossguns.

We all know it's wrong, but it works...

It’s Day 2 over in Berlin after the completion of the wildcard rounds and some of the first round matches yesterday.

The wildcard round went much as expected with the only one that could really have been close going to Craig Steadman over qualifier Mike Dunn. I can’t see how anyone can justify these rounds as fair, there is no need for them. This is nothing to do with either player, I have met Craig and wish him all the best but I feel sorry for Dunny who had won the right to compete in the last 32 only to come up against a player that he will have known was a real challenge having only had a few hours practice after the Shootout at the weekend.

Wildcard Rounds are totally unfair, needless and unjustifiable in a sport which claims not to want to reward mediocrity. They should be scrapped in all events, including the Chinese ones.

In the afternoon Shaun Murphy scraped through against Barry Hawkins in what I thought was an entertaining match. Shaun will feel he may have been let off the hook a bit but for me he looked to be cueing very well in the balls and I think if he just stops the loose ones creeping in at close range, which is a habit of his, he will still be a contender this weekend. Stephen Maguire was also a comfortable winner against Ryan Day and seemed to finish each winning frame off very quickly and clinically. Day is really struggling at venues of late and I’m not sure why that is, but Mags is in good form and now plays Higgins tonight.

In the evening session Mark Williams only really had to turn up to beat Ken Doherty, a 5-0 whitewash looked on the cards very early in that one and so it went. The defending champion will have to raise his game of course but he did what was necessary.

Elsewhere there were comfortable wins for Higgins, who beat Dark Mavis 5-1 and Ricky Walden who beat Martin Gould by the same score to enhance his push for a top 16 place after the next revision and a place at Sheffield in April. Stephen Lee managed to beat earlier winner Adrian Gunnell 5-2 and the night finished with a 5-3 win for Stuart Bingham from 3-1 down against Peter Ebdon, who is on currently on a vegan diet and eating a lot of bananas, which I suppose is one excuse to get a bit of space from everyone else.

This morning sees some of yesterday’s wildcard winners playing top 16 players, with Yu Delu facing Ding, Paul Davison facing Trump and Ford facing Mark Allen. I would not be surprised if the all Chinese clash went closer than you might expect as you can sometimes throw the form book out of the window when they happen but I would be amazed if Judd Trump didn’t win very easily. He is 11/2 with Apollobet for the whitewash and that is entirely possible, for bigger punters the 8/15 with the same firm on him -2.5 frames can surely only fail to land if he is busy eyeing up the totty in the crowd. Tom Ford is of course capable of beating Allen but I don’t think he will and have backed Allen in the outrights this week.

Two more wildcards play this afternoon and I would be surprised if Mark Selby and Matthew Stevens didn’t book their places in the Last 16. All eyes will of course be on Ronnie as he attempts to secure his Crucible place with a strong showing this week ahead of the Welsh Open. He starts off against Andrew Higginson, who himself will be looking to be seeded at Sheffield. Click here to see how things lie in the race for the Crucible at the moment, Ronnie currently lying outside the top 16 and staring the qualifiers in the face.

In terms of betting, the Enhanced First Round Acca is waiting on Graeme Dott and Joe Perry to land following comfortable wins for Magure and Walden so fingers crossed for that. Murphy and Williams are still in the hat in the quarters/outrights so no damage has yet been done.

My thoughts on the remaining first round matches can be found in the original preview here and I will be updating a preview on the opening matches of Round 2 this evening at some point during the day once the matches have been finalised and I’ve had a good look around at the prices. You can check out what Apollobet have to offer here as they remain one of the few firms offering a multitude of handicap and break bets on every match.

Please feel free to discuss your bets, the snooker in general or your opinion on the standard of today’s German girl in the comments section below this post. I’m pleased that we seem to be congregating there more often again, I knew that Twitter was a fad.

(All Times are CET)

10am
4 Ding Junhui 3-5 Yu Delu
13 Judd Trump 5-1 Paul Davison
10 Graeme Dott 5-0 James Wattana
8 Neil Robertson 5-2 Marcus Campbell
14 Mark Allen 5-4 Tom Ford

3pm
6 Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-4 Andrew Higginson
9 Mark Selby 5-0 Liu Song
5 Ali Carter 4-5 Joe Perry
7 Matthew Stevens 5-1 Craig Steadman

8pm – Round 2
24 Stephen Maguire 5-0 John Higgins
22 Ricky Walden 2-5 Shaun Murphy
18 Stephen Lee 5-2 Yu Delu
23 Judd Trump 5-2 Mark Allen

One of the disadvantages of this format is that we are limited to one TV table in the early rounds and tonight shows that problem off like no other. The match chosen for the cameras is John Higgins v Stephen Maguire, while languishing on an outside table are UK Finalists Judd Trump and Mark Allen. If ever there as a case for a TV company bowing to popular demand it is this evening, surely watching a rematch between two of the most exciting players in the game is preferable to watching John and Mags slog it out for the millionth time. Time to move on.

Anyway, I will start with the best match and that is Allen and Trump. Marky needed all his battling qualities to defeat Tom Ford this morning from 4-1 down and will need to regroup again to cope with Judd, who reportedly doesn’t like the set-up. I’ve backed Allen in the outrights and I will stick with him to win, but it could be a very tight one. Mags broke a losing run against Higgins in the UK, beating him 6-4 in December and he’ll take confidence from that into tonight’s clash. Having not seen either of them play yet it is difficult to know whether there has been any change in their form coming into this so in effect you are betting blind. Maguire has been the better of the two these last few months though Higgins is looking a little better lately. I marginally fancy Higgins but again, it’s not one to do the mortgage on. Another tough one to call is Murphy against Walden, Ricky beat Smurf for the first time in the UK and is battling to try and regain his top 16 spot. Murphy nearly lost in the first round but looked to be cueing well in patches. I’d again venture that this will be very close, possibly a decider, I’ve backed Murphy in the outrights and will stick with him. That leaves Ste Lee against conqueror of Ding this morning Yu Delu. Lee will look on this as a reat chance to more or less secure his Crucible place and he isn’t short on bottle so will probably win, at 4/7 with Stan James he’s probably worth a bet.

Recommended Bets:

4 points win Stephen Lee to beat Yu Delu at 4/7 with Stan James

2 point treble on Maguire (+2.5), Allen (+2.5) and Walden (+2.5) pays almost dead on 6/4 at Apollobet.

I am also going to add to my outright book after this morning with 1 point on Graeme Dott to win the tournament at 25/1 with Apollobet. 

Click the banner below to take advantage of Apollo’s opening offer to new customers.

The M'O'D with his medal.

It probably didn’t escape your notice that it was the second leg of the Snookerbacker Classic yesterday and that we took ourselves down to the excellent South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester to glam up the thriving amateur snooker circuit.

After the first event in Leeds which consisted of 16 players myself and Mrs Snookerbacker were this time faced with 31 budding baize boys and 1 lovely lady baizer who were eager to compete on professional quality tables for the right to join Allan Taylor and Jamie Barrett on Finals Day, back at the SWSA on 24th February.

The day did not disappoint and produced some great snooker including a final frame decider which saw former British Open Champion and UK Finalist David Gray beat local boy Michael Wasley 4-3, a full 11 hours since play started. An hour or so earlier the other qualifier, Martin O’Donnell had triumphed over ladies favourite Ben Harrison 4-0.

Myself and Mrs SB arrived at the venue early and a little the worse for wear after a night in the Bumble Bee pub over the road from the Academy the night before. Of course, as well as having a drink with Antony Parsons and his lovely partner Sarah, that bloke that follows me round wearing a Mustard Mankini also showed up. But he was happy running errands for myself and Mrs SB while we sat and chatted to Ant, Sarah and Matthew Lowson, who had arrived to referee the big event.

Despite feeling a little delicate we soldiered on and got everything set up that you need for a snooker tournament. Flowers, cakes, players packs with fun activity games in them, Mrs SB’s Pamper Hamper, oh and those silly old matchsheets that they take with them when they are playing.

As the players began to arrive, very much like Leeds, they looked at the camped up registration desk with a mixture of bemusement and intrigue but quickly settled into the spirit of things and started chatting away before they were due to go on the baize.

As the first session was split into two, it was all go in the morning and there was no time to nurse our aching heads which were also splitting in two. The live streaming was under way and we didn’t have any early hiccups in either sense of the word. Even the bloke in the Mankini was behaving himself and went off to play his match without a word. The ‘brains’ behind the website Snooker Bingo was the next comedian through the doors and he arrived resplendent in every colour of the rainbow to play his match on the livestream at 11am. Viewing figures peaked as people wondered if his hair was actually the real deal or not, well I can exclusively reveal that it isn’t and that he was wearing a wig for the entire day.

David also hit the Highest Break of the Day

The snooker continued and it was clear that it was another quality field. Callum Lloyd hit a 110 in Round One and was only beaten very late in the day by Gray who scooped the Amarya.co.uk £1 per point highest break prize along with his qualifiers medal. There was a great feel to the day with even the losers remaining upbeat and philosophical in defeat. The tables really are very difficult to get used to and a lot of the players had more experience of playing on them than others.

I also had the pleasure of catching up with Paul Mount who I am delighted to say is looking back to good health. He played in Round One and claimed he was ‘lucky to come second’. As it was my first time at the Academy we had a chat about the facilities and I opened the negotiations on a similar venture in the North West, which I kindly offered to market and run for the great man. Negotiations hit a bit of a stumbling block when he asked if I was going to pay for it aswell, but I know how business works and I’m sure that was just his little joke. He won’t bluff me that easily. I’m on it.

As the day wore on Mrs Snookerbacker decided to award her coveted Pamper Hamper to Ben Harrison. Ben was the bookies favourite given his devilishly handsome good looks, which put me in mind of myself at that age. He narrowly pipped Martin O’Donnell and a couple of others to the title of Best Groomed Baizer. Mr Snooker Bingo (who was never in the running) however was unhappy at the result and claimed that Ben should not have won as ‘all his clothes were the same colour’, this coming from a man that had taken great care not to go for this particular tactic. Anyway, Ben won it and that’s the end of that according to Mrs SB (I think she fancies him).

Mrs SB also found time to hit a few balls around the table for the first time since ‘her dad used to take her to that club that had the strippers’ many years ago. She displayed a remarkable ability to not pot the ball on but instead produce a shot which a lot of professionals would struggle to carry off. Not once, but three times. Then blog hardman Ian White decided to show off a bit, recreating a 5-cushion pot by Tony Meo first time of asking (he swore he hadn’t practiced it but we decided we didn’t believe him). Anyway, we left the table as we found it and no damage was done.

But in the end it was all about the competitive snooker and David Gray produced two deciding frame finishes to claim his spot in the Finals while Martin lost just four frames all day to take his. They are now each just two wins away from free Q-School entry and three away from being crowned the first ever Snookerbacker Classic Champion.

The feedback again was very positive from the players who I hope all enjoyed the experience whether they won or lost. I’d like to thank the officials, Clive, Matthew and Alan for all their help and John and Paul at the Academy who couldn’t do enough to help as well as Mr Mount himself who has built quite a place there. A special mention also to Ben Fortey, a great little player who Mrs SB thinks is ‘just lovely’. He took a frame off Ben Harrison with a 50-odd break and could be one to watch in the future.

Full details of the scores in the event are below.

Round One 

Kashif Khan 0-4 Andy Neck
Antony Parsons W/O Sydney Wilson
James Burrett 1-4 Martin O’Donnell
Marianne Williams 0-4 Gareth Allen
Sean Hopkin 4-0 Tom Doggett
Ryan Causton 4-0 Jack Morgan
Craig Scotford 3-4 Gary Weeks
Ben Fortey 1-4 Ben Harrison (84)
Nick Pearce 4-3 Ricky Norris
Kyren Wilson 4-2 Gavin Lewis
David Gray 4-1 Neal Jones
Marc Harman 4-1 Paul Mount
Jamie Clarke 4-0 Thomas Goldstein
Callum Lloyd (110) 4-0 Brandon Winstone
Steve Winstone 0-4 Michael Wasley
Matthew Day 4-1 Phil O’Kane

Round Two

Andy Neck 4-3 Ant Parsons
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Gareth Allen (94)
Sean Hopkin 0-4 Ryan Causton
Gary Weeks 0-4 Ben Harrison (84)
Nick Pearce 0-4 Kyren Wilson (80)
David Gray (72) 4-0 Marc Harman
Jamie Clarke 4-2 Callum Lloyd
Michael Wasley (82) 4-0 Matthew Day

Round Three

Andy Neck 1-4 Martin O’Donnell (89)
Ryan Causton (77) 3-4 Ben Harrison
Kyren Wilson 3-4 David Gray (82)
Jamie Clarke 3-4 Michael Wasley

Final Qualifying Round

Martin O’Donnell 4-0 Ben Harrison
David Gray (86,118) 4-3 Michael Wasley

Qualifiers: Martin O’Donnell and David Gray

AND AS A FINAL TREAT FOR THE LADIES AND ALL THE GAYS…..

Ladies.....calm yourselves. Ben with his Pamper Hamper.