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Off the Spot Singles 2009
*Gina Sherratt took Steve Mariner's place in the plate Kevin Tunstall won his first Brighton off the spot title to add to the 3 Brighton Singles titles he has won in a row. He progressed from the group stages with 3 wins from 4 matches but could have gone out had Richard Wooton kept a winning break against him early in the day. In the quarter finals Kevin overcame Kevin Stoner who made the quarters for the second year running. A tough semi final followed against Mark James but a good break in the second leg saw him through to the final. There he met Dave Ingram, in his first Brighton competition, who will be playing for the Schooner this year. Kevin was off early in the final but Dave didn't capitalise and Kevin took a 7k lead into leg 2. Dave only started with less than 1,000 on his break, and the game became a formality for Kevin and he wrapped it up with time to spare. Dave had a great day progressing from a tough group at the expense of 2 time champion Steve Mariner, wins over Reeves junior and Reeves senior ensured progress to the final. 20 players showed up for the tournament and were split into 4 groups. The top 2 would progress to the quarter finals, 3rd and 4th place guaranteed a plate berth. The round robin section of the day threw up tough groups. Group 1 contained previous champions Nigel Senior and Steve Mariner. Dave Ingram proved to be the dark horse and pipped Steve to second spot and Nigel won the group with 4 wins out of 4. It was against Dave where Nigel made the highest break of the day with a 13,620 effort. Sandra pipped Gina to the 4th place and a place in the plate but could have put Dave Ingram out had a ball dropped down the 30 pocket when she just got in front in the game. It didn't drop and Dave got the 100 to win and seal the runners up spot. Group 2 was also tough with Kevin Tunstall, Richard Wooton, Ian Lelliott, Tony Jenner and last years runner up Martin Smith competing for the two spots. It became a three horse race between Kevin, Martin and Richard, and Richard had to sit and watch as Martin Smith beat Kevin in the last match to put them both through and eliminate Richard. Ian beat Tony in their last game to put Ian into the plate. Group 3 was also quality with 3 former champions involved. 3 times champ Chris Reeves won all 4 of his games, and former winner Mark James squeaked by double champ Chris Tupper by scoring 9,780 in his last group game to beat his aggregate by just 1,180 after they both won 2 games. Jean Brackenridge got the other plate spot also with 2 wins, Mark Senior was on his way home with 5th spot. Group 4 was, I think it fair to say the weaker of the groups but 2nd place was very fiercely contested for after Dave Reeves had won all 4 of his games for the top spot. It was Kevin Stoner who grabbed the 2nd spot with a win over Charlie Cooper in his last game, but Hayley Tunstall could have qualified if she could win her last game with just over 3k against newcomer Kyle Ingram. But Kyle took his first win - and in the end was only 130 points from making the plate at Hayley's expense - 680 more points and Hayley would have been second, 140 less and she would have been 5th! The two eventual finalists Kevin Tunstall and Dave Ingram made it through their quarter finals against Kevin Stoner and Chris Reeves respectively. Dave Reeves made it passed Martin Smith fairly comfortably. But the match of the quarter final round was undoubtedly between Mark James and Nigel Senior. Mark was off early and Nigel established a 9k lead with his break to come. Nigel only broke off with 1,200 in leg 2 and saw his lead eroded away and Mark timed it just right to win by just 530 points. Mark went on to lose against Kevin Tunstall in the semis and that was also where Dave Reeves succumbed to Dave Ingram. The plate was won by Richard Wooton with a 3k break in the dying minutes to beat Ian Lelliott, Ian losing the plate final 2 years running. Many thanks to the Windmill for hosting a very successful day of bar billiards. Previous Competitions
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