The defending champion from the last two years, Lance Richards, was unfortunately unable to play this year. This left the field wide open for a new handicap billiards winner to emerge from a healthy field of 22 players.
On one side of the draw, Matt Holt looked like he might do a “Steven Bradbury” after getting a free pass to the semi-final with other players forfeiting in rounds 1, 2 and 3!!
Matt reached the semifinal without playing a match, at which point his lack of match fitness cost him dearly, being trounced by the billiards skills of Graham Baker.
Graham proving that even off a very low handicap (-75) he was a very difficult player to beat.
The other side of the draw was hotly contested with some great billiards players rising to the challenge. The quarter finals saw billiards legends like Peter Gilks and Jeff Pickering pushing their opponents to the limit.
Peter Gilks had a good win over Errol Aristodemou, while in a surprise upset Jeff Pickering lost to Ryan Cairney. Ryan Cairney has had a particularly good year with the cue and has been very competitive in both billiards and snooker competitions.
The final between Graham Baker and Ryan Cairney looked likely to be a great contest. Unfortunately, it was not to be – with the match not being played due to Graham’s inability to play in time. So, Ryan did what Matt had been so close to achieving – and the “Bradbury” was awarded!!
Congratulations to Ryan on showing excellent billiards skills and being so competitive across competitions this year.