The Les Dodd Snooker Centre
9-11 Princes Street
Southport
Merseyside
PR8 1EG
Tel: 01704 536396
lesdoddsnooker.co.uk
Sunday 14 January 2007
UK Qualifier winner Stuart Colclough
Stuart Colclough became the latest name to be added to the inaugural Grand Masters event by winning the UK qualifier last Sunday.
He came through a very tough 10 man field who were split into 2 groups where the top two would qualify for the semis. Both groups were very tight and went down to the last set of matches to determine who would advance to the next round.
"Read More..." for the details by Mark Hopgood.
Lag in the semi final between James Kay and Gary Stewart
Group A was extremely tight and there should be a special mention to Jonathon Mathers who failed to qualify despite winning his first 3 matches and actually only failed to qualify by 1 rack on the racks won method.
Gary Stewart topped the group with his only defeat coming against Mathers and the runner up was English pool player Simon Fitzsimmons who despite losing his opening match, won his next 3 and qualified.
James Kay and Gary Stewart shaking hands before their match
Group B was topped by Stuart Colclough whose only defeat whose only defeat in the whole tournament came against event organiser Mark Hopgood.
With James Kay having already qualified with some consistent pool, going into the final two matches only Hopgood could stop Colclough from advancing but his defeat to Neil Jenkins and Colclough’s win over Kay prevented this.
Stuart Colclough and Simon Fitzsimmons before their semi final
The first semi final pitched Colclough against Fitzsimmons, Stuart played very well in this match and ran out a comfortable 8-2 winner.
The other semi final began very closely between Kay and Stewart but at 3-3 James Kay moved ahead and ran away with the match 8-3.
So the final was a replay of the group match between Kay and Colclough.
Stuart completed his second victory over Kay in a very tight 8-7 match that could have gone wither way.
Lag in the semi final between Colclough and Fitzsimmons
The pivotal point in the match came when Kay was 5-3 in front, he had four balls left and cut a tricky ball in the centre, only to see the white cannon the 8 ball into the corner pocket handing Stuart the rack, making it 5-4 instead of 6-3.
Stuart then took advantage of this and made it 5-5 and went on to win a tense final rack to book his place in the Grand Masters. Many thanks to everyone who took part in this event and good luck to Stuart in Cambridge.
Report by Mark Hopgood
Mark Hopgood racking the balls using Sardo M-5000 used during the qualifier
GROUP A | ||||||
The Grand Masters Qualifier | ||||||
| - | Played | Won | Lost | F | A | +/- |
| 1. G. Stewart | 4 | 3 | 1 | 15 | 9 | +6 |
| 2. S. Fitzsimmons | 4 | 3 | 1 | 15 | 11 | +4 |
| 3. J. Mathers | 4 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 10 | +4 |
| 4. M. Hyden | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 15 | -7 |
| 5. D. Sandford | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 16 | -8 |
Stewart | 4 : 3 | Fitzsimmons |
Hyden | 4 : 3 | Sandford |
Mathers | 4 : 3 | Stewart |
Fitzsimmons | 4 : 2 | Sandford |
Mathers | 4 : 2 | Hyden |
Stewart | 4 : 2 | Sandford |
Fitzsimmons | 4 : 3 | Hyden |
Mathers | 4 : 1 | Sandford |
Stewart | 4 : 0 | Hyden |
Fitzsimmons | 4 : 2 | Mathers |
1. Gary Stewart
2. Simon Fitzsimmons
GROUP B | ||||||
The Grand Masters Qualifier | ||||||
| - | Played | Won | Lost | F | A | +/- | 1. S. Colclough | 4 | 3 | 1 | 15 | 7 | +8 |
| 2. J. Kay | 4 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 7 | +7 |
| 3. N. Jenkins | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 13 | -1 |
| 4. M. Hopgood | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 13 | -2 |
| 5. G. Edge | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 16 | -12 |
Colclough | 4 : 1 | Jenkins |
Hopgood | 4 : 2 | Edge |
Kay | 4 : 3 | Jenkins |
Colclough | 4 : 0 | Edge |
Kay | 4 : 0 | Hopgood |
Jenkins | 4 : 2 | Edge |
Hopgood | 4 : 3 | Colclough |
Kay | 4 : 0 | Edge |
Jenkins | 4 : 3 | Hopgood |
Colclough | 4 : 2 | Kay |
1. Stuart Colclough
2. James Kay
THE SEMI FINALS | |||
The Grand Masters Qualifier | |||
James Kay | 8 : 3 | Gary Stewart | |
Stuart Colclough | 8 : 2 | Simon Fitzsimmons | |
THE FINAL (rack-by-rack) | |||||||||||||||
The Grand Masters Qualifier | |||||||||||||||
| Kay | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Colclough | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 |