The opening competition was the Lanaway Doubles with both pairings representing Clayton, David Page with Mark Coles against Anthony Flynn and Dave Lewney. The first frame of five saw Flynn and Lewney taking a respotted black then convincingly winning the second. The third involved another respotted black which Page and Coles won, in the fourth, Coles was now warming up and with a well worked thirty break, this insured the equaliser. Confidence was now oozing with Page and Coles becoming the Lanaway Champions with a 76-26 final victory.
The Stoner Cup [ handicap] saw Chris Carter [ +21 ] of Lindfield performing in the final for the first time against the experienced Neil Baker [ +7 ] of Hassocks. Baker won the first frame of five with Carter responding with the second. Baker meant business in the third producing a fluent 37 break and taking the lead, Carter levelled the score showing much determination. The final frame was a nailbiter, Carter pushed Baker to the wire leading by 27 points with all colours available. Baker clawed back to level the score and became the Stoner Champion when he slotted home the respotted black.
The Triples Final [ handicap ] featured the United Services Club Trio of Lee Cannizzaro , Mark Bright and Martin Batchelor [ +7 ] versus Hassocks Neil Smith, James Dew and Gary Ellis [ +21 ]. The USC team were all on top of their form and took the Triples Championship with a 74 cumulative points victory.
The Grandmasters [ handicap ] paired two Peters, Mann [+14 ] of Clayton with Green [ +7 ] of Balcombe with Mann opening with a sturring frame giving him a cumulative lead of 39. Green turned the tables in the second and with a dogged third frame performance, became the Grandmasters Champion [50 years old plus] with a 33 cumulative points win.
The audience were in high expectations of a close finish in the Championship Final with the enterprising Mark Bright of United Services Club challenging the pin up star from Hurstpierpoint, Barry Martin. Martin rose to the crowd's enthusiasm by taking the opening two frames, Bright clawed the third with Martin convincingly securing the fourth. Bright was determined to take this final to the full seven frames, this was shown in his fifth frame win. Martin recognised the danger, upped his game to take the sixth 56-22 to become the overall Mid Sussex Champion. |
