9th April 2006
The final event of the Redruth West of England Billiards & Snooker Foundation Bronze Waistcoat Tour was held at Redruth Royal British Legion. There were six players still in contention for the four places to compete in the regional finals in Plymouth on the 22nd of April. Some fine snooker was played by those that qualified and tremendous sportsmanship from the players who were defeated.

In the final James Freeman led all the way and was 20 up with the colours remaining, James Stephens took the opportunity to close the gap and with 2 balls remaining, Freeman appeared to be certain to pot the pink to win. However, to every ones surprise it rolled in and around the centre pocket and returned to rest on the table. Stephens held his nerve to pot the pink and black and win and claim victory and reaffirm first place in the ranking table.

The semi-finals saw Freeman out pot Jake Stewart by 68-32 and in the other semi-final Stephens beat Shaun Wills by 56 -20 compiling a 25 break on the way. In group 1 Alex Wills continued his good run of form by beating Josh Williams 43-22, Stewart returned to form winning all three of his games and compiling a 24 break in his frame against Alex Wills. Stephens managed to win two of his group games and qualifying for the semi-finals. In group 2 Shaun Wills also returned to form winning all of his games and qualifying for the semi-final, Freeman also qualified for the semi-finals. Troy Lynes although failing to qualify showed great sportsmanship bearing in mind his failure to qualify in his last year of competing in the Bronze Waistcoat. He just missed out last year and the same this year.

Report by David Wills