19th March 2005
Wayne Branton (Plymouth) became the first player to win the inaugural Gold Waistcoat Tournament run by the West of England Billiard & Snooker Foundation (WEBSF) which is sponsored by the Sunday Independent.

The Gold Waistcoat Tour is another piece of the jigsaw put together by the WEBSF management team and follows on from the highly successful Bronze & Silver Waistcoat Tours. The competition was well received by the players and is sure to become a great success as it travels around the West of England Counties in the future.

The field of top players boasted two England Internationals; a UK Champion, South West Champion; two Devon County Champions and two players who are in this years Cornwall and Devon County singles finals. The pedigree of the players set the scene for much anticipation only to be foiled by local player Wayne Branton who stole the show. Branton beat Alan Hurley (Redruth) 3-0 in the final. However, the game was much closer than the score line reads. After eight hours of competition the two men fought a hard game with some of the best safety play of the day. Branton opened with a 45 break only to watch Hurley reply with a 31. Branton followed this with a clearance to take the first frame. Branton took the second frame on the pink and cleared the colours in the third to claim the first Gold Waistcoat event.

In the semi-final Branton beat England International Andy Radford (Exeter) 3-1 the highlight being Radfords 75 break. The other semi-final saw an all Cornish clash with Alan Hurley beating Paul Williams (Falmouth) 3-0. Hurley recorded breaks of 60, 38 & 37.

In the quarters Williams defeated one of the favourites England International Mike King (Exeter) 2(38)-1(42). Other quarter final matches saw the West of England Silver Waistcoat Champion Grant Cole (Plymouth) loose 2-1 to Hurley and Radford defeated Devon County finalist Jamie Denham (Exeter) 2-0. Steve Downing (Redruth) lost a close match against Wayne Branton who doubled the black ball to win 2-1.

The group stages saw a string of 57 breaks over 30 with the highest of the day being a magnificent 127 by Mike King, this came in the first frame of the day against Phil Lane (Redruth). King followed this with a 93. He went on to win his group without dropping a frame; making further breaks of 93cl, 84, 73, 54 & 44. Not bad for someone still recovering from a broken collar bone! The other qualifier from this group was Steve Downing, his best break being a 82, followed by 61, 44 & 32. Other breaks in this group; Neil Chiswell (Plymouth) 40, 40 and Gregg Batten (Tiverton) 51x2, 46 & 33.

Finalist Alan Hurley won his group losing only one match to Mike Day (Plymouth) 2-1. Hurley recorded the best break of the group a fine 68. The second qualifier from this group was Jamie Denham (Exeter) who went through on count-back after being level on points with Day. Denham made a 45 break while Day recorded 44 & 34. Other breaks in this group were Darren Lock (Seaton) 43 and Ben Pike (Tiverton) 36, 35 & 34.

Group C was won by Andy Radford without losing a match. Radford’s best effort was 87 missing the pink going for the century, he also recorded breaks of 53, 35 & 30. The second qualifier resulted from another two way tie between Wayne Woodger (Exeter) and Grant Cole with Cole going through having beaten Woodger 2-1. Woodger recorded breaks of 40 & 30. Cole made breaks of 46 followed by 37x2 & 32. Other breaks were recorded by Rob Charman (Redruth and Sam Baird (Tiverton) both with 38.

Group D finished with three players topping the group on 6 points. Wayne Branton, Paul Williams and English Amateur finalist Andy Symons-Rowe (Tavistock). Branton won the group having beaten both the other players. Williams had won 2-1 against Symons-Rowe thus eliminating Symons-Rowe. Breaks in this group were Branton 33x2 & 34, Williams 69, 38, 37x2, 33 & 30. Symons-Rowe 40x3 & 39. Darren Bond (UK Silver Waistcoat Champion, Tiverton) 51 and Bobby Southworth (Falmouth) 36.

Tournament Director Keith Millard stated "This competition will put the south-west on the map at national level. It just oozes class all through. We’ve lacked quality tournaments down this end of the country for a some time but things are about to change and that can only be good for the game. Wayne Branton’s victory was well earnt, all day he potted long balls and produced great match play snooker. Rest assured the stars of the tournament will be back with a vengeance! Which can only make the next event even better and raise the standard even higher. I can’t wait for the next tour event in Falmouth next month."

Report by Keith Millard