5th January 2008
Four England Internationals reached the semi final of the latest West of England Billiards & Snooker Foundation Gold Waistcoat tournament. Mike King (Exeter) came out on top preventing last months winner Kris Vincent (Plymouth) from recording back to back wins. The final could have gone either way in a close fought battle of talent but it was King that took Gold. To win through the knock-out stages King narrowly beat Steve Brookshaw 3-2 in the quarters and easily beat longstanding team mate and adversary, Andy Radford (Exeter) 3-0 with the aid of a fine 104 break. It is testament to Radford’s technique, matchplay and ability and that he got this far considering he finds such little time to practice between tournaments. In the other semi final Vincent beat Greg Batten (Tiverton) 3-1, Batten obviously finding it difficult to recover after a titanic struggle to beat Sam Baird 3-2 in the quarters. In the match Batten had a 73 and 47 break and Baird a 47. The remaining quarter finals saw Vincent beat Adrian Bond (Tiverton) 3-0 and Radford beat Grant Cole (Plymouth) 3(63)-2.

Cole played consistently well to win Group A winning all his matches with a string of frame clinching breaks 60,54,49,47,44 & 44. Batten just qualified in second place with breaks of 88,85,65,63,55 & 48 losing just the one match to Cole 3-0. Group B was peppered with breaks, group winner Baird setting the pace dropping just one frame and posting breaks of 91,91,83,70,52,60,59,54 & 50. King claimed second place with breaks of 94,87,70 & 46 Just failing to qualify was Dale Branton (Plymouth) who is starting to give the more season players something to think about. Branton made clearance breaks of 84 & 50 two 41’s and the best break of the day a consummate 109. Wayne Branton senior struggled all day with back problems but still managed breaks of 80,65 & 49. Radford had little resistance in winning an uneventful group C. Adrian Bond (Tiverton) qualified in second place with a break of 73 . Steve Brookshaw (Plymouth) won through Group D win breaks of 82,72,55 & 48 edging Vincent into second spot. Vincent made breaks of 88,66,55,55 & 47.

Tournament Director Roger Cole, said "Only two 100 breaks this time but the standard of matchplay has once again been excellent. The Gold Waistcoat is proving invaluable to our local players as it is the only tournament in the region that provides quality non handicap competition" For more information about this and other WEBSF tournaments visit the website www.websf.co.uk

Report by Steve Canniford