8th March 2008
With three different players wining the first three events, up stepped Greg Batten with a record equalling break to make his play for gold by beating Matt Williams to win the penultimate event of this seasons Gold Waistcoat tournament. The first frame was a scrappy affair with Williams steeling to go one frame up. He began the first frame with a 55 break before Batten replied with a 66 to level at 1-1. In the final frame Batten made a 50 break which Williams looked like matching before missing a vital black leaving Batten to clear and win 2-1. In the semi final Batten produced a touch of class in beating fellow Tivetonian Darren Bond 2-0. In the first frame he made a frame winning 63 break which preceded a magnificent 134 total clearance in the second. This break equals the highest ever of the tournament made by ranking points leader Kris Vincent. In the other semi final Williams beat Vincent 2-1. The quarter finals brought to the fore yet more exciting snooker. Batten beat reigning champion Mike King 2-1 in a closely fought battle. Young gun Dale Branton battled hard to win through to qualify before losing 2(40)-0 to Darren Bond. The prolific break building of Sam Baird was just short of his consummate best narrowly losing 2(48)-1(75) to Vincent. Grant Cole played solid snooker all day before meeting Williams at his most potent. After a fluked red he amassed a superb break of 127 missing the final black to join Batten & Vincent as joint 'Breakmasters'.

The group stages brought the usual barrage of breaks the most prolific being King with breaks of 113,75,69,79,58,55,47,44,42 & 40 in winning five out of six matches to top the group. With three tied in second place frame count back saw Baird take the vital ranking points with breaks of 84,67,64,49,48 & 44. Third spot went to Williams and the forth qualifying place went to Branton. Michael Day was the unlucky player that just missed out. Paul Veitch and Adrian Bond completed the group. Group B was more clear cut with Batten winning all six matches with breaks of 75,54,54,50 & 49. Darren Bond finished a close second losing just the one match to Batten. Cole made breaks of 59,54 & 49 to finish in third just in front of Vincent on frame difference. Newcomers to the tournament Darren Hall and previous Exeter Bronze Champion Dan Hine made up the group

Tournament Director Roger Cole, said "The knock out stages produced some of the best snooker I've seen for a long tie. It hade everything, big breaks, close matches, established players battling it out and young players coming through to test themselves against the best in the region" For more information about this and other WEBSF tournaments visit the website www.websf.co.uk

Report by Steve Canniford