Black Bottle SAPPA Tour Event 1 runner-up Scott Ross starts
running another rack in his semi final with Clark Smith.

Day one brought few surprise results, with Perth’s Andy Cheuk recording the biggest shock of the day with his 7-4 victory over eventual finalist, and new EBA World Blackball Masters Champion, Scott Ross. At the end of the day, the 16 qualifiers were drawn randomly against the players in the top 16 to give us the matches for the last 32.

When the draw was made, two matches stood out from the crowd. Scott Ross v Chris Cowie and Chris Fraser v Jayson Shaw. While the Ross v Cowie encounter was a tight affair ending in a 10-8 victory to Ross, the Fraser v Shaw match turned into a potting display from Shaw as he moved easily into the last 16 by 10 racks to 2. The stand-out result from the last 32, however, was the loss by Scotland’s number 2 Michael Valentine to Edinburgh’s number one, Chris Pringle by 10 racks to 7 in a match that could easily have gone either way.

Fraser Patrick’s match against Davy Jack went one way, then the other with Patrick being 8-2 and 9-3 up before Jack started a monumental fight back. Patrick, however, was not to be denied his place in the last 8 as he scrambled over the line to win 10-9. Another fight back of note was from Clark Smith who came from 6-2 down to win 10-8 over local player Ian Macintosh.

Pat Holtz breaks off in his Semi Final match against Greg Alexander

Of note in the quarter finals was the Patrick v Smith encounter which turned into a war of attrition due to a series of difficult table layouts after the breaks. This match looked destined to be another hill-hill encounter for Patrick before Smith managed to get over the line, winning 10-8.

Fraser Patrick nears the finish of another rack

The Ross v Smith semi final match was, effectively decided by a missed 6-ball by Smith with the scores tied at 5 racks each. This one shot seemed to affect Smith’s concentration and he found himself unable to get back into the match, which Ross won 10-5. The Alexander v Holtz semi final was a much closer affair with no player being able to get too far ahead of the other. In the end, Alexander managed to get himself over the line and into his third SAPPA final.

Clark Smith breaking in his Quarter Final match against Fraser Patrick

The final was, again, a relatively close affair with no player getting too far ahead of the other during the match. At 8 racks each, it looked very much like the match was going to go the whole way but a dry break from Ross allowed Alexander to clear the table and then he broke and cleared the 18th rack to win the match and his first SAPPA Tour Event title.

Black Bottle SAPPA Tour Event 1 winner Greg Alexander (right) with Sarah Henderson, Duty Manager of Riley's Stirling and Tam Talent, SAPPA Tournament Director

SAPPA would like to thank Black Bottle Whisky, Riley’s Stirling and all the players for making the weekend such a big success.