DAY 2
Day 2 of the Vimy Ridge Classic saw the knockout stage from the last 16 through to the final played over 5 sessions of 90 minute matches.
Tie of the last 16 between Chris Taylor and Nalin Patel resulted in a 358-237 victory for Patel who recorded a single break of 64 in the process. Match of the round ended up being Dhruv Sitwala v local champ Rick Kendall who took his form from the group stages in to day 2. Kendall led for the entire match until a relieved Sitwala ran out with 93 to win by 76: final score 340-264. Mike Russell went in to demolition mode against Jerseyman Guy Heys, recording the high break of the round with 258, and the highest score in his 853-109 win. The battle of the Canadians resulted in a win for Blair Lawson over Daniel Scullion 308-246.
The quarter finals saw the biggest shock of the event with 6 times English Amateur Champion Martin Goodwill inflicting a heavy defeat over 16 times World Champion Mike Russell. The final score 458-170 included breaks of 86, 61 & 103 from Goodwill and just a single 51 from Russell. Dhruv Sitwala put an end to the Canadian challenge beating Blair Lawson 522-110 whilst Phil Mumford scored a 517-401 win over an out of sorts Devendra Joshi. Despite being behind for most of the match Rob Hall prevailed over Nalin Patel 393-322 aided by a break of 113 near the end.
The semi final saw Rob Hall take on Dhruv Sitwala and Martin Goodwill v Phil Mumford. Dhruv Sitwala took an early lead against Rob Hall with a 127 break and maintained it until Rob hit the front with a few minutes to go. Dhruv had another chance to take the lead but was unable to take advantage, Hall finally getting over the line by just 20 points: 316-296. Phil Mumford’s first scoring visit was 191 against Martin Goodwill and after adding another couple of smaller breaks never really looked in danger of being overhauled, eventually winning 535-245.
After the high standard of play from both players earlier in the day fatigue seemed to set in and the final was somewhat of an anti climax, both players struggling to get anything going at all for most of the match. The highest break for the first hour was only 40; there were 27 visits without any score and over 50 of the 69 visits in the match scored less than 10 points: a remarkable statistic after what had come from the players in earlier matches. Eventually Rob Hall kicked in to gear with breaks of 106 and 72, Phil Mumford only managing to counter with a break of 38, his highest of the match. The final score was a somewhat flattering 439-238.
The highest break of the event was 343 by Mike Russell. The Plate competition was won by 11 time Winnipeg champion Fraser Durham who defeated fellow Canadian Steve Jones 150-95 in the final.