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Champions Crowned at Historic English Disability Snooker Championship
Champions were crowned across six classification groups at the first ever English Disability Snooker Championship which took place at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds last weekend.
The first ever staging of the new national championship saw 54 cueists compete across six classification groups with competitions for wheelchair (Group 1+2), ambulant (Group 3, 4-5), intellectual (Group 6A, 6B) and visual/deaf (Group 7-8) players.
The event was staged at the recently-renovated Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds and was supported by World Disability Billiards & Snooker.
SUCCESS FOR SOUTHERN AT NORTHERN SNOOKER CENTRE
Tony Southern defeated Dave Beaumont 3-2 in the final of the Group 1+2 tournament in Leeds.
Southern and Beaumont continued their recent rivalry in the wheelchair classification group which has seen the two share the WDBS world number one position and contest numerous ranking event finals.
They finished in the top two positions in the five-man group on Saturday with Beaumont winning their group stage meeting 2-0 as both players advanced to the semi-finals.
Southern comfortably swept aside Mahomed Abubaker 2-0 in the last four contest while Beaumont overcame reigning world champion Gary Swift by the same scoreline.
Seven-time WDBS event winner Southern took the opening two frames in the best-of-five final but Beaumont rallied to take frame three on the black before forcing a decider.
Southern was able to hold his nerve, however, to take the fifth and final frame by a 57-39 scoreline to secure the victory at the Northern Snooker Centre.
COTON COMES OUT ON TOP
Nigel Coton beat Peter Hull 4-1 in the final at the Northern Snooker Centre to win the Group 3 title.
Coton topped the three-man group on Saturday and dropped just a single frame in the process as he overcame Hull (3-0) and Kal Mattu (3-1).
Hull, who is the reigning WDBS Belgian Open champion, completed the final line-up courtesy of a whitewash victory over Mattu in the opening group match of the day.
Coton, who has won five WDBS ranking event titles during his career, dropped the opening frame of the best-of-seven contest against Hull but quickly recovered and took four consecutive frames to earn the title in Leeds.
GLORY FOR GIBSON AT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Carl Gibson defeated Archie Buskin 3-0 in the Group 4-5 final in Leeds.
The WDBS Group 4 world number one and reigning world champion came through a field of 12 cueists in the combined ambulant classification group to win the national championship at the Northern Snooker Centre.
A clean sweep of group stage victories over Dalton Lawrence (2-0), Daniel Blunn (2-1) and Lee Overton (2-0) with a top break of 74 saw Gibson comfortably advance to the knockout stages where he then first earned a whitewash win against Jason Ellis.
An eagerly-anticipated semi-final match-up saw Gibson take on WDBS Group 5 world number one Dave Bolton.
Bolton took the opener by just nine points but the eventual champion rallied to force a decider before getting over the line in frame three by a 62-40 scoreline.
Buskin, aged 15, was Gibson’s opponent in the title match after a memorable run that had seen him overcome World Snooker Tour Hall of Fame inductee Blunn and then former WDBS ranking event finalist Nigel Brasier each by a 2-0 margin.
The 10-time WDBS event winner proved to be a step too far for the teenager, however, as Gibson completed a memorable weekend with a 3-0 victory.
COOPER IS THE CHAMPION IN LEEDS
Robert Cooper overcame Mohammed Faisal Butt 3-1 to win the national championship title in Group 6A.
The 40-year-old has never reached the final of an event on the WDBS Tour but gave a near-flawless performance across the weekend to win the historic title in Leeds.
On the opening day, Cooper topped his four-man group by dropping just a single frame as he beat Butt (2-1), Dylan Smith (2-0) and Liam Crook (2-0) to advance to the last four.
A further whitewash win over Dominic Crookes set up a title match meeting with nine-time WDBS ranking event winner Butt, who had beaten Ryan Ryding in a deciding frame in the semi-finals.
Cooper continued to look confident in the final and raced into a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five frame contest.
Butt briefly rallied by taking the third, but Cooper held his nerve to win a tightly-contest fourth frame and complete the victory.
DREAM DEBUT FOR MATIN-MUNSHI
Reece Ali Matin-Mashi defeated Leroy Williams 3-0 to secure victory in the Group 6B classification without dropping a frame across the weekend.
The 22-year-old had never previously competed in an EPSB or WDBS event but looked unphased in the ‘group of death’ alongside three of the top four ranked players in the WDBS Group 6B ranking list as he whitewashed each of Christopher Goldsworthy, Matthew Haslam and Williams to finish in top spot.
A 3-0 quarter-final win against Oliver Hanson began the Sunday action for Matin-Mashi before he followed this up with a further whitewash victory against WDBS world number three James Hart.
Fourteen-time WDBS event winner Williams was looking for revenge in the title match but the Matin-Mashi kicked off proceedings with a break of 43 in the opener before taking the next two to comfortably secure the title on debut.
TAYLOR TAKES THE TITLE
Gary Taylor beat David Baker 3-1 to lift the national championship title in the Group 7-8 competition.
The combined visual and deaf competition saw 10 cueists competing for glory and it was the former WDBS world number one Taylor who came out on top in Leeds.
Despite an early loss to Mike Gillespie (2-1) in the group stage, a trio of wins against Nitesh Chavda (2-0), Blake Munton (2-0) and Daniel Booth (2-1) were enough to see Taylor advance to Sunday’s quarter-finals.
Whitewash wins over fellow former world number ones Lewis Knowles and Luke Drennan then saw Taylor set up a final match-up against Baker.
A break of 31 helped Taylor take an early lead and, despite Baker restoring parity at 1-1, it was the 57-year-old who came out on top as he took the next two frames for a memorable victory.
LAWRENCE WINS CHALLENGE CUP
Dalton Lawrence defeated Kal Mattu 2-0 to win the Challenge Cup title on Sunday in Leeds.
The 57-year-old, who had fallen in the group stage of the Group 4-5 competition, bounced back to round off the weekend in style with a title match victory over the WDBS Group 3 world number one.
The Challenge Cup featured a total of 13 competitors who did not advance from Saturday’s opening round competing for glory.
Lawrence defeated Christopher Goldsworthy and Nitesh Chavda in single-frame contests before beating Will Clements Nauman 2-1 in the semi-finals.
In the final he faced Mattu, who had beaten Ben Rodgers 2-1 in the last four, and it was Lawrence who proved to be the stronger competitor on the day as he ran out a 2-0 victor to win the title.
The English Partnership for Snooker & Billiards (EPSB) would like to thank WDBS, everyone the Northern Snooker Centre and all the players and officials who made the first ever English Disability Snooker Championship a successful event.
