Having reached the final of the first event of the season last month, Liam Highfield has gone one better these week as he has won event two of the 2009/10 PIOS to leave himself in with an outstanding chance of making it onto the main tour next season…
Liam Highfield 6-2 Neal Jones
50-68(45), 74(38)-10, 74-11, 78(69)-44, 36-74(43), 84(83)-4, 54(40)-14, 63-37
Today’s final paired Liam up with Neal Jones and early on it looked as if it might be a close match as he went 1-0 down following a 45 break from his opponent. From there however it was almost one way traffic as Highfield took the next three. Jones kept himself in touch by taking frame five but further breaks of 83 and 40 from Liam took him to an important victory.
While this decisive match was not the closest that he will ever play, what makes Liam’s victory all the more impressive is that he could hardly have had a tougher draw this week. The tone was set on Monday as he was paired against Jack Lisowski, the man who beat him in the final of the last event. This time however it was to be a different story as Liam edged another close match 4-3 to make it into the second round. From there he defeated Chris Melling, English Open semi-finalist Robbie Williams, former professional Vinnie Muldoon and young Welsh international Jak Jones to reach the semi-finals.
In the last four the ante was upped even further as he came up against another Welshman in the form of Jamie Jones who in his previous match had recorded two centuries in the last four frames to see off Andrew Pagett. Jamie managed to take this momentum into the semi-final and move 4-1 in front with breaks of 59, 86 and 56, but Liam responded in brilliant style to take the last four and book his place in the final with yet another Jones, this time Neal.
Now on 520 points following two of the season’s eight events, Highfield looks to be virtually certain of a spot on the main tour for next year, indeed that was the amount of points that Chris Norbury finished up with last year to earn his promotion. He will want to win another event to make absolutely sure but it would take a dramatic loss of form for him ot be denied now. With a start as strong as this he could well challenge the all-time record points tally set in 2007/8 by Kuldesh Johal and he amassed a total of 1,070 points.