The full draw for this year’s UK Championship at Telford is now available, click below for more information…
Tag: Stephen Craigie
Pontin’s World Pro-Am Series Event Five
A belated look at the notable results from event five of the Pontin’s World Pro-Am Series that took place at Prestatyn last weekend…
Bahrain Championship 2008: Draw News
With the qualifiers for the inaugural Bahrain Championship taking place next week, it is time to have a quick look at the recently released draw and explain the four first round byes that have been given…
Royal London Watches Grand Prix 2008 Qualifiers: Day Two (Afternoon)
Day two, round two of the Grand Prix qualifiers in Prestatyn. Click below to read what has happened so far in the afternoon session:
Royal London Watches Grand Prix 2008 Qualifiers: Day Two (Morning)
Day two, round two of the Grand Prix qualifiers in Prestatyn. Click below to read what has happened so far in the morning session:
Royal London Watches Grand Prix Qualifiers: Day One (Afternoon)
Following a morning session which went largely the way of the experienced players, it was the turn of the young guns to hit back this evening. Click below to read exactly what has happened:
Pontin’s Autumn Festival Round-up
Following on from my post from Wednesday, the final matches in the various events taking place at Pontin’s this week have been completed with some surprising results. Full results and frame scores can be accessed here at GCS.
Pontin’s Open
The main event at the festival was surprisingly taken by Bolton’s Craig Steadman who played brilliantly on the final day to win his final two matches without losing a single frame. Having beaten some talented players earlier on such as World U-21 finalist Anthony McGill and former main tour player Gary Wison, he produced the performance of the week to thrash world number 35 Ricky Walden 4-0 in the first semi-final.
In the final he came up against another quality player in Leo Fernandez who himself had played some good snooker to reach the final. He had no answer for Steadman whoever who won the match 5-0 win some style, highlighted by a well taken break of 95.
What about Stephen Craigie I hear you ask? Well his run surprisingly came to an end at the last 16 stage when he lost out to Andy Rogers 3-1. Indeed Rogers recorded another impressive result in taking out young Michael White (who had not lost a frame up until that point), in his next match before running out of of steam against Fernandez in his semi-final. White did at least make two centuries in the tournament, including the highest break of the competition of 123.
Under 20’s
Although White could not make it past Fernandez in the main event, he again made a century in the U-20 event which he went on to win in some style with a 3-0 win over Accrington’s Farakh Ajaib. Again the Craigie brothers fell short of the final, though Sam played well to make the quarter-finals before losing out to Ajaib. Stephen meanwhile lost out a round earlier to Otterbourne’s Nick Jennings.
Pontin’s 20-40’s
This event was won by Wallsend’s Gary Wilson who certainly had to earn his trophy having survived a number of close matches throughout the event. Arguably the best of these was his semi-final victory over Leo Frenandez who again managed to perform well up until this point. With Wilson winning 3-2 however, it was he who would go into the final to play Eastleigh’s Mike Finn in what proved to be a high quality match. Although Finn recovered from losing the first two frames to make it 2-1 however, Wilson finished off the match in fine style with a break of 102 to take the title.
Pontin’s Masters
The senior event was won by Colin Norton who won a close contest with Steve Meakin 3-2, taking the last frame by just nine points. Having beaten former Masters finalist and PIOS player Mike Hallett in the previous match, it is safe to say that his victory was fully deserved one.
Pontin’s Plate
The fifth and final event of the festival was to be won by another ex-tour player, Wallasey’s Robbie Williams who beat Stuart Mann from Essex in the final. The highlight of the final came in the second frame when Williams made a break of 105 to move 2-0 ahead and although Mann got one back, Williams was to run out a 3-1 winner.
2008 Pontin’s Autumn Festival Notes
With the Belgian Open coming up this weekend which will soon be followed by the Shanghai Masters, the week has been a relatively quiet one as far as snooker news goes which is the reason for the absence of posting yesterday. When not posting I will try to make some progress with the player profile pages though so hopefully the site can continue to grow over the coming weeks.
During this quiet period however, there has been an event taking place at Prestatyn, the 2008 Pontin’s Autumn Festival which runs until this Friday. Full information and results can be found here at GCS.
The meeting is made up of five events, the Open, the under 20’s, the 20-40’s, the Masters and the Pontin’s Plate, though little information appears to be present about this last event.
Pontin’s Open
A number of current and former main tour players are taking part across a number of events, notably the current world number 35 Ricky Walden who is the favourite to succeed Jamie Cope as the winner of the main Open competition. The other professionals still involved in the main event are the recent tour debutants David Grace and Stephen Craigie, the latter having come through 3-2 against Aaron McIntyre in his most recent match.
Other names that you may recognise include the young Michael White and Leo Fernandez, both of whom were on the main tour last season. White is looking particularly dangerous having beaten the experienced Mike Hallett 3-0 at the last 32 stage and with him and Fernandez joining Craigie in the bottom half of the draw, there could well be some excellent matches as the week draws to a close.
Under 20’s
Of those remaining in the draw, the biggest name is once again 18 year old Stephen Craigie who so far has eased into the last 16 having won his first three matches at the expense of just two frames. Anthony McGill however, the man Craigie beat in the final of the European under-19 Championship this year lost early on to Accrington’s Farakh Ajaib who has since joined Craigie in the last 16.
t is not just Stephen Craigie in action here though as he is joined by his younger brother Sam in this event. Sam is in the opposite half of the draw and is yet to drop a frame so it isn’t impossible that we could be seeing a final contested by brothers! Does anyone know if that has happened since the days of Joe and Fred Davis? With other talented players such as Michael White remaining in the draw this is by no means a formality though.
20-40’s
Like in the main Open event, Ricky Walden will be a heavy favourite to win here given his experience and current world ranking. That said, he is poised to come up against the talented 22 year old Robbie Williams in the quarter-finals in a match that could go either way given the short format.
Elsewhere in the draw, David Grace continues to make good progress, as does Leo Fernandez who recorded an excellent 3-0 win over current world number 57 Paul Davies.