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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2009 14:06:19 GMT
Thanks Pete, I will. I had a good old chat with Sleezy a couple of months ago and mentioned that he was missing out on a lot of fun and excitement by not taking part in Opens. My reward is now that I have to play the old renegade in the Second round of Surrey after Mick Donaldson dropped out. ::)
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2009 10:13:30 GMT
The First Surrey Open went without a hitch. We think we found the ideal venue with all the facilities and plenty of space, and hopefully this will be a permanent fixture on the calendar from now on.
To cut to the chase, Nigel Senior is the first-ever Champion after defeating Keith Sheard in the final. Nigel ran up a formidable target in the first leg, and Keith broke down half-way through his chase and soon after sportingly threw in the towel.
Nigel and Keith both received the brand-new perpetuals for 1 year and handsome trophies for keeps - plus prize money for their efforts.
In the Semis, Nigel beat your correspondent (in his first-ever Open semi) by a mere 280 points over the two legs. A four thousand break in three minutes at the end just clinched it. Well played, Sir ! Meanwhile Sheard Snr beat son Steven in the other semi.
Mark Trafford (aka Milhouse) lifted the Plate, and the runner-up was Surrey organiser Gary Powell. Well done to them.
Nigel also took the highest break of 21,000 and Jean Brackenridge took the awards for both Furthest Lady Player and the Highest Ladies Break.
Apart from the hard-working Redhill League committee, I would like to acknowledge especially David and Caroline Jones for their tireless efforts for the whole weekend, and Genette Nicholls for compiling a really professional-looking matchday programme - just about the best I have seen. And also Brian Daniels and Tony Webster for the tables which were 'more than adequate' in quality. :)
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Post by BB Warrior on May 11, 2009 10:48:25 GMT
Congratulations to the winners, runners-up and everybody else who played in the first Surrey Open! ;D
I would agree with Tommo that the venue was very good and offer my thanks to all of the organisers who put in so much hard work to make the day a great success. 8-) ;D
Roll on next year....... ;)
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Post by H on May 11, 2009 10:58:04 GMT
Agreed. Despite going out in a very close match to Richard in the second round, I really enjoyed the day, very good venue, excellently run, tables were in great condition, and there was a nice buzz in the room! Many many thanks to the organisers!
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Post by H on May 11, 2009 10:58:20 GMT
Oh and of course congratulations to all of the winners/runners-up!
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Post by SirKT on May 11, 2009 11:28:55 GMT
Well done to everyone that put this day together, it was a great success. It`s taken a while to get off the ground, but it was worth the wait.
Congrats to Nigel, commiserations to Milko and to Tommo :o That was a close one mate, my on-course commentator said you had it won (but i think it was through bleary eyes ;D).
Well done to the other winners :)
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Post by milko on May 11, 2009 12:53:38 GMT
I would like to say how much I enjoyed both superbly run tournaments over the weekend.
Well done Nigel on playing out the table in our final with over 18,000, I thought I would be able to chase it down, but found table 4 harder than I expected, so well played.
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Post by Chris on May 11, 2009 17:16:19 GMT
A fantastic weekend at Surrey!!
Thanks to Oxford for allowing us to play with them... a great group of guys with the will to win, the grace to lose and reflection.. would love to do that again next year. There should be more of mixing Counties it's great.
Our congratulations to Nigel, Keith and Mark, well done all!!
Thanks to the bar staff who worked their socks off and for the food staff who were so amenable and food was lovely.
To tommo... Clive I noticed you spoke to all and ensured that all were happy you are a great ambassador for Surrey Bar Billiards.
To the ladies of Surrey, who cared so much to ensure that we had appropriate accommodation for the night and really so friendly.
To the organisers of the event, you did yourselves proud!!!
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2009 10:25:18 GMT
Think I'll retire again!! ;D Sav. Well it was good to see you there Sav as your appearances at Opens nowadays are limited. And you didn't go down without a fight, a 10k break in answer to Keith's first leg playout, and later in the Plate when Geoff had set a target of 16k you were over half-way there and on target time-wise before pegging the split. Thanks to everyone else for your positive impressions of our first Open, Gary and Colin flopped down afterwards with a crate of beers for relaxation - and boy did they deserve it. But spare a thought for poor Sheila King, who somehow managed to slip and break her arm while tidying up. :o
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Post by Chris_Sav on May 12, 2009 20:05:08 GMT
Yes thanks Tommo. I enjoyed the day, though don't expect to see me at more opens. Even at Surrey I had as far to go as the Oxford players. It's just too expensive and too long a day for me now.
It was good to see old friends and wave the cue around to some effect.
Thanks to the Surrey Team for having the initiative to put on and manage the show, superb in every respect.
Sav.
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Post by NigelS on May 12, 2009 21:44:46 GMT
Great day at a new open on the calendar. Well done to the organisers who did a great job.
It is a great honour to be the first Surrey Open champion and hope there are many more Surrey Opens to come.
I would also like to say well done to Keith Sheard for making the final - but he must hate me at the moment having played me in the last 3 national tournaments (including Bournemouth). We also played each other 5 times in opens last year! Keith - I always enjoy our battles win or lose and you are a great sport.
Also well done to Tommo on his great performance to make the semi. Not sure how I made it passed you at the end of the 2nd leg, but it was a great match.
Roll on Sussex.
Oh and just a statistic that should encourage all players going to the opens is that out of the 4 opens played this year we have had not just 4 different winners and 8 different finalists but incredibly 16 different semi finalists. It goes to show the game is very competitive right now and many people are in with a chance and capable of winning a tournament if things go their way on the day.
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Post by BB Warrior on May 12, 2009 22:58:36 GMT
But spare a thought for poor Sheila King, who somehow managed to slip and break her arm while tidying up. :o A very unfortunate end to a fantastic weekend...... :'( I'm sure that everybody will join us in wishing Sheila a swift recovery. ;) Dave & Colleen
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Post by milko on May 13, 2009 6:00:37 GMT
I would also like to say well done to Keith Sheard for making the final - but he must hate me at the moment having played me in the last 3 national tournaments (including Bournemouth). We also played each other 5 times in opens last year! Keith - I always enjoy our battles win or lose and you are a great sport. Thanks Nigel, I must admit that although nobody likes losing it's still nice to be able to reach an Open Final and play one of the best players in the Country, even though I did get a good beating. Did we really play each other 5 times last year? I can only remember me beating you in the Grand Prix Semi Final, so does that mean I lost the other 4!! :( ;)
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Post by Chunky Monkey on May 13, 2009 7:47:41 GMT
Congrats to Nigel, commiserations to Milko and to Tommo :o That was a close one mate, my on-course commentator said you had it won (but i think it was through bleary eyes ;D). ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Congratulations on winning the 1st Surrey Open Nige. And Millhouse for lifting the plate. Commiserations to Milko and Gary Powell A great venue and very well run day. (From what i can remember) ;D ;D ;D A great team effort by the Open committee, You all done yourselves proud ;) Looking forward to next year.
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