Greene King All-Day Snooker Tournament

Saturday 31st October saw the annual running of the Greene King All-Day Snooker Tournament.



23 players assembled & there were some familiar faces, plus some new 'first-timers'.
After a quick briefing from Andy Rance, the event organiser, the 4 Groups were split up as follows:




With some notable absences, plus some new faces (& unknown quantities!), it's always a 'challenge' for Andy to get the handicaps right.  He does a great job & there were some cracking frames with some good breaks going in throughout the Group Stages.

Although the entry fee had been increased to £12 to fall in-line with the GSMS, this included free light all day, a cracking pie, chips & peas lunch from Oz & the running costs of the tournament (trophies, engraving etc.).

Throughout the day we even managed to run a 'Bus Stop' card & raised some money for the Poppy Appeal & 'dropped a drink' (or 2!) for Oz & Lucy for opening up so early & also for John  Beardsley for his immaculate early morning table preparations!  Thanks guys!




Andy Rance earnt himself a little Prize Money for a lovely 40 break to take the High Break in the Group Stages.

Rob House presenting Andy Rance with his Group Stage High Break prize.

And so to the Knockout Stages, which pitches Group Winners v Group Runners Up in the traditional format & lined up thus.



We were all playing at a good pace & due to the early start, were on-time for a reasonable finish time.

Semi Finalists quickly became Finalists & well done to Alan Pearce who is seen collecting his Greene King Best Non-League player award (to go with his Gilbert Shepherd Memorial Shield Best Non-League player award! Now you have a matching pair!), plus he also was a losing Semi Finalist & collected a monetary prize with Pete Billingham who was the other losing Semi Finalist.

Semi Finalists, Alan Pearce & Pete Billingham

 Best Non-League Player, Alan Pearce

And so to the Final, which was to be contested between Dave Rowe (defending Champion) & Tom Hamilton-Williams.

Greene King 2015 Finalists, Dave Rowe & Tom Hamilton-Williams

Tom won the opening frame, knocking in a tidy 52 break, but Dave, in true 'dig-in' fashion, levelled it with a gritty fight-back in frame 2 to level at 1-1.  In the final deciding frame of the Final, Tom got the lead & steadily built on it until it was unassailable & Dave conceded.  Tom had been scoring well & knocking in breaks throughout the day (32, 31, 30, 30), but saved his best for last to bag the Knockout Stage High Break Prize as well as the Winners Trophy, Replica & Winnings! Congratulations Tom on lifting the Title for the first time & commiserations to Dave, who I am sure will be back to try to reclaim it next year.

Greene King 2015 - Runner Up, Dave Rowe & Champion, Tom Hamilton-Williams

Thanks to:
Andy Rance for organising & running the whole event, Good job!
John Beardsley for his immaculate table preparation!
Russ Hawkswell for the lovely Greene King Shields.
Big thanks to our sponsors, Greene King for subsidising the event, making the prize money even more lucrative!
Oz, Lucy & their staff for all their hard work keeping us watered & fed throughout the day & especially for their allowing us to open early, which seemed to work as we didn't finish at silly o'clock!

Thanks to all the entrants - without you, there would be no competition!
Without all these, the event wouldn't happen, so thank you all!
Club Rep, Pete.