2017 NSW 6 Red Snooker Championship Report

This year’s Championships were again held at Club Marconi, on the 12th & 13th Aug, the club has fantastic facilities and one of the best Snooker Rooms in Sydney. Live streaming was done over the two days and the quality of the stream and the snooker was excellent. Here are the links for the 2 days play, a huge thank you to Neville Moore and of course Bill Chan for developing this system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pxM7Be3QTQ&feature=share

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJoV2I6GX0w&feature=share

A field of 52 players assembled on Saturday for a best of 5 round robin play, the group format gives the players plenty of snooker and attracts players that may not normally enter a straight knockout tournament knowing they are guaranteed several games to play. 

There were 13 groups of 4, with the top 2 qualify for the last 26 knockout on Sunday morning. The games were refereed from the quarter finals onwards through to the final with some very entertaining snooker on offer throughout the weekend.

Hassan Kerde defeated Joe Minici for his 3rd NSW State 6 Red Snooker Title, Hassan was solid all weekend and played extremely well with a long list of breaks including a 50 in the final which was a possible maximum break Congratulations Huss.

Hassan defeated Glen Wilkinson 5-0 in the semi-final, Glen having just clawed back a 0-4 deficit against Sam Cuschieri in the quarter final seemed to have the 5th frame covered, but missed a routine pink to leave Huss seemingly safe with the pink finishing tight on the baulk cushion a few inches from the yellow corner pocket and the white tight on the top cushion just near the black spot, as the white wicked the pink nicely towards the pocket the pink hit the side cushion jaw and sat there for enough time for you to think it was going to stay there and then it drop, the white fell reasonably well for the black which was somewhere between the pink spot and side cushion and Huss without a second thought got down and potted it in the middle to book his place in another 6 red final.

Joe had tougher run to the final having defeated Brett Watson in the quarters after Brett led 3-0, then after leading 3-0 in the semis against Jom Wangta, Jom won the next 4 before Joe forced the decider. Jom had the opportunity to close out in the last only to drift out of position on the last red leaving himself either a shot to nothing or safety. Jom missed the shot to nothing thick and the red follow the white up the table to leave joe the clearance, which he took quite well. Jom had played extremely well throughout the tournament and had the highest break of 75. Other notable achievements were from Sam Cuschieri making the Quarter finals along with Jayson Fonoia and Gary Mares. Shirley Ryan had entered the tournament for some match play practice and won a game in her group as well as taking a frame of Joe Minici and losing another on the black.

Thank you to all the players who entered, the tournament gets bigger and better every year and a big thank you to Club Marconi, and their members, the Marconi Snooker Association particually Jim Ruisi and Vic Sacco who get up at the crack of dawn to prepare the tables. Vic refereed a couple of games as always.

And a big thank you to referees Ron Eyles, Gareth King, Stuart Tait & Neville Moore. Also special mention to Stuart Tait the Assistant Tournament Director, Stuart puts in a lot of work not only at the tournament but behind the scenes as our membership office and assistant accountant. Hope to see everyone at the South Pacific next month, get your entries in. Until next time, enjoy your snooker.

David Waller