Strings were drawn and Potter won the honour to break off.  With a handicap lead of 11 over Chana, Potter played cautiously at first to maintain his advantage.  However, Chana soon tipped the score his way, with a red/black combo and Potter’s bad luck. Potter’s attempted long pot on a red, resulted in a ricochet of balls and a canon on the black taking it into the corner pocket.     

The next period of the game saw both players in ‘safe/canny’ mode, wishing to avoid giving easy chances to each other.  For a short while, the tumbleweed was blowing down the table with little happening on the score board.

But then Potter unleashed a couple of breaks which completely changed the momentum and put considerable pressure on Chana to respond.    Reds and blacks were potted with great regularity.  Potter’s score escalated up to 45 giving him a 28 lead with 6 reds still on the table.  Chana fought back with his own red/black combos and reduced Potter’s lead to 14.

Then Potter’s safety play restricted Chana’s ability to reduce the deficit further and worse was to come when Potter deliberately left the cue ball flush with the cushion and good distance between it and the few reds left on the table.  With pressure mounting, Chana miscued and the white failed to reach it’s target.   

Yet, when only the colours were left, Potter was still catchable.  But Potter’s sinking of yellow to blue with good pots, put paid to Chana’s chance of a comeback, and the result was a 64 points to 36 points, Potter victory.    

The President Dave Tierney (right) presents the trophies to the winner Ian Potter (left) and runner up Bali Chana (middle)