A brand new tournament introduced this year, ‘The Masters’ was limited to those players in the club with a handicap of 25 or less. And so 16 of the club’s best players entered the Masters hoping to win the tournament in it’s inaugural year. The two players who battled their way to a ‘trick or treat’ night final were:
Raj Kumar and Shiv Sibal
Frame One
Kumar broke off the first of a possible three frame match with a 15 start. The players exchanged a few early punches with red/pink and red/black combinations, but the outstanding feature of the first phase of the game was both players’ high quality, end of break positioning of the cue ball on the baulk and black cushions leaving little on for the opponent. Sibal fell behind further with consecutive foul shots after an in off and miscue. These fouls galvanised Sibal into form with a good 15 break; a brilliant red from distance leading to black, red and pink. Some good potting then from both players, with Kumar having the edge, meant that Kumar had increased his lead to 20 points (66 to 46) after the last red was down. It looked like Kumar was one up. But chickens could not be counted, as a fabulous yellow and good green set Sibal on his way to a remarkable finish. He potted all the colours and won on the black – Kumar unfortunately miscalculating the pace on a safety shot. You could say it was a ‘Masters’ ful clearance from Sibal.
Frame Two
Frame two provided a similar pattern of play and when only the colours remained, again Kumar was ahead, this time by 17 points. Surely Sibal couldn’t pull off another multi-coloured victory snatching of the frame. The ball positions meant that snookers were attempted by both players with some success. However, as well as good snookers Kumar treated us to some magnificent potting which saw off any late challenge from Sibal. Sibal conceded on the pink needing three snookers. And so to a one match shoot out.
Frame Three
In this, the final frame Sibal made up the handicap deficit quite quickly and from then on, up until the last red, it was neck and neck on the scoreboard. Only Sibal’s fluked last red led to him leading by 9 points when he followed up with a miraculous pot of the black in the middle pocket with absolutely no angle whatsoever to play with. A trick and treat! Kumar responded with a remarkable yellow and green to gain ground on Sibal.
With only four points separating the players, it was a nail biting finish. Even when Sibal potted a very good brown on the double, and followed this up with the blue, Kumar could have potted pink and black for a re-spot. It wasn’t to be, Sibal downed the pink and the frame and Masters was Shiv Sibal’s.
Well played Raj and Shiv, a great game of top quality snooker to watch and report on. It really was a treat!!
