ABC Nuneaton

The Atack Snooker Centre, Nuneaton (Sunday 8th November 1998)

Having won the very first ABC event to be held, Brian Harvey has had a long wait for his second success, but at Nuneaton he secured this in some style, defeating English No.1 Paul Bennett in the final.

Peter Shelley was the star of the first round matches, putting together breaks of 154, 96, 62, 51 and 50, in making an aggregate total of 519 in his one-hour match. Unfortunately, he was unable to carry this form through to the second round where he went out to Jamie Moore, who himself made a break of 104.

Paul Bennett was also in fine form, compiling breaks of 135, 59 and 51 in winning his second round match, following runs of 97 and 52 in the previous round. Others who fell just short of the century mark in the early rounds were Ivan Chambers (99), James Chambers (97), Jim McCann (90) and Branson Hoole (87). McCann´s 90 break helped him to a fine victory over Darren Kell, winner of the Derby ABC, and a player not accustomed to making such an early exit.

Brian Harvey progressed to the quarter-finals with breaks of 99, 75, 63 and 59 against Jamie Moore, who despite two breaks of 52, still finished the wrong side of a 419-174 scoreline. Playing on home ground, Neal Rewhorn also moved into the quarters with a victory over Steve Crosland, which included a break of 112.

Paul Bennett must have been quite relieved to join them after a narrow 19 point victory over team-mate Lee Lagan, who made breaks of 60 and 59 in their match. Bennett subsequently dominated his quarter- final game, running out with 175 unfinished, which proved to be the highest of the day. Continuing in fine form, he then disposed of Rewhorn in the semi-finals, while Harvey edged home by 10 points against Reece. On the form displayed to this point, Bennett must have entered the final a strong favourite. However, Harvey´s first century of the day proved to be the decisive factor in securing him victory by just 9 points.