The second ranking tournament of the season attracted an entry of 52 players to the Atack Snooker Centre, Nuneaton on Sunday 7th November. Lee Lagan, who had been invited to compete alongside the professionals in the WBA's Northern Open later in the month, sent out a message by winning this event that he would be no easy opponent. The manner of his victory at Nuneaton was of the highest standard. Over six hours, on different tables and against different opponents, he scored a total of 2,796 points, making breaks of 241, 223, 157,126, 117 as well as eleven more over fifty.
Drawn in the Preliminary Round, Lagan was quickly into his stride, breaks of 117, 98, 65, 62 and 55 helping him to a 529-114 win. Paul Bennett, playing in his last amateur ranking tournament, recorded breaks of 127, 71 and 55 in his 472-122 victory over Derick Townend. Stephen Crosland and Peter Shelley were also in good form, both producing 400+ scores against their respective opponents.
The top performance of the first round came from Darren Kell who put together breaks of 161 and 99 to defeat Bill Andress 395-195. Lagan again impressed, breaks of 126, 79 and 65 taking him to the highest one-hour aggregate of the day with a total of 639. Other big wins came from Peter Shelley and Paul Bennett who both scored over 400 points in their allotted 60 minutes. James Moore made the fifth century of the day, his 139 helping him to a 247 point victory over Johnny Hills.
The Second Round saw Lee Lagan meet Paul Bennett for the second time this season, and for the second time Lagan proved victorious. There were no big breaks, but a 106 point winning margin was nonetheless fairly conclusive. Darren Kell had the closest game of the round, beaks of 92 and 51 helping him to edge home by just eight points against Jim McCann. This was not the only match which could have gone either way, as wins by Peter Shelley (21 points) Stephen Crosland (27 points) and D. Rees (36 points) demonstrated. The only century of the round was made by Neal Rewhorn with a run of 106.
| David Rees | 220 | Darren Kell | 199 | ||
| Stephen Crosland 54 | 284 | Richard Lodge | 179 | ||
| Neal Rewhorn | 298 | Michael White | 180 | ||
| Lee Lagan 223, 58 | 433 | Peter Shelley | 194 |
The momentary lapse in break-building from Lagan was quickly rectified in his next match against Peter Shelley when he put together a magnificent break of 223. Adding a run of 58 for good measure, there was nothing that Shelley could do to prevent him winning by 239 points. Darren Kell was once more involved in a close finish, but this time ended up on the wrong side of the result, going down by 21 points to David Rees.
| Stephen Crosland 114, 54 | 363 | David Rees | 160 | ||
| Lee Lagan 63, 94unf | 262 | Neal Rewhorn | 211 |
Stephen Crosland reached his second successive final with a convincing win over David Rees, a break of 114—his highest of the day—helping him to a winning margin of 203 points. Meanwhile, Lee Lagan was experiencing his closest challenge of the day from Neal Rewhorn. Towards the end of the match, the local player held a 43 point advantage, but Lagan played out time with a break of 94 unfinished to book his place in the final.
| Lee Lagan 241, 157, 61, 81unf | 631 | Stephen Crosland | 178 |
Lagan concluded the day's proceedings with another magnificent display, totally dominating the one hour final. A break of 61 was followed by another of 157. His second double-century of the day—a 241—followed shortly afterwards, and when the session bell sounded he was embarked on yet another run which had reached 81. Lagan took a total of £185 back to Teesside, which included £25 for the highest break. Stephen Crosland earned £80 and also had the consolation of knowing that his performance was enough to move him to the top of the English ranking list, five points clear of Lagan in second place.