ENGLISH GRAND MASTERS
Competition Proper - Atack Snooker Centre, Nuneaton (4th March 2001)
Stephen Crosland secured his second English Grand Masters title at the Atack Snooker Centre where the surviving eight veterans played out the closing stages of the competition on 4th March 2001.
Crosland had started with a comfortable win over Derick Townend while defending Champion, Peter Shelley, surprisingly went out in his first match to Dennis Marr. Dennis continued his good form by defeating Terry Azor to reach the final, while Crosland overcame the challenge of Brian Harvey to set up the deciding match. This proved to be Crosland's easiest game, with his first two scoring visits producing 42 and 75. Although Marr responded immediately with a run of 53 he was unable to make further impression on Crosland who dominated proceedings to win 632-371.
| Terry Azor 51 | 561 | Michael Wright | 373 | ||
| Dennis Marr 62, 59, 51 | 505 | Peter Shelley 59, 50 | 388 | ||
| Brian Harvey 79, 72, 52 | 681 | Ivan Chambers 51 | 392 | ||
| Stephen Crosland | 525 | Derick Townend | 391 |
| Dennis Marr | 404 | Terry Azor | 376 | ||
| Stephen Crosland 66, 54, 50 | 632 | Brian Harvey 57, 53 | 494 |
| Stephen Crosland 76, 75, 67, 67, 58 71, 53 | 642 | (16.1) | Dennis Marr | 371 | (9.3) |
REGIONAL QUALIFIERS (4th February 2001)
The event was split into four regional qualifying areas designed to reduce the 37 entries to the eight players who would compete at Nuneaton in the Competition Proper. All groups were played on Sunday 4th February and the games were two hours duration.
THE NORTH (Club House, Bradford)
Alf Nolan, having missed the English Championship qualifiers due to illness, was again indisposed and compelled to withdraw from the Grand Masters, his first round opponent, Stephen Crosland receiving a bye. Nolan's regular travelling companion, Tony James, made the long journey from Tyneside to Bradford and put together one of the best performances of the day to defeat Branson Hoole 611-396. Breaks of 96, 70 and 58 assisting in his first round win.
Tony James' run came to an end in the qualifying round when he was defeated by Stephen Crosland 554-362. Also going through to the competition proper were Dennis Marr, who had a narrow 18 point victory over Richard Lodge and Derick Townend, who had an even closer match against Rodney Sims, coming through by just 6 points.
THE MIDLANDS (Spondon SC, Derby)
Peter Shelley was the outstanding performer at Spondon making eight 50+ breaks in his two games to qualify from a group significantly reduced by absentees, Both Fos Wilson and John Rees being too ill to travel. Ivan Chambers snatched the second qualifying place, when he defeated David Rees by just six points.
THE SOUTH WEST (Riley's, Exeter)
Brian Harvey was the qualifier from the South West, defeating Martin Phillips and Bill Andress from the pool of five entries. Harvey also made the only century from this area with a break of exactly 100.
THE SOUTH (Newmarket SC)
Michael Wright came through three rounds to qualify from the Southern Area. His hardest battle was in the qualifying round where he overcame Colin Summers 511-470. Terry Azor was the other qualifier from this area, a break of 82 being the highlight of his 607-418 victory over Chris Ross in the deciding heat. Although on the losing side, Ross had made breaks of 74 and 61 in this match, which added to runs of 71, 68 and 56 made in the previous round against Ivan Stevenage.