Tommy Arnott Memorial Pro-Am
Ironopolis Club, Middlesbrough (8th-9th August 2001)
The second of Teesside's Pro-Ams started on 8th August at the Ironopolis Club in Middlesbrough. Extended over two consecutive evenings, the invited professional quartet saw Chris Shutt come in to replace Mike Russell with the remainder of their line-up the same as for the previous event.
The first evening involved only the eight Amateurs who played off for the right to meet a professional opponent in the next round. Lee Lagan had to withdraw at short notice, having taken a contract job in another part of the country. His replacement was 15 year-old Michael Donnelly who justified his selection by demolishing the experienced Alf Nolan 281-132 including breaks of 58 and 48. However, the highlight of the evening was a tremendous game between Ironopolis team- mates Darren Kell and Paul Boden.
Looking in great form, Kell raced into the lead with a break of 89 at his second visit. Adding 105 a little later, Boden was in a hopeless position trailing 242-32 after 35 minutes. However, he reduced his arrears by following Kell's century with one of his own—an excellent all-round 109—which proved to be the highest in the competition. Without any recourse to top-of-the-table, the effort had taken 15 minutes of the available time and Kell, with a safe lead of 101 points, rounded off the match with 38 and 39 unfinished to complete a 326-144 victory. Kell's average of 40.8 indicates the quality of this performance and Boden with an average of 16.0 must have wished he had been favoured with a different opponent in the draw.
Lee Connor and Geoff Charville also progressed at the expense of John Hartley and Mark Hatton respectively. With Hatton having defeated Charville at South Bank a few weeks earlier, there was some interest to see if he could repeat the feat on Charville's home table. However, the match was a disappointingly one-sided affair, and with Hatton unable to produce anything approaching his best game he was quickly overwhelmed.
For the remaining rounds to be completed in one evening, the quarter and semi-final matches were reduced to 45 minutes. Various handicap allowances were now made to the amateur players. The professionals made a slightly better showing than they had the previous month, with two of them—Chris Shutt and Paul Bennett—progressing to the semi- finals. Bennett in particular was made to struggle by Lee Connor (rec. 80) who looked to be coasting to victory until late breaks of 66 and 85 allowed Bennett to scrape home by just 7 points. There was an identical winning margin in the match between Michael Donnelly (rec. 150) and Peter Gilchrist, but this one went to the Amateur player. Donnelly also looked to be well placed in this match, leading by 90 points with just minutes remaining. However, a simple missed pot allowed Gilchrist to quickly gather the balls at the top, and at full speed, he had amassed 83 points when the bell ended his effort while still in perfect position.
In the semi-finals, Geoff Charville (rec. 100), who had eliminated David Causier by more than his allotted handicap in the previous round, now repeated the performance against Chris Shutt. Always in command, breaks of 55, 49 and 52 unfinished were enough to give him a winning margin of 172 points. Paul Bennett again struggled to find any fluency in his match against Michael Donnelly (rec. 100). Having produced nothing of note for most of the match, he capitalised on a fluke at 25 to run in a late break of 86 which gave him the advantage he needed to hold on for a 298-260 victory.
During the evening, Bennett had produced just a few glimpses of the form which had established him as England's best Amateur player prior to joining the professional ranks. These had been enough to carry him through to the final, but here, even those patches of brilliance deserted him as Charville (rec. 50) built upon his handicap to run out an easy winner. Two late forty breaks from Bennett made the score a little more respectable but the winning margin of 90 points meant that Charville had the distinction of outscoring all of his professional opponents in the short season of Teesside Pro-Ams.
Charville received the winner's cheque for £150 with Bennett taking £75 as runner-up. Incredibly, Bennett's 86 was also the highest break by a professional on the night and this earned him an additional £40. Paul Boden with 109 had to be satisfied with £20 for the best Amateur break. The annual award for outstanding achievement was given to Alf Nolan for his "lifetime" contribution to the game.