SAS CHARITY CHALLENGE

Pinewood Park, Upper Sherringham

22nd-23rd March 2002

The Charity Challenge was hosted for the sixth successive year by Pinewood Park, Upper Sherringham. Mike Russell retained the title for the sixth successive time, defeating Paul Bennett 809-424 in the final match with a record breaking performance.

The "Challenge" which was held over two days, commenced with a round-robin stage for the five invited players. All games up to the final were 60 minutes and Amateurs met Professionals on a level start. The first match saw Mike Russell defeat Chris Shutt 602-212 with the aid of 317 unfinished. Philip Welham then defeated Paul Bennett 330-314 with a timely run of 128, while David Nichols was very impressive registering wins over Bennett (133 break), Welham (197 break) and Richard Lodge (216 break). Lodge had also been in good form, narrowly losing to Shutt 308-298 (113). Paul Bennett gained a win over Lodge and a narrow defeat to Shutt 466 (228)-391 (181unf).

At the conclusion of the round-robin matches, Richard Lodge was the player eliminated and the semi-finals were drawn with Russell meeting Nichols and Shutt against Bennett. Russell gained a narrow win over Nichols and Paul Bennett produced an excellent late run of 236 unfinished to cause a major upset and defeat the World No.3.

The final was extended to two 45 minute sessions and this saw Russell in excellent form. After five minutes play he got to the top and stayed there until the interval bell when he had reached 589 unfinished. Russell continued this contribution to a splendid tournament record break of 687. To his credit, Bennett came back with consecutive runs of 97 and 146. However, the day belonged to Russell. The event raise £500 for "Break" charity.

Round-Robin

Semi-finals