Martin Goodwill (Newport & District WM Club. Cleveland) took the CIU title for the fifth time in succession with a decisive victory over David Burgess (Sarisbury Green Social, Hants) in the Final played at the Bloxwich Memorial Club, Walsall.
Goodwill had a memorable semi-final victory over his great rival David Causier. The RAF man had an interval lead of 518 - 335 in the four hour match. Causier made a great effort and a fine break of 293, the highest of the competition, brought the scores level. Goodwill struck back with some consistent play to win the match 904 - 793. Goodwill had breaks of 112.84.76.71.54 and 51. Causier's best efforts were 293.70 and 51.
The second semi-final resulted in a comfortable win for Dave Burgess over Phil Johnson who had done very well to get to the semis. But Burgess was on good form and a string of useful breaks saw him outpoint the Lincoln man by two to one to win by 1127 (124.87.86.57.53.52) to 510. Johnson had the satisfaction of making a century break - exactly 100.
The Final was played at the Bloxwich Memorial Club and resulted in a comfortable win for defending champion Martin Goodwill. If the RAF man were to win the trophy again nest year he would retain the trophy in perpetuity. This would be the second one for him. He already retains one trophy by virtue of his first hat-trick of wins. However, there is some doubt as to whether he will be able to repeat the feat. Martin is being posted overseas (Saudi.) This may out a stop to his billiards playing for a year or two.
| M. Goodwill
110, 95, 93 | 962 | D. Burgess
| 592 |