The Whitworth Masters

The Darley Dale Centre, September 17-19th, 2004

Steve Crosland dominated the competition at the Whitworth Institute, Darley Dale, winning the EABA "Masters" tournament, which is open to the top ten players in the previous season's ranking list. In fact, several absences meant that the invitations had to be extended down to No.15 on this occasion.

The players were divided into two groups playing a round-robin format of one-hour games, the winner and runner-up in each group providing the semi-finalists, the matches starting on the evening of Friday 17th September, with play continuing over the following two days. Crosland, who made a century in all his games, finished top of Group B, although he did suffer defeat at the hands of David Burgess by the slender margin of two points, Burgess also making a century in this game. Paul Dunning secured his place in the semi-final by finishing runner up, his three wins including the narrowest possible victory over Phil Mumford in a 241-240 result.

Matthew Sutton made a bad start to the competition, forfeiting his opening match against Jim McCann by failing to arrive at the venue in time. McCann went on to win Group A, but Sutton was successful in all his remaining games and also qualified for the knock-out stages.

Drawn against Steve Crosland in the two-hour semi-final, Sutton found the Yorkshireman was in irrepressible form, putting together two centuries (125, 115) and completing a comfortable 570-299 win. Jim McCann came through the other match in this round with an equally emphatic 451-278 victory over Paul Dunning.

Impressive as his previous performances had been, Crosland saved the best until last, as he started the final with a magnificent break of 210. Potting McCann's ball at 166, he played out the hazard limit before leaving a double-baulk. This set the target for the EABA high-break prize which will be awarded to the best break made in any of their competitions during the course of the season. It also set McCann a somewhat daunting task, although a determined effort saw him pull back with breaks of 67 and 68 to reduce the deficit to 92 points with an hour remaining. However, Crosland then went away again, a break of 50 in the closing stages helping him to a winning margin of 178.

The entry fees of £25 per player contributed to the purchase of cut crystal prizes which were awarded down to the losing semi-finalists. The tournament was efficiently managed by Clive Scott, assisted by members of the EABA referee's section.

Group Stage