By Johnny ‘Sniper’ Williams
So yesterday I played my final group match. I was a bit nervous to start with and a bit tired so I didn’t play great. I knew if I won this match I was guaranteed to finish third in my group, which I knew would be enough to qualify for the knockout phase. Eventually I came out a 4-1 winner with a nice 51 clearance in the final frame. On the other table the American in my group was 3-0 up against Kamal Chawla and if he had won I was guaranteed second in my group. That was a bit gutting as he lost 4-3.
I play tomorrow (Thursday) in the last 64 and whoever I play will be very tough to beat. There are so many quality players here this week. The draw will be done tonight when we are all down practising.
Brendan O’Donoghue played very well yesterday, winning his match 4-0 with his opponent only scoring something like 11 points in the entire match. He won his final match today as well in a tight encounter with Israeli Roey Fernandez 4-3 to top his group. He feels he isn’t running on all cylinders yet, so I cant wait to see what he plays like when he does start.
Greg Casey and Mark Tuite had a day off yesterday and I had a day off today. Greg is currently playing a match to finish second in his group in the same Men’s event as myself. (Greg would go on to lose the match 4-2 to finish third but still qualifies for the last 64.)
Brendan Cooney was beaten 3-2 in a tight game against one of the hot favourites for the Masters event in former pro Steve Judd. In the same tournament, Mark played a great game this morning to win two black ball frames and go on and win his match 3-0. He is also playing tomorrow to finish second in his group.
Myself and the lads have been continuing with our routine of Happy’s restaurant and some 9-ball pool, but last night we gave KFC a miss for some “pizza amore” – needless to say, it was lovely. I have been hitting the leisure club a few days as it does get quite boring out here. Other than that I’m in watching some top quality snooker.