To break the duck on the Maidenhead forum !

Monday saw the start of the Maidenhead singles championship. The event saw half the field at Racks and the other half at the Bell. Players were drawn in a section of four where you were required to win your first round match , then win the second match in order to qualify for the later rounds in April.

So A v B , C v D , the two winners then played to see who qualified.

All matches were best of three which isnt the nicest way to sort out a singles champion but given the amount of players involved and the fact that only two venues were being used it was as good as you were going to get.

Of course playing this format meant that there was always going to be plenty of shocks on the day.

The toughest group at the Bell was probably the local derby between Lol and 'Dog' Walton (both from the Thatched) with the winner up against former champion Scott Oliver. An outrageous fluke from Lol as he sent his final yellow round four cushions and in whilst landing onto a dead straight black meant 'Dog' was put to sleep early doors. Unfortunately Lol couldn't keep it going into his final match as Scott Oliver progressed.

After comfortable first round wins for 'Wonder' Walls and Chris 'Farrah' Fawcett, it was a 2-0 win for Walls that saw him through. The hazards of the first to two format were highlighted as Chris' attempted clearance in the second saw him snookering himself on the last ball, committing the foul and then sitting in the chair as he watched a nervy finish take him out.

Jason Gilbert drew the biggest cheer for all the wrong reasons as he went in off the black to lose his opening match. One of those "cut the black in the middle and the whites heading towards the top pocket" cooked his goose as the white decided to rattle, hang for a second and then drop to put Stu Mckie through. Paul Webb then beat Mckie to qualify.

We were all hoping for a 'domestic' showdown as Jez Hill and girlfriend Lisa Floyd drew the same section. Lisa upheld her part by beating W Dexter in the first but Jez was turned over by Leon Stanley. Leon went on to remove himself from the Floyd/Hill christmas card list by defeating Lisa and going through.

Scott Vann didn't get the reward he deserved for organising the games and taking abuse from the waiting players when he lost to eventual qualifier Steve Barber of the Thatched Cottage.

Over at Racks there were plenty of tight finishes. Neil Cameron knocked out Ron Mckie 2-1 and then upset last years double champ Ray Wooton 2-1 to qualify. An unfortunate positional shot from Ray on his last ball was his undoing.

In the clash of the Pond House, Gary Hoad beat Leigh Munday to qualify and join Paul Hodge who scrapped past Maurice Dingley.

In a bad night for the family Terry lost a tense encounter with Racks captain Dom Taylor. Terry had put out Steve Cox from Racks in the first round but Dom avenged his team mates defeat with an excellent finish on his last three yellows. Terry was understandably annoyed having been unlucky to snooker himself on his second last red. It looked like he had pulled off a fantastic escape to put the red over the pocket and cover the black but there was just enough of a gap for Dom to ricochet it in.

Ashley completed the family hat-trick by going out in the group won by Andy McKie.

The toughest group looked to be the one that contained John Shiel , Craig Shurley , Lucky Birdy and Selby. Craig beat John in the first but went down to Birdy in the second after an attempted double on the yellow saw it rattle in the jaws and pop out. A simple back for Lucky put him through.

19 players are through to the "how do they cut it down from 19?" stage :

Racks The Bell

Rav Keith Walls
Carl Tushingham Sam Hibberd
Neil Cameron Scott Oliver
Jonny Hague Steve Barber
Gary Hoad John Kennedy
Gary East Paul Webb
Andy McKie Kieron Falk
Paul Hodge Leon Stanley
Lucky Tim Simon
Dom Taylor