Shaun Dalitz Wins First National Ranking Event
/Shaun Dalitz from NSW has taken out the First National Ranking Tournament of the Season, the 2016 Club Marconi and Your Financial Freedom South Pacific Snooker Open defeating the current ABSC National Champion James Mifsud 4-3 in the Final. This is Shaun’s first major tournament win, congratulations to Shaun. Shaun outscored James 444-253 in the final with breaks of 65, 58, 41, and played extremely well over the weekend and thoroughly deserved the victory. James had a break of 64 in the final and forced a deciding frame winning the 5th & 6th frames. Shaun only lost 2 frames on his way to the final, dispatching previous winners Alan McCarthy 3-0 in the semi final and Joe Minici 3-0 in the Quarter final.
Alan on the other hand was doing it a little harder, Alan defeating current Australian Open Champion Charlie Chafe 3-2 in the last 32 and Tyson Crinis in the last 16, Tyson a previous South Pacific winner 3-2 and 2016 Lance Pannell Winner Shaun Budd 3-2. On each occasion Alan came from behind. Joe had a relatively easy run as No 1 seed only losing 1 frame until Shaun knocked in breaks of 63,38,58 & 69 against him. Other performances of note in the top half included Paul Balzer making a return and despite the lack of practice pushed Glen Wilkinson all the way. Brett Watson was in very good form defeating Hassan Kerde 3-1, Hassan had stolen the match from Robbie Foldvari on the black in the final frame, when 34 behind on the last red. Robbie was trying to work out how Hassan got him snookered on the last red, with the faintest of double kisses.
Down the bottom Ryan Thomerson and James Mifsud were marching towards each other in the semi final, Ryan only losing 2 frames and James 1 before James put an end to Ryans Campaign out scoring his younger opponent 292 to 133 to win 3 frames to 1. Both players having an impressive list of high breaks with Ryan holding on to the highest break of 115 and James making a 103. It was an even more impressive performance from Ryan considering he only arrived back from Thailand on Saturday morning having competed in the SangSom 6 Red. Other standout performances were Shakib Karam defeating Shannon Dixon and Rob Elsley making the Quarters.
Overall the standard of play was top draw and there were many exciting games to watch. The games were played in a wonderful spirit at a good clip enabling to pretty much keep to the schedule. We had a round of games on Friday night. And everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Thank you to all the players who entered the tournament, we hope to see you all next year. Results can be found at; http://absc.com.au/result-detail.aspx/2016/club-marconi-south-pacific-open2016 This is the 11th consecutive year the South Pacific has been held at Club Marconi. And we can’t thank Club Marconi, the directors, the staff, and the members enough for their ongoing support of Snooker. Particularly Jim Ruisi and all the Marconi Snooker Association Members, without your support we wouldn’t have any tournaments there. Jim goes well above and beyond the call of duty getting to the club at the crack of draw before each day of competition, to make sure the room is ready and to liaise with management and staff to ensure everything that can b done is. Jim stays at the club all day to make sure if we need anything it happens.
This year ABSC Patron and former Australian Cricket Captain Ian Chappell kindly arranged a Live cross to Channel 9s Wide World of Sports WWOS show on Sunday morning from inside the snooker room. And with the Marconi sign on the big light shade providing a perfect back drop for the live feed. We waited for the Host of the show Emma Freedman to hook up with reporter Bill Baxter. It was a little disruption as the crew set up in the room for the live cross and play was halted about 10.20 am for a few minutes. Some of the players went off and got coffee, others tried to photo bomb the coverage. Thank you very much Ian and Channel 9, and to Bill Baxter and his crew for somehow getting to the club after their car broke down on the way. Luckily for a good Samaritan passing by drove them to the club. Also to Robbie Foldvari who made a special trip to the club on Sunday morning to be interviewed by Bill.
We also had CueBall Tv this year for the first time and a big thank you to Dan Lynch for all your hard work mate. And also again to Robbie who after fulfilling a luncheon engagement in the eastern suburbs came back again to the club and commentated on the final, and did a stupendous Job. Dan had apparently be trying to get Robbie to commentate for quite a while and with the club providing the best internet connection, made for an excellent coverage.
South Pacific Snooker 2016 | FINAL | Shaun Dalitz v James Mifsud Commentary: Robby Foldvari https://youtu.be/WVk6yCUHmyE SEMI FINAL | Ryan Thomerson v James Mifsud https://youtu.be/QpUWG7TwecY LAST 8 | Shawn Budd v Alan McCarthy & Shaun Dalitz v Joe Minici https://youtu.be/Kt6IsrM9dV4 LAST 16 | Ryan Thomerson v Michael Hough & Paul Thomerson v Terry Emmett https://youtu.be/awwl6F5QS-c
Enormous appreciation and thanks go out to David Valvo of www.yourfinancialfreedom.com.au for his generous sponsorship for the Live streaming. Dave’s motto is work beyond 55 because you want to not because you have too. So invest early. Thank you to everyone who bought tickets in our Raffle and of course a huge thank you to all who donated prizes. 1 ST PRIZE, PETER HANLEY SPECIAL EDITION HAND MADE ¾ CUE Donated by Peter Hanley Won by Joe Galae Referee from Central Coast 2 ND PRIZE, WORLD SERIES CRICKET(WSC) Cap, Signed by the 3 Chappell Brothers. Donated by Ian Chappell Won by Carlie Tait Bsa Committee Member and Lady Cueist 3 rd PRIZE, 1 hr Massage (M.H.HEALTH CENTRE EASTWOOD) Won by Joe Galae 4 th PRIZE, Bob Marshall BOOK My Life and Times donated by Dave Jackson Ron Adlam Northern Beaches B grade player 5 th Prize, Bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label 750ml, donated by Frank Galanos Fred Mirza Marconi Member And to Roger Farebrother from www.secretwines.com.au for donating 6 bottles of wine. Of course another huge thank you to all the referees who came from far and wide.
Also to our new trainee refs who did a great job, especially to Frank Galanos who has been running training clinics with the help of Stuart Tait. A special thank you to Neville Moore who is generally first in and last out at every tournament. Also a massive thank you to Stuart Tait Assistant Tournament Director who is also first in and last out. Stuart doesn’t stop all day and is a crucial part of our team. Thank you to committee members who also helped throughout the weekend. Until next time, enjoy your billiards and snooker David Waller Tournament Director
