Open Team: SA 16+4 v VIC 16+0
This was a great match between 2 great teams. All mistakes were punished early and at half time it was 8-8. The Vics then pulled away to lead 16-13 in the final set and were just 1 frame away from consecutive titles. However the SA side fought back with some great pool. At 16-14 with Paull Clack taking on Mick Delahunty it looked like it would go to the final frame when Delahunty played some great positional pool after getting a couple balls off his break.
However he missed his second last ball and allowed Clack into the frame. Clack was on the out for the win but miscued on a straight ball to the middle. After some smart safety from both players Clack left Delahunty a tough long pot which he knocked in and also potted his last ball to have a shot at the black for the frame. He hit the black softly and it jawed over the corner pocket. Clack took on a tough thin cut to the corner but missed the pot and Delahunty potted the black to send the match to the final frame. The last frame was played between Kelvin Lee and John Manias. With Manias attacking early, but couldn’t find the out. Kelvin went for the out as well and landed perfectly on his last ball to get position for the black. He potted his last ball but landed short on position with John’s ball covering the pot to the corner. Kelvin punched in the cross double to the other corner pocket and sent the SA side into celebrations.
With Vic looking depressed after blowing the lead and SA with all the momentum it came down to a 7 player, 1 frame race to 4 wins playoff. SA simply blew Vic off the table in the playoff and took out their first title since 2004. comments by Dane Beeton
TEAM STATS
AUSTRALIAN TEAM TO TRAVEL TO ENGLAND
Open Team
John ‘Rusty’ Wheeler – Singles Champion, Player of Carnival
Ben Nunan – Vice Captain
Marc Robertson
Steven Woods
Paull Clack
Alec Evreniadis – Captain
Travis Crawley
Justin Sajich
Brenton Collier
Jake McCartney
Mark Williams
Luke Carter
Team Manager – Phil Dando
OPEN TEAMS Leading Players QLD
Pos |
Name |
Team |
Played |
Won |
% |
1 |
Rusty Wheeler
|
QLD
|
41 |
30 |
73.17% |
2 |
Barry Kitchener Jnr
|
QLD
|
41 |
24 |
58.53% |
3 |
Justin Thursby
|
QLD
|
42 |
23 |
54.76% |
|
Brent Read
|
QLD
|
42 |
23 |
54.76% |
5 |
Darren Gordon
|
QLD
|
35 |
20 |
57.14% |
6 |
Shannon Purcell
|
QLD
|
36 |
18 |
50.00% |
7 |
Dane Beeton
|
QLD
|
32 |
16 |
50.00% |
8 |
Pat Broderick
|
QLD
|
36 |
16 |
44.44% |
9 |
Steve Lees
|
QLD
|
31 |
10 |
32.25% |