Kelly Pritchard of  Christchurch was in fine form to win the Sunshine Classic Snooker Tournament held at the Clubs of Marlborough over last weekend.

The 19th running of the event drew a class field this year with players from as far away  as Christchurch and Tauranga. It was a great experience for our local players  and  a challenge to lift their game.

After section play on Friday and Saturday morning 24 players qualified through to the next round. The next two rounds saw some close results with the quarter finalists being Dave Witehira (N Z Ranked No6), Kelly Pritchard (NZ Ranked No 43), and Malcolm Pollock (NZ Ranked No 40)  (Christchurch), Edward Andrews, Nathan Geddes and Shane Geddes (Nelson), Rob Elvin (Taupo) and Timmy King (Tauranga). The quarter finals saw Witehira, Pritchard, Nathan Geddes and King go through. Sunday’s semi final saw Pritchard  win  over Witehira and King over Geddes.

The final saw Pritchard in consistent form to romp away to a 3-0 lead in the best of seven competition. The determined Irishman King made a great come back to take the next two frames before Pritchard settled to take victory 4 -2. The highest break in the tournament went to Elvin at 71.

Last year’s victor Bill Earle (NZ Ranked No14)(Christchurch) took the Flyte event 3-1 from Graham Nobbs (Christchurch). Local Brent Simmons was put out in the semi final by Nobbs. Simmons played well in the tournament, earlier only going down 3-2 to Watehira.

Local Denise Simmons played well to win the Plate event 2-0 over Kevin Campbell (Christchurch).  Also locals Paul Shepherd and John Pierson had a good battle in the Consolation event with Shepherd winning 2-1.

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