RONY SOOD
A massive congratulations to Rony on winning his first Open Singles Title. This was Rony’s second state final after his runner up in last year’s Open Doubles. It was also his second attempt at the Open Singles Top 4 after finishing 4th in 2008.
Rony beat Anthony Chia in the final 9-4, stepping up his game to another level after Anthony had won all 3 matches in the round robin stage to enter the final as slight favourite.
Play began similar to last weekend, with Mongrel taking the first frame of the day, though this time not a master break. Anthony then took control of this first match soon after, running off 4 stright frames to take control before finishing a 5-2 winner.
On the other table, Rony had jumped to a 3-0 lead over Phillip Thorp. Phil was able to claw it back to 2-3, then 3-4 before Rony won the 8th frame to seal a 5-3 win.
The two winners then met, with Anthony picking up the first two frames before Rony could get on the board. But from 2-1, Anthony grabbed the next 3 to power home 5-1 and go into the last round with two wins and a 10/3 frame count, all but sealing his second consecutive Open Singles Final.
Mongrel and Phil were battling to stay in the hunt, meanwhile, and Phil took the first four frames (including an unlucky in/off from Mongrel when he seemed certain of a master break) and then the match 5-1.
Mongrel sat with no wins and a frame count of 3/10, needing the unlikely situation of a 5-0 win over Rony coupled by a 5-0 win for Anthony over Phil to sneak into 3rd place.
Phil was in the driver’s seat now as he had a 4 frame lead in the frame difference against Rony, but was up against a red hot Anthony. Rony needed a win and hope that Phil lost, otherwise he needed a massive win to try and make up the frame difference.
He did this by grabbing the first 4 frames against Mongrel before running out a 5-1 winner, Mongrel finishing a disappointing 4th after topping the leaderboard in the 16. But Rony had only managed to cover the gap to Phil, and both players had a +2 frame difference before Phil’s result was in, meaning a win to Phil over Anthony would give Phil the spot. But a 5-0 win would force a playoff between Rony and Anthony.
Anthony sealed his place in the final by winning the first frame, but Phil put forward his credentials by winning the next 2 for a 2-1 win. But here Anthony kept up his great form of the day to run through the next four victorious and leave Phil languishing in 3rd. So close…
Results at the end of the round robin:
Anthony Chia – 3 wins, 0 losses, frames 15/5
Rony Sood – 2 wins, 1 loss, frames 11/9
Phillip Thorp – 1 win, 2 losses, frames 10/11
Mongrel – 0 wins, 3 losses, frames 4/15
And so, despite the many variables of a top 4 (and I listed a few…) we came to the final mentioned earlier between Rony and Anthony. What looked like an easy victory was anything but as Anthony came back from 1-3 to level it at 3-3. But once Rony got his nose in front at 6-3, there was nothing Anthony could do after winning the 10th frame, Rony taking the next 3 and the Title.
Finally, after 6 weeks and 4,159 frames (not including a few playoffs, so add about another 50 there), we crowned our first new ACT Open Singles Champion since Steve Woods won the first of his 4 titles way back in 2002.
So while we congratulate Rony on an outstanding achievement, we must recognise the efforts of all 4 players involved today, who played a collective 566 frames over the tournament. Anthony, in particular, shot 64.318% in winning 93 from 145.
I now extend this congratulations to all the players who took part this year, in what was the most enjoyable and smoothly run tournament of my tenure. Typical I get close to getting it 100% just as I am bowing out!
A big thank you to Ojo Bar and Cafe for hosting the day’s play, and to Rolf for preparing the tables. Also to our adjudicator today, Penny Foudoulis, who has been an invaluable help over the past 6 weeks and controlled an excellent Top 16 last weekend with Trent Billington. Thanks as well to Scrol for umpiring the final, although this was an enviable task as he got the best seat in the house to watch it.
Thank you to all our venues this tournament – The Maram, The Basement, Kaleen Bar & Bistro and Canberra Labor Club. Your genorosity allows us to run these tournaments and we are always grateful for the assistance you provide.
We should not leave till last the people who make all this possible, though I usually do. Matt Power, for assisting in the formulating of groups, dropping off and collecting scoresheets and general all around experience, deserves a big round of applause. We spent many hours and emails sifting through the groups each week to come up with the best solutions. And to the adjudicators, in particular Trent Billington and Penny, but not forgetting Bushie, Melissa Kelly, Scrol, Kylie Power, Matt Kendrick, Semisi Naupoto, Brent Hampton, Jason Scott, Alison Murphy, Dom Stinziani, Jack Dehm, Glen O’Connell and Aaron Kaminski. These people give up their weekends to help us out and please if I forgot someone yell at me.
So, signing off on my last tournament, from the Open Singles in 2008 won by Dean Welsh to the Open Singles in 2011 won yesterday by Rony Sood. I’ve seen 32 State Champions finalised, some multiple times, some only once. I’ve seen young players starting out in the trials go from round one also rans to Top 32 and beyond. I’ve seen groups of 4 players and groups of 10, about a million playoffs and my rough calculations has me at responsible for over 40,000 frames played in the 4 years I’ve ran the State Trials.
Good luck to our 3 State Teams this year. We have some big performances to back up, but it will be enough when the last black is potted to know that you have left nothing in the tank in representing the ACT.
I wish all the players the best in next year’s trials, it will be nice to be one of those waiting in anticipation for my group once again! And I promise NEVER to call the Tournament Director to complain that I need to swap days or venues or my budgie died and I will be half an hour late…
Regards
Chris Jones
ACTEBA Tournament Director
