UK Finals December 11 & 12 1999 (67)

Main (60) + (7)
A good turnout for a great tournament. Sixty sat down on the Saturday to battle it out to meet the 7 players who had already made it via tournaments throughout the year, in the Sunday Main KO.

Playing 4, 7-point Swiss matches we ended up with 5 on 4 wins and 3 (of many) who had 3 wins - the decider being total opponents' wins; the 8 being, Matthew Fisher, John Slattery, Danny Cohen, Dave Motley, Jeff Barber, Steve Hallett, Brian Lever and Steve Malins.

These 8 went into the Sunday knockout with the 7 qualifiers, Roy Hollands (TT Trophy), Al Hogg (SAC Trophy), Rob Dean (Jarvis Trophy), Dod Davies (County Cups Trophy), Jim Johnson (Bright 'n' Breezy), Gerry Smith (Runner-up, British Open) and Sean Casey (Scottish Open and Irish Open). Sean earned himself a bye to the 2nd round thanks to winning two of the eight qualifying tournaments.

With the Swiss entrants playing against a qualifier we ended up with Roy Hollands vs John Slattery, Danny Cohen vs Dave Motley, Jim Johnson vs Steve Hallett and Sean Casey vs Steve Malins in the 1/4 finals. Roy and Danny, Steve Hallet and Sean met in the semis from which Danny and Sean emerged to meet in the final.

Sean had his sights set on a third major tournament win and only Danny stood in his way ... but not for long! After about an hour's play Sean came through to take the title leaving Danny in Runner-up position. Sean has achieved an amazing triple this year and is a great champion and a true sportsman; always quick to credit his opponents' skill. Well done, Sean, and hard luck Danny.

*****

Champion of Champions (6)
A very grand title which in reality means nothing! It's just a little knockout to keep the qualifiers busy on the Saturday. Dod Davies met Roy Hollands in the final and Roy not only won the tournament but in the process pushed his 1000-to-1 score to 9 wins in a row! Later, in the first round of the Main Roy became one of the few 1000-to-1 winners (in fact he went on to win 11 in a row before falling to Danny Cohen). Well done, Roy!

*****

Consolation (63)
Not unexpectedly, this ended a little after the others had finished, but that didn't matter to finalists Brian Lever and Paul Lamford. They sat down (alone - everyone else had gone home) to battle it out. Brian took an early lead, which Paul couldn't catch, and eventually Brian took 1st place.

*****

Suicide! (64) open entry
This popular, open entry (re-entries available until the drawsheet is filled) caused a little problem in that one player entered whilst still involved with the Consolation (he was allowed to enter because he was about 2 hours ahead of his next round and we wanted to keep him playing).

Unfortunately for me (not him) he kept on winning until he reached the final against Stefanie Rhon - who soon put a stop to that! So, Edward Rogers, Runner-up, Stefanie Rhon, winner.

*****

Friday KO (25)
What a great turnout for this 5-pointer. John Slattery beat Jim Johnson in the final to take the weekend break prize.

*****

Doubles KO (8 teams)
Some of the strange names this time round were: 'Jeff & Jim' (not their real names - imaginative), 'Steve & Jim' (their real names - unimaginative), 'Drunk & Missorderly' and 'Wirri Ficarri.' 'Steve & Jim' lost in the final against 'Wirri Ficarri.'

*****

Apart from having to have an early dinner on the Saturday (5:30 / 6:00) it was a great weekend - and that even had a silver lining; we gatecrashed the discos! The entire tournament went without a single hitch (the first time for ages) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A fitting end to 1999 and we're all looking forward to 2000 now.

- Michael Crane