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Report by Geoff Kenney
Stute 2008 Championship Final
Congratulations to Adam Percival on his thrilling victory over John Iddon in the Final of the Stute Championship, held on Thursday
evening.
Adam has added the Stute title to his County Championship and regional final titles.
Not for the first time these two Titans have met in a match, and as usual the match was very tight.
Frame one:
Very nervous start from both players as neither wanted to make the first mistake. John opened a lead of 12 only to then be faced
with a deficit of 14 and then it was level. An exchange of safety shots and John was gifted an easy red and 13 break later John was
perfectly on the yellow which he stabbed at, snookering himself on the green. After coming off the side cushion to hit the green and
put it safe, there was an exchange of safety before Adam took advantage of a poor safety on the pink to pot the remaining two balls
to win by a margin of 56-44.
Frame two:
Was altogether different, with both players struggling to find baulk with their safety shots, providing lots of chances.
But with the game fairly even, John produced a break of 39 to as good as seal the frame. Some more fairly poor safety followed before
Adam conceded with the scores at 32-74.
Frame three:
With the match all-tied, John went to work and it was evident to see his confidence rise. He was now finding baulk, although not as
often as he would like. But Adam never took any of the chances coming his way, and John had a good lead of 30 points for most of the
frame. Quite bizarre was both players' shot selection in this frame, and the remaining frames, as they seemed to abandon the rule of
snooker and play a gung-ho style that was a little unexpected; especially from John who is Mr. Restraint. Adam, on the other hand, is
not shy of giving the odd shot "A right hook" but instead he decided to leave out the safety shots.
Coming to the last red, Adam needed four snookers, and for some unexplainable reason decided to pot it and then play safe on the
black; leaving himself needing SIX snookers and denying himself the chance of getting a free ball. A schoolboy error! A couple more
shots and Adam conceded with the scores 33-62.
Frame four:
With John leading 2-1 the writing was on the wall for Adam. John's tail was up and he was in the groove. He was in perfect position
now to turn the screw and close out the game. His safety was better than Adam's and he had already proved that he could knock in big
breaks, so what was to stop him! Well, nobody told Adam any of this and he proceeded to get red, colour, red and then run safe on
three occasions in this frame and build up an unassailable lead, and John conceded. 20-81.
Frame five:
After frame three, this was a big surprise. Adam showed character to come back after John's two frame run, and now Adam had the upper
hand as John was cursing a missed opportunity. This frame had "Tense" written all over it and it was very nip and tuck all the way.
With the scores never very far apart, this was to go all the way, and with the blue, pink and black on the table John potted the blue
and played a poor shot on the pink, and Adam duly sank it to win. 52-44.
Final result Adam 3 John 2.
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