Cardiff Open Pairs, 2012/13

FINAL (best of 5, Taffs Well, June 27th 7.30pm)

KEVIN JONES/STEVE REES (Taffs Well) 2

KEVIN BROWN/TOM CROSS (County Cons) 3

Kevin Brown and Tom Cross of County Cons both won their second Cardiff Pairs title as they beat Steve Rees and Kevin Jones in a tense 2013 final on the last pink of the deciding frame. For Rees and Jones it was a second successive final frame defeat in the Open Pairs final after losing to Mark Bennett and Lee Greening on the black last year.

Cross and Brown had agreed to play the match at Taffs Well, giving Rees and Jones an unusual home advantage in a final. However they found themselves a frame up after a difficult first frame involving plenty of tough miss calls which overall evened themselves out across both pairs. A 26 by Steve in the second frame gave the Taffs Well pair an early lead and they evened the match despite chances for their opponents to steal it. The County pair won the third to 2-1 up. In the fourth frame, Steve and Kevin were leading all the way but Tom nearly pulled off a brilliant clearance from the blue to steal the frame and win the match. He left himself with a black flush down the cushion but which had to travel three-quarters of a way up the table to the yellow pocket. His effort was close, and he did not deserve to see the black bounce all the way back down the table to hang over the pocket and allow Kevin Jones an easy opportunity to level the match.

The decider looked like it was going to be the open frame we had been waiting for, and all four players got into the position of potting 2 or 3 balls and then missing a chance for a sizeable break. The pairs ended up neck and neck all throughout the frame and the points were level going into the colours. At this stage there was a passage of play that epitomised the evening with some really impressive snooker-making, some lucky snookers, and some fantastic snooker escapes. A miscue from Tom on the green looked to have given Kev J an opportunity to finish the match off, but Tom did get back to the table and potted his second attempt at match ball with a tremendous long pink.

It was 3 and a half hours of attritional snooker but all in all a good final for which such a close finish was appropriate.

Highest breaks: Sam Thomas 85, 57; Huw Carpenter 56

1st round (best of 3, by March 24)	Quarter-finals (best of 3, by April 21)	Semi-finals (Best of 3, by May 12)
Sam Thomas/Dave Redrup (Penarth Rd) 2 (Thomas 85 & 57)	Sam Thomas/Dave Redrup (Penarth Rd) 2	Sam Thomas/Dave Redrup (Penarth Rd) 0
Alan Cook/Glyn Jones (Penarth Rd) 0
James Wigmore/Dan Peacey (Canton Libs) w/o	James Wigmore/Dan Peacey (Canton Libs) 0
Luke Haines/James Llewellyn (County Cons)
Ryan Rowlands/Mark Bennett (Savoy) w/o	Ryan Rowlands/Mark Bennett (Savoy) 1	Kevin Jones/Steve Rees (Taffs Well) w/o
Kishan Hirani/Travis Furnish (Fairwater)
Kevin Jones/Steve Rees (Taffs Well) 2	Kevin Jones/Steve Rees (Taffs Well) 2
Colin Lane/Graham Bailey (Savoy) 0
Shaun O'Connell/Richard Humphries (Canton Libs) 1	Tom Cross/Kevin Brown (County Cons) w/o	Tom Cross/Kevin Brown (County Cons) 2
Tom Cross/Kevin Brown (County Cons) 2
Tony Chick/R.Wigmore (Canton Libs) 0	Terry Garland/Luke Pittman (Fairwater) 2
Terry Garland/Luke Pittman (Fairwater) 2
Huw Carpenter/Rhys Carpenter (Mack Thurs) 2 (HC 56 break)	Huw Carpenter/Rhys Carpenter (Mack Thurs)	Huw Carpenter/Rhys Carpenter (Mack Thurs) 0
Steve Wellbeloved/Renato Ridolini (Mack) 0
Mark Dwyer/Gavin Dwyer (Canton Libs)	BYE
Winner of Preliminary round match

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PRELIMINARY ROUND (best of 3, by 17th Feb)

Daryl Wilson/Ed Topham (SW Snooker) 0 v w/o Ethan Chichester/Keith Jenkins (Wellington Boot)