CARDIFF & DISTRICT SNOOKER ASSOCIATION

This week sees the final of the Cardiff Open between two-time winner Ryan Rowlands and Rhys Carpenter, so we thought we’d take a look back at the history of the league’s most prestigious tournament, with our records going back to the 1983-84 season.

That year saw Donal Foley lift the trophy by defeating Fred Davies in the final, with Tony Thomas and Clive Brown the defeated semi-finalists, with different winners in each of the 12 seasons that followed. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that we saw one player dominate the competition with Jason Hewitt winning it four times in five years between 1999 and 2003.

There was controversy in the 2005-06 season when the competition was renamed the Cardiff Invitational Open and non-CDSA members were allowed to compete, with the matches played on the same night at two different venues across the nation’s capital before the latter stages were held at Rileys City Road. A largely unknown Michael White made a name for himself that night as he reached the final at the age of just 14 before losing in an excellent match to another invitee Gavin Pantall.

Normal service was resumed the following year as the tournament was only open to CDSA members, with some legendary Cardiff Snooker names winning the title in the 12 years since. Neil Tomkins holds the record with four titles, whilst in more recent times Kishan Hirani and Ryan Rowlands shared the title between them for five seasons, with three wins for Hirani and two for Rowlands.

The highest break in the competition came in 2000 when 1992 champion Richard Humphries recorded a 142 total clearance, with Kishan Hirani almost matching that with a 141 in 2016.