Cardiff Open Singles Final
Allan Morgan 4 v 3 Ben Griffiths
Breaks
Ben Griffiths 42, 38
Congratulations to Caerphilly A’s Allan Morgan after he defeated his team-mate Ben Griffiths 4-3 in a sensational Cardiff Open Singles final at Taff’s Well Ex-Serviceman’s Club, to finish off a remarkable CDSA 2024-25 season.
The opening frame saw some high quality safety play which forced mistakes but neither player was able to initially capitalise on the chances they had. A break of 17 by Griffiths established a slight lead midway through the frame which he built on to reach a 36-point lead on the last red. Morgan had a chance to take the last red with the black and yellow and lay a difficult snooker behind the blue which Griffiths failed to escape from. Not content with the one snooker, Morgan laid another off the blue behind the black which gained him a further four penalty points, and then took the green and brown to lay another snooker behind the pink which drew several fouls and misses to eventually put Morgan ahead on the blue. However, Griffiths had a chance to pot the blue but missed, leaving Morgan in to take blue and pink to secure the first frame.
Griffiths had a chance to put the disappointment of the first frame behind him as he started strongly in the second and had the first opportunity to score. He looked to be in with a good chance around the black spot but followed the black in on 20. Morgan followed up with breaks of 20 and 13 followed by a 20 to put him 27 points up on the last red, and a 33 clearance quickly followed to give him a 2-0 lead.
The match looked like it was heading in Morgan’s favour, but Griffiths started a remarkable turnaround in the next as a close frame was decided on the last red as he potted it and cleared to the blue to reduce the deficit. Morgan had an early chance in the fourth frame to restore control but he broke down 16 to leave Griffiths in with a good chance around the black spot, constructing a 28 followed by a 38 to end up 58 points ahead with one red left which was enough to level the match at 2-2.
The momentum of the match had changed and Griffiths, clearly gaining in confidence and looking the more fluent at this stage, managed to build a lead in the next frame. However, Morgan hit back with contributions of 24 and 27 to go 24 up on the last red. Griffiths potted the last red and laid a tricky snooker on the yellow which led to several fouls and misses from Morgan and Griffiths seized on his chance to seal the frame in potting yellow to pink to take the lead for the first time in the match.
Morgan now needed to win the sixth frame to stay in the match and a superb start for him with a great split on the reds ended on 32 as he missed a relatively straightforward fifth red. Griffiths countered immediately with 25 which kept the frame close going into the colours with Morgan 9 points ahead on the yellow. Griffiths hit back with a great yellow followed by a fluked green after attempting to lay a snooker, but Morgan managed to snooker Griffiths on the brown and gained valuable points through a series of fouls and misses to end up 16 ahead, before sinking the brown to take this absorbing contest to a deciding frame.
What a decider it was as Morgan had the first opportunity which he took advantage of with a superb 33 break to establish a 49-point lead to take control of the frame. With four reds remaining, Griffiths came to the table knowing any mistake would likely cost him the match. What followed was a superb break under the most extreme pressure. He took the last 4 reds with colours and then the yellow and green off their spots. This set up a tricky mid-distance brown into the corner which he stroked in, followed by a difficult pot on the blue, but he over-screwed the cue ball to the top cushion with the pink on the black spot. Knowing that the pink was match ball but looking too thin to play into the corner, Griffiths chose to roll the pink to the middle where it failed to drop. Morgan attempted the fine cut on the pink to the middle, but it missed and travelled back up near the black spot with the cue ball close by. A tricky pink into the corner for the match faced Griffiths which he missed, and Morgan capitalised with a pressure pot on the pink leaving him perfectly behind the black along the cushion with the rest, which he rolled in to secure the match and title of Cardiff Open Singles champion.
Darren Gill
