Matt Holmes won the Selectors’ Weekend (CA Website 12/09/12)

Matt Holmes won the Selectors’ Weekend beating Luc Berthouze in the final.

The knockout stage of the Selectors’ Weekend was contested by Matt Holmes, Luc Berthouze, Paul Castell and Nick Steiner, all of whome had five wins out of seven after two days. Luc was concerned that his lift back to Sussex could be in danger were he to beat Paul, but took the risk and did so anyway +14. In the other semi-final between Matt and Nick, the start of the game was scrappy with several breaks failing to progress. But then Matt turned to a bottle of Ramsbottom Craft Brewery Ale – proprietor M. Holmes Esq. (which had also been on sale during the weekend) and saw a James Death-esque upturn in his fortunes, going on to win the semi-final +14, and then defeat Luc in the final +13.

The weekend saw only one completed TP, by Roger Wood in the very first game of the tournament to finish, though he later also tried to claim a “TPTP” (triple peel in three parts). And in the final game to finish (Rod Ashwell, maintaining his 100% record on that front, though this time not under floodlights) Rod ran 4-back from next to hoop 1 – his other option being retreating to corner 3, he thought he may as well have a crack at the hoop. The long-distance shooting wasn’t enough to win the game though.

Final records (swiss & knockout combined): 7/9 Matt Holmes;  7/10 Nick Steiner;  6/9 Paul Castell, Luc Berthouze;  5/8 Roger Wood, Jaimie Mussi, Rod Ashwell;  5/9 David Mooney;  4/8 Beatrice McGlen;  3/7 Frances Ransom;  3/8 Richard Huxley, Martin Beacon;  2/8 Derek Knight;  1/8 David Brydon;  1/9 Kevin Wells.