Imran Majid won his second consecutive tour stop at the BPPPA Doncaster Open, on the weekend of 12th & 13th February 2005, to take another trophy and ?1000-plus prize money. 'The Maharaja' beat ex-snooker professional Mark Gray in an enthralling final, Gray having made the final in only the second tour event he has entered.
Majid earned his victory the hard way, by losing his first game in the preliminary round and then having to battle through the one-less side of the first day's double-elimination format. Mike Rogers was the man who sent Imran into the one-loss side with a 7-2 win, and once there Majid only managed to scrape through to the second day by virtue of two 7-6 wins over Mark Carrington and Dave Simmonds, and one forfeited match when an opponent didn't show. Majid though, pulled his game together for the second day's last 32 knockout, taking out Matt Potter (9-2), Gareth Esprit (9-6), Rico Diks (9-4) and finally Paul Medati (9-6) on his way to the final.
Peterborough's Mark Gray, who recently gave up snooker to play 9 ball, made it through the first day undefeated with some convincing wins over Simon D'Vali, Richard Bennett and Kevin Uzzell, with no-one managing more than five racks against him. Gray's first match of day two was against another ex-snooker pro Caroline Walch, who qualified for day two for the second time. Gray took that match 9-4, before meeting last season's Youth Player of the Year David Walsh, who came closer to stopping Gray, but bowed out with a 9-7 defeat. Two more good wins over Steve Evans and Wayne Lloyd (both 9-3) saw Mark into the final to meet Majid.
A good turnout ensured a field as tough as usual, but there were some surprises and shock defeats along the way. Lee Chenman, fresh from winning the Weert Open a fortnight ago, failed to qualify for the last 32 for the second time in succession. After going down 9-3 to Wayne Lloyd in his first game, he fell at the final hurdle in the one-loss side to Manchester's Gary Stewart. A solid player who has been putting in alot of practice recently, this is Stewart's biggest scalp to date, and surely won't be his last. The Hitman Raj Hundal's rise up the rankings was stalled in this event - after an early defeat by Leicester's Matt Potter, he had to battle through the one-loss side, and was taken out on the second day courtesy of a 9-2 win by Welshman Wayne Lloyd.
Losing semi-finalists were Wayne Lloyd and Mancunian snooker legend Paul Medati. Lloyd is one of Britain's top players whose current ranking of 29 doesn't do his game justice - there are alot of players very relieved that Wayne can't make every event due to work commitments! Medati on the other hand, who has turned in good results over a prolonged period, now moves into the top 8 for the first time.
The remainder of the last eight were James Popplewell, Steve Evans, James Kay and Rico Diks, while the last 16 was completed by Daryl Peach, Gareth Esprit, Jay Trivedi, James Frith, David Walsh, Andy Worthington, Mike Rogers and Scotsman Mike Valentine.
For the full ranking list after this third event of the 2004-05 BPPPA season, see the rankings section of the BPPPA website at http://www.bpppa.org/rankings.
