Nigel Bond won the Wyldecrest Park Homes World Seniors Championship without conceding a frame in his four matches at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth.
Bond, who still plays on the main tour and is ranked 45 in the world, beat Welshman Tony Chappel 2-0 in the best-of-three final having seen off Dennis Taylor, Tony Knowles and last year’s winner Darren Morgan en route to the final.
Both finalists had come through qualifying to claim their place in the tournament and former World Championship finalist Bond took a close first frame 68-54 after both players missed opportunities to take a 1-0 lead by potting the black.
The second frame was more one-sided with breaks of 33 and 28 helping Bond to take it 66-4 and claim the £18,000 prize money.
“It is a great feeling,” he said on collecting his trophy. “It has been a great weekend, all of the players have enjoyed it.
“I think I played a bit scrappy yesterday and only really got going in the second frame against Chappel but then I felt I got into a nice rhythm. I was playing great on the practise table but sometimes it is not always easy to put it out there on the match table.”
Runner-up Chappel conceded the best player won. “I have really enjoyed it and I have got further than I expected to get,” he said. “The better man definitely won. Nigel is a tour player and you could see on the table that he was playing like one and looked like one, and that was the difference.”
RESULTS (all matches best of three frames):
Last 16
Darren Morgan 2-0 Joe Johnson
Dennis Taylor 0-2 Nigel Bond
Dene O'Kane 2-0 Barry West
Steve Davis 2-1 Cliff Thorburn
Tony Drago 1-2 Tony Chappel
Karl Townsend 1-2 Tony Knowles
Alain Robidoux 2-0 Les Dodd
Mike Hallett 0-2 Jimmy White
Quarter-finals
Steve Davis 0-2 Darren Morgan
Dene O'Kane 2-1 Jimmy White
Alain Robidoux 0-2 Tony Chappel
Tony Knowles 0-2 Nigel Bond
Semi-finals
Nigel Bond 2-0 Darren Morgan
Tony Chappel 2-1 Dene O'Kane
Final
Nigel Bond 2-0 Tony Chappel
