Ian played their best player (again), John Byrne. Ian just could not get going. When he did have a chance, it was never easy to get position on a colour. So inevitably, he could not accumulate many points and consequently, John won by 56.

So, a deficit of 114 points after the first two games was not the ideal start, but with Mark and Luke to come, we still had a reasonable chance.

Mark played Andy Nibblitt, who can certainly pot balls. The match was one of those where the cue ball finds itself on the top cushion and the reds start getting pushed up the table to the baulk end. Both players had a chance to pile up some points, but failed to take full advantage. Mark did make a 30 break to put himself in control, but this was hard work with low value colours. Down to the last red and Mark started to look for a snooker to try and earn some more valuable points. He succeeded on a couple of occasions, but Andy managed to escape. Andy got the last red, but could not capitalise on the opportunity and the colours were shared with Mark reducing the arrears by a very useful 59.

Luke played Andy's brother, Brian and played nicely, without compiling any huge breaks. Not that Brian didn't have his chances, but he was unable to make as much of them as Luke did. We would have settled for a small deficit going into the decider, but Luke managed to win by 67 to actually give Paul a lead of 12 to try and defend in the final frame.

Paul fortunately played their weakest player, Gary, so was reasonably confident, but you never take anything for granted. Both of them struggled for position, but generally, when that happened , Paul played some decent safety. The defining moment came when Gary left Paul one over the corner pocket when trying a safety shot and Paul managed to construct a break of 23 when he was already ahead and Gary decided that it was enough.