| Rileys, Inverness - Saturday 25th - Sunday 26th September 2010 |
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Sponsored By ... 
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| Highland Pool Classic 2010 - Last 32 |
| Last 32 | Last 16 | Quarter Final | Semi Final | Final | |||||
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| Ian Moffat | 5 | Graeme Cuisine | 6 | Graeme Cuisine | 3 | Darren Matthew | 6 | Darren Matthew | 6 |
| Graeme Cuisine | 6 | ||||||||
| Martin Hendry | 6 | Martin Hendry | 2 | ||||||
| Tony McCallion | 4 | ||||||||
| Andy Gerrie | 5 | Kev Corcoran | 1 | Darren Matthew | 6 | ||||
| Kev Corcoran | 6 | ||||||||
| Darren Matthew | 6 | Darren Matthew | 6 | ||||||
| Scott Kennedy | 2 | ||||||||
| Paul Johnstone | 5 | Adam Wood | 6 | Adam Wood | 6 | Adam Wood | 4 | ||
| Adam Wood | 6 | ||||||||
| Chris Corcoran | 6 | Chris Corcoran | 4 | ||||||
| Martin McIntosh | 4 | ||||||||
| Joe Sayers | 5 | Adam MacLeod | 6 | Adam MacLeod | 4 | ||||
| Adam MacLeod | 6 | ||||||||
| Ben Royan | 6 | Ben Royan | 5 | ||||||
| Cammy Spence | 0 | ||||||||
| Jim Anderson | 6 | Jim Anderson | 0 | Thomas Bannon | 6 | Thomas Bannon | 6 | Thomas Bannon | 7 |
| Alan Mair | 2 | ||||||||
| Thomas Bannon | 6 | Thomas Bannon | 6 | ||||||
| Gary Simpson | 1 | ||||||||
| Alan Scott | 6 | Alan Scott | 4 | Simon Donald | 4 | ||||
| Paul Slorach | 4 | ||||||||
| Simon Donald | 6 | ||||||||
Nick Willetts |
4 | Peter Fyffe | 6 | Peter Fyffe | 3 | ||||
| Peter Fyffe | 6 | ||||||||
| Fraser Kelman | 1 | Kevin Gray | 3 | ||||||
| Kevin Gray | 6 | ||||||||
The inaugural Highland Pool Classic held in Rileys Inverness was an exciting affair from start to finish with some quality pool, played in great spirit. The field was made up of players from all over Scotland, 3 of the SEPF's 4 regions were represented with players coming up to Inverness from Region 1 (Aberdeen and North East), Region 2 (Fife and Tayside) and Region 4 (Moray and Highland). Unfortunately Region 3 (the Borders) was not represented. The strength and depth of the field was there in abundance boasting Scotland's most successful male player Darren Matthew (Aberdeen), former Scottish Singles champion Chris Corcoran (Kirkcaldy) and current Scottish Masters champion Martin McIntosh (Aberdeen).
The tie of the first round was Chris Corcoran against Martin McIntosh with Chris coming out on top with a 6 - 4 scoreline. There were many close games in this last 32 part of the competition with no fewer than 5 matches requiring deciding frames. The last 16 saw the biggest shock of the competition with rising Region 4 star Adam Wood(Lossiemouth) knocking out Chris Corcoran in fine style. He then went on to further cement his reputation as one of the best players in the region with a good win over former Scottish Internationalist Adam Macleod (Elgin) in the last 8. Meanwhile, Darren Matthew was moving ominously through the field with comfortable wins over Scott Kennedy (Kirkcaldy), Graeme Cuisine (Aberdeen) and Kevin Corcoran (Kircaldy). His effortless run to the semi finals was only matched by current Scotland Under 21 starlet Thomas Bannon (Fraserburgh), who only dropped 5 frames to reach the semi final stage. The other member of the final 4 was Peter Fyffe (Burghead), currently top of the Region 4 rankings, who had played solidly all day.
The semi final line up saw Darren Matthew play Adam Wood and Thomas Bannon play Peter Fyffe, a clear Region 1 vs Region 4 battle in each match. Both were tight affairs but the Region 1 players came out on top in each tie, with Darren and Thomas progressing to contest what was a superb final of the highest standard.
Thomas raced into a comfortable lead, ahead by 4 frames at one point. He seemed in control of his game and was not at all concerned about the calibre of his opponent, pulling out good finishes with ease. Darren appeared a little off his game and was making uncharacteristic mistakes upon which Thomas capitalised to take the scoreline to 6 - 2 in a race to 7 frames. The match took a very unexpected twist at this point in the match, Thomas seemed on course to win frame and match with all of his balls in easy positions but inexplicably managed to foul when trying to pot the final black. This gave Darren a new lease of life as he took that frame and reeled off the next 3 in addition to take the match to a one frame decider for the title. Having been in the doldrums for the previous 4 frames, since his missed black, Thomas came out fighting and appeared keen to redeem himself. Darren seemed odds on to complete an amazing comeback but he missed a straightforward yellow into the corner pocket and Thomas, this time, made no mistake to take the first prize of £375 and the title of Highland Pool Classic winner 2010.
Well done to all competitors, especially to those that made the effort to come and support this new tournament. A big thanks to Rileys as host and to PunctureSafe Highland as sponsors.
Highland Classic Finalists Thomas Bannon and Darren Matthew