Internal tussle sees Imperial’s top two progress

ICU Snooker’s biggest annual tournament, the Internal League, reaches its conclusion tomorrow with a stellar line-up in the showpiece final.

Last Thursday, number two seed Bilal Nasim produced a fine display of talent in his 4–0 victory over Richard Stroud, while top seed Bogdan Cozmaciuc overcame two-time finalist Tim Ma four frames to one in the first semi-final.

The competition started with 38 players in nine groups before it split into two events where players were drawn into groups of similar ability. The best players in each event qualified for their respective knockout stage.

The seeded draw for the main Championship knockout resulted in some fascinating fixtures. Hari Arora, hero again in leading Imperial to win the Team Trophy at the BUCS Snooker Championships last term, ended Bogdan’s run of 24 consecutive frames won in internal competitions but still could not avoid a 3–1 quarter-final defeat, with the Romanian scoring breaks of 37 and 28.

Two quarter-finals went the distance, with defending champion Sam Dennis missing two match balls in his epic game against Richard, in which four frames were settled on the final black. Sam misjudged the pink to give away the fourth frame. Then, having come back from needing three snookers to tie the decider, he attempted a long black that bounced out of the jaws and rested near the opposite corner pocket to leave Richard a straight pot using the rest, causing arguably the biggest upset of the tournament.

In the semi-finals, Bogdan and Tim played out a largely scrappy affair, a surprise considering the players’ calibre. Bogdan started nervously, perhaps a reflection of the importance of the occasion with the match being recorded and, for the first time, scored live on the club’s web site, and eventually lost the opening frame. Tim led marginally throughout the next but a fluked pink drew Bogdan level. A neatly composed 18 clearance—the highest break of the match—saw Bogdan pinch frame four and an early 30-point advantage in the fifth soon resulted in the Freshers’ Tournament 2010 champion advancing to his second final this season.

By contrast, the second semi-final was more entertaining, although the 55-minute first frame was full of safety play, where Richard slowly built up a 22-point lead that Bilal nudged to zero before stealing the frame with a 15 break to the pink. The story was much the same in frame two, however Bilal turned on the style in the third to record the second-highest break of the tournament, a well-crafted 46 in a brilliant display of break-building. He might have cleared up in a subsequent break but, unaware of the rule preventing the use of a ball off the table to determine whether a colour would spot after being potted, he was stopped prematurely for this unusual foul.

It made no material difference to that frame nor the next as two 16 breaks allowed Bilal to open up a 40-point gap before Richard could pot a ball. Yet, in a reversal of the first two frames, Richard played his best snooker of the match in scoring breaks of 25 and, with a fluke-assisted blue, 21, but a couple of loose safeties quickly enabled Bilal to take the frame to a re-spotted black. After a long pot attempt, Richard was unfortunate to double-kiss the black when he tried to play safe, leaving Bilal a straightforward pot into the top-left corner pocket to conclude the game.

So the two best players are five frames away from becoming Imperial’s top cueist. They share the highest 11 breaks of the Internal League, headed by a 53 from Bogdan in the first group stage, and have only lost three of the 43 frames they have played between them. If the players reproduce the quality of snooker they have demonstrated this season, we will be treated to an enthralling match worthy of any final.