Snooker: warm-up tournament success
Victory to be had in the Midlands
ICU Snooker enjoyed their best ever performance at the Midlands Universities Snooker Championships, which included top-four finishes for both a new look second team in the Team Trophy and first team captain Bilal Nasim in the Individual Championship.
After an early 9am arrival at Rileys in Coventry last Saturday, the action kicked off immediately with the first round matches of the Individual Championship and Trophy.
Thanks to a combination of some well-crafted breaks, the highest an impressive 58 by ex-under-19 Romanian Champion Bogdan Cozmaciuc, and some good fortune in the form of byes for Elwin Carlos, Bo Tan and Grace Yip, only two of the ten Imperial representatives failed to make it past the first round in either competition; Shengyang Cheng was beaten 2-0 by Cardiff’s David Sattaur in the Trophy and, despite a courageous break of 32, Julius Guth lost his Championship match against Nottingham’s Tom Laycock.
Later, second round wins for Nasim, Nitesh Mehta and second team captain, Yip, meant Imperial had three players through to the following day’s round of 16 matches.
In the evening the team events, with Davis Cup-style rubbers matches, got underway and neither the first nor second teams started particularly well.
The first team, consisting of Messrs Nasim, Cozmaciuc, Carlos, Mehta and Guth, fell behind 3-1 to Oxford 1s while the second team faced a 4-1 deficit in their match against Warwick 3s.
However, a fantastic fight back in which Yip, Cheng, Tan, Edward Graham and Jonathan Hoong all won their final frames completed a 6-4 victory for the second team.
Furthermore, a gripping re-spotted black ball finish involving Mehta helped the first team on their way to claiming a 5-5 draw.
The drama continued late into the night as Imperial 1s then defeated Kent 1s 6-3 while their second team counterparts fought out a 5-5 draw, culminating in an epic final frame re-spotted black defeat for Yip and a 1am finish.
Dispelling the rumours that snooker players are not physically fit, all ten Imperial cueists then undertook an arduous twenty minute trek through the thick Coventry snow to reach the teams’ hotel and eight hours later all were back in the confines of Rileys in an effort to replicate the previous day’s unbeaten run.
The first major setback of the weekend involved Imperial 1s, who held hosts Warwick to a 5-5 stalemate before a crushing 6-1 defeat to Manchester 1s ended hopes of a Championship semi-final place, losing out only on frame difference to Warwick.
York 3s then threatened to spoil things for the second team by producing an Imperial-style comeback at 5-1 behind but the cool (and shaved) head of Cheng secured a 6-4 victory and second spot behind Trophy Group B winners Southampton 2s, to whom they lost 6-1.
The following 6-0 whitewash in the semi-final at the hands of eventual Trophy winners Warwick 2s did nothing to detract from a great display by the second team during the weekend.
Yet even after over 26 hours of competitive snooker, the tournament was still not over for Imperial.
Step up, Bilal (the Prince) Nasim, who won his third round match to become the last remaining team member in the individual competition after Yip and Mehta bowed out in the last 16 and quarter finals respectively.
Arguably the underdog, Nasim looked to be heading out, too, as he fell 1-0 behind to the formidable Rhys Carpenter of Cardiff in their quarter final contest.
However, after nicking the second frame on the final black, breaks of 20 and 24 helped earn Nasim a last four match-up against double BUCS Champion Mark Green.
Although Nasim went on to lose to Green, who later claimed victory in the final, such was the nature of his achievement that six other team members missed the last train back to London in order to watch the semi final clash.
Many thanks should go to Warwick University Snooker Club for organising such a great tournament. Moreover, after some fantastic performances, especially from Nasim and a second team fielding three debutants, hopes of further success at the season-ending BUCS Snooker Championships are sky-high. Can Imperial defend their Team Trophy and complete a hat-trick of titles?
On this evidence, why not?
