Highfield overtakes all the Joneses to claim PIOS win
Liam Highfield beat three players named Jones, including Neal Jones in the final, to win the second PIOS event of the season.
Stoke's Liam Highfield, runner up in the first PIOS final, went one better by winning Event 2.
Highfield's run started with a 4-3 win over Jack Lisowski, who beat him in the first final.
That was followed by a 4-2 win over former World 8-ball champion Chris Melling. That victory was loudly cheered back at Highfield's home club, which is run by another World 8-ball champion Gareth Potts.
In the last 32 a 4-2 win ended the hopes of Robbie Williams, who had impressed everyone last week, by beating three Main Tour professionals during the English Open, and is one of the players tipped to claim a place in the PIOS Top 8 this season.
The last 16 gave Highfield the chance to show that he too can knock out former professionals, as Ireland's Vincent Muldoon fell victim to Highfield's exceptional long potting and high scoring. Highfield notched 53 and 111 during the match.
Then it was time to start knocking out anyone who happened to be called Jones!
First up was PIOS debutant Jak Jones. The Cwmbran lad had enjoyed his sixteenth birthday the day before with an excellent win over Jamie O'Neill, winning 4-2 having trailied 2-0. But Highfield wasn't giving the 16 year old any presents and smacked in 40, 65, 36 and 90 to reach the semi finals.
Another day, Another Jones! In the semis Highfield faced Jamie Jones, who narrowly lost his main tour place at the end of last season. Jones had been in superb form throughout the event and he quickly moved into a 4-1 lead, with runs of 55, 46, 86 and 56.
But Highfield gritted his teeth and countered with breaks of 52, 36, and 59 to clinch a 5-4 victory.
The final wasn't all one way traffic, but Neal Jones, who plays his snooker at the Q Club in Chester, the new club owned by Ricky Walden, couldn't reproduce the gritty form he'd shown all week.
