• Alfie Removes 147 Burden

    Alfie Burden produced a maximum 147 break in his way to winning the sixth and final English Pro-ticket Tour event in Woking.

    The 33-year-old from Hatfield had never made the perfect break in tournament play, despite having made over 60 in practise.

    In the final, he defeated Leicester’s, Ben Woollaston, by five-frames-to-four.

    Burden, a former professional, made twenty breaks over fifty, including a staggering seven centuries topped by the 147 in the last frame to defeat of Wayne Townsend 4-2.  

    In the final he opened with a 118 break and added the second frame with a 52.  Woollaston won the next two scrappy frames, before Burden fired another century (116) followed by a 51 to lead by two again.  A scrappy frame and a break of 76 saw the young Leicester man draw level before Burden clinched a well-deserved win in the decider.

    Burden’s intent was clear from the first round, when he cruised past Grant Conquest 4-0 with breaks of 71,100 and 118.  Oldham’s Michael Wild was his next victim making breaks of 44,68,84,96 on his way to a comfortable four-frames-to-one win.  In the last 16 he made the maximum against Townsend before recording a four-frames-to-two quarter-final win over another former professional, Hugh Abernethy.

    In the semi finals he fought back from 3-1 down to beat Robbie Williams 4-3, Burden started with a 115 break, Williams 95 and 51 for 3-1 despite Burden making 59 in the 4th frame both the next two frames close 73-61,70-51 the last won well 98-4.

    Woollaston who will be back on the professional tour in 2009/10 season after finishing in the top-8 on the PIOS rankings defeated Scott Miller, Chris Norbury, Gary Wilson, Lee Postill, Matt Wilson and Stuart Carrington.

    A total of 212 players competed on the PTT with Jimmy Robertson top of the overall rankings. 

    1 – Jimmy Robertson
    2 – Stuart Carrington
    3 – Sean Bullock
    4 – Alfie Burden
    5 – David Craggs
    6 – Ben Woolaston
    7 – Robbie Williams
    8 – James McGouran       

    The top-32 players in the English Pro Ticket Rankings will now play for EASB’s final nomination place on World Snooker’s tour 2009/10.  Follow all of the action on Global-Snooker from May 30th – 31st.