Ryan Wins ONEFORSEVEN
Home-favourite, Ryan Day won the first ever ONEFORSEVEN event at the Welsh Institute of Sport beating the talented Liam Highfield into second place with Alfie Burden finishing third.
ONEFORSEVEN is the revolutionary new tournament format that uses an Accumulative Points Scoring (APS) system, with each player taking on seven opponents over one frame.
The highest ranked player in the 16-player field prevailed, despite a less than impressive start in the ‘final eight’.
After the first two rounds, Day was languishing in eighth position on just 41 points, but in the last five rounds averaged over 98 points per frame to close the gap and seal the win with a total of 531.
A superb 128 break in round three put Day back in contention as the early leader Highfield slipped up scoring just 12 points.
It was IBSF World Champion, Burden who hit the front and started to look he would walk away with it, but a missed chance against Day was punished as Day again scored over 100.
With just one round to go, mathematically at least, all eight players were still in with a chance of victory.
Realistically though it was a four-way battle with just sixty points separating the top-four spots.
Day took on fellow Welshman, Andrew Pagett whilst Highfield and Burden went head-to-head and Matthew Stevens faced Michael White.
A good red to the centre pocket and a tough black opened up an early chance for Day which he took, making a decisive break of 95.
Despite losing to Burden, 19-year-old Highfield held onto second place, but Stevens slipped up against White and was pipped into third spot by the Londoner.
Earlier, Stevens topped the Red group with an impressive 616 with Highfield, Pagett and former world champion, Ken Doherty progressing.
Mark Selby (406), Mark Williams (363), Robert Milkins (339) and Dave Harold (335) all missed out.
In the black group, Day eased through in first place scoring a total of 557 with Ben Woollaston (479), Burden (477) and White(477) taking their places in the evening’s race for the title.
Day walked away with ONEFORSEVEN Gold Disk and the first prize of £14,707 plus the highest break bonus.
He told Global-Snooker.com, “I wasn’t looking great after the first two rounds but I was surprised that I was only 130 points behind the leader. I needed a few results to go my way on the other tables, which they did and I managed to score enough to win.
“I am delighted to win the first ONEFORSEVEN event, especially here in Cardiff, and I look forward to playing more in the future”.
