Congratulations Padstow Bowling Club & St George Leagues Club

A-Series Winners: Padstow Bowling Club defeated Rooty Hill RSL 7-4

Winners: $3000 | Runners Up: $1500 | Major Semi Finalists: $530 x 2

High Break $400 Roger Farebrother (109) - Three x $100 for 100+ Breaks: Nick Vasic (x2) Vinnie Calabrese (x1).

Player of the series $100 - Tasleen Ahmad

B-Series Winners: St George defeated Campbelltown Catholic Club 7-6 (one frame play-off between Tony Kepu and Lewis Kwan after 6-6 draw)

Winners: $1000 | Runners Up: $500

Player of the series $100: Tony Kepu

This years prestigious Elite Snooker League was played from the 1st March to 6th September 2010. The competition was the strongest field I have ever personally witnesses over the past 15 years, which included four breaks over 100+ and fifty recorded breaks over 40+ throughout the year.

Clubs Involved in the Elite Snooker competition:

Campbelltown Catholic Club, Ingleburn RSL, Club Marconi, City Tatts, Smithfield RSL, Guildford Leagues, Rooty Hill, Padstow Bowling and Gymea Trade Unions.

A-Series involved nine teams with four players per team playing three frames every Monday night at selected clubs around Sydney N.S.W. Six teams would qualify for the finals to play for the $8000+ in total Elite Snooker prize pool. The six teams to qualify were (1st) Gymeah (2nd) Rooty Hill (3rd) Padstow (4th) Smithfield 2's (5th) Campbelltown 2's (6th) Smithfield 1's.

Some of the A-Series Elite players involved:

Dallas Hershell, Alan Mccarthy, Roger Farebrother, Stuart Lawler, Shawn Budd, Tony Kook, Vinnie Calabrese, Chris Calabrese, Alex Render, Jaydon Thompson, George Dennaoui, Wayne Brown, Terry Emmett, Nick Vasic, Lee Senko, Glen Wilkison and Dave Waller.

A-Series Finals playoff

Minor Semi Finals
Padstow Bowls A-1 7 : 5 Smithfield RSL A-1
Smithfield RSL A-2 7 : 5 Campbelltown A-2
Gymea Trade Unions A-1 1 : 0 Bye
Rooty Hill RSL A-1 1 : 0 Bye

Major Semi Finals
Padstow Bowls A-1 7 : 5 Gymea Trade Unions A-1
Rooty Hill RSL A-1 7 : 5 Smithfield RSL A-2

Due to the past success of the A-Series, we introduced a B-Series into our league for 2010. This league was also a real success with one of the strongest B-Series fields ever assembled.

B-Series involved five teams with four players per team playing two frames every Monday Night at selected clubs around Sydney N.S.W. Four teams would qualify for the finals to play off for the $8000 in total Elite Snooker prize pool.

Some of the B-Series Elite Players Involved:

Tony Kepu, Vana Kepu, Brian Mills, Martin Sadler, Jimmy Ruisi, Angelo Ruisi, Waldo Brito, Joe Goh, Andrew Karabelas, Lewis Kwan, Sebastian Zhang, Dave Stanley Smith, Ronnie Johnson, Bill Bolton, Wahid Ahmad, Eddie Conto, and Eddie Lazar.

B-Series Finals playoff

Minor Semi Finals
St George Club B-1 7 : 5 Campbelltown B-1
Marconi B-2 7 : 5 Marconi B-1

Major Semi Final
Marconi B-2 5 : 7 Campbelltown B-1

The 2010 Elite Snooker A-Series & B-Series Finals were held on the 6th September at Club Marconi infront of a healthy 60+ Crowd.

The Final A-Series

After a hard fought battle with some extremely tough teams in this years 2010 Elite Snooker League, the final came down to Padstow Bowling Club and Rooty Hill RSL. These two teams were well deserving finalists, as both teams played extraordinarily well throughout the year, and even ended up on the same points at the end of the round robin.

Rooty Hill RSL managed to get a major semi final spot due to a slightly better for/against ratio, Padstow on the other hand had to fight off in the Minor and Major semi-finals before getting a spot in the final.

Padstow defeated Smithfield 1's in the Minor Semi finals, then destroyed Gymea in the Major Semi Final. Rooty Hill defeated Smithfield 2's to gain a final spot.

Team Padstow: Alan Mcarthy, Gavin Douglas, George Dennaoui, Vance King, Bryan Tran

Team Rooty Hill: Des Birman, Fred Borg, Tasleen Ahmad, Wayne Brown, Shaun Fratus, Benjamin Piechocki

Match 1 - Alan Mccarthy Vs Des Birman

Alan McCarthy has been one of the inform players of this years Elite, and was going into this match as a pretty big favorite, but you can never underestimate Des Birman as he has been around for quite some time now and beaten all the top players around Australia in his day. After about five min into the match, Des was around 30 points in front and looking like upsetting the favorite, but unfortunately for Rooty Hill that was the only highlight Des was going to get from that match, Alan knocked in some big balls at the right time and never looked back, winning the match comfortably 3-0 in a matter of about 20 minutes.

Score: 3-0 Alan Mcarthy

Match 2 - Gavin Douglas Vs Wayne Brown

Experience Vs Youth - Wayne is another who finished his Snooker apprenticeship a few year back, but was this experience going to overcome the keenness of youth? Wayne managed to win the first, but then started missing some simple balls that you would not expect from a local C-Grader let alone a player playing in the final of the Elite Snooker A-Series. Gavin sensed some nerves coming from Wayne and straight away took advantage taking the second frame. The last came down to who wanted it the most, both players were now twitching all over the place and providing plenty of oh's and ah's, each getting chances to win on the colours, but Wayne just managed a slightly tough brown to stick fat on the last blue to win the match

Score: 2-1 Wayne Brown

Match 3 - George Dennaoui Vs Fred Borg

Hard to pick a winner at the start of the match, both players have been playing elite snooker for many years and could easily go either way. George won the first frame and Fred won the second frame. Match was still in progress.

Score: 1-1

Match 4 - Vance King Vs Tasleen Ahmad

When it came to handicaps this year, these two players would have to be the players most talked about in this years league. So it was very interesting that the final came down to these particular players.

I was predicting that who ever won the first frame would take out the match, and after Tasleen took out the first frame, I was starting to think this final could come down to a one (1) fame shootout, like B-Series had managed on the other side of the room. The second frame had Tasleen looking real comfortable, and when Vance got frustrated after an early in-off, I was sure we were going to a playoff, but Vance stuck in there and took out a close second. Vance now had his eye in for the last frame and started to pot every ball he looked at, he took out the frame and match by making a nice 40 break at the end of the frame.

Score: 2-1 Vance King

Congratulations! Padstow bowling club taking out the 2010 Elite Snooker League in your first year. Also commiserations to Rooty Hill but still a great year.

The Final B-Series

In 2010, we seen the introduction of a "B-Series" in the Elite Snooker League. This series is a way where local players who can not quite compete at the highest level, can still participate in an elite league, socialise with the best players in N.S.W, and win some prize money as well.

The B-Series Elite League was very strong, and came down to the very last match to see who qualified into the top four teams in the finals. St George took out the minor premiership, Campbelltown came in second, and Marconi 1's & 2's 3rd and fourth spot respectably.

St George defeated Campbelltownin the Minor Semi 1 to get into the Final, and Marconi 2's defeated Marconi 1's to gain a place in the Major Semi finals. Campbelltown then went on to beat Marconi 2's in the Major semi finals to once again face St George in the final.

Match 1 - Joe Goh Vs Brian Mills

This match was a hard fought out match swinging both ways throughout the whole way. Brian was giving 15 start, but was looking pretty comfortable and took the first frame. The second frame Joe was starting to buzz around the table with a huge smile beaming on his face. Although he did twitch up on a shot or two, he still played very well and won the second frame.

Score: 1-1

Match 2 - Tony Kepu Vs Lewis Kwan

The two top players in B-Series this year get to play for the title of best B-Series player for 2010. Tony has been around the Snooker League traps for many year, and is a well known player in Sydney. Lewis on the other hand is the new (know it all ) kid on the block, and was looking a little too confident when starting the match. Tony soon showed the newbie that experience in playing many competition finals will usually overcome the keenness in youth.

Score: 2-0 Tony Kepu

Match 3 - Gabby Tavea Vs Sebastian Zhang

Fifteen years ago, you certainy would not see Gabby Tavea playing in a B-Series Snooker League, especially considering Gabby once took out the Cabramatta Open. Although he is not the player he used to be, he still loves to compete and put up some great competativeness throughout the league. Gabby was up against another newcomer in Sebastion, and this time the young guns got the better of the wise man easliy taking out the match 2-0.

Score: 2-0 Sebastion Zhang

Match 4 - Vana Kepu Vs Andrew Karabelas

From reading the result sheets throughout the year, this is another that could easily go either way. Andrew was looking very keen, while Vana was looking a little tence, especially after he left the last black right ove rthe hole to give Andrew an easy pot to win the first frame. Vana came back strong to take out the second on the colours.

Score: 1-1

The Shootout!

Combining all the scores, we had a result of 4-4, which meant we went into a one (1) frame shootout. A random draw was taken place to find out who would be playing the one frame shootout, and to Campbelltowns delight, Tony Kepu and Lewis Kwan were players drawn to play the shootoff frame. This frame was refereed by Myself, and was a very good clean frame of Snooker, both players had there chances, but Lewis had a 20 point lead going into the final colours. Tony got his opportunity with all the colours on their spots, but missed a very unexpected standard Green ball. Lewis potted the green but left the brown over the hole, so once again Tony got his chance to win the frame. Tony over cooked the brown to leave a difficult Blue ball, which he missed by a wide margin. Lewis had a half pocket blue to win the match, which he knocked in without touching the sides to grant his team the 2010 Elite Snooker League..

Congratulations! St George Leagues Club taking out the 2010 Elite Snooker League in your first year. Also commiserations to Campbelltown Catholic Club, but still a great year.

Elite Cue Sports Report

Everyone at Elite Cue Sports would like to thank all players and clubs involved in this years Elite Snooker League. Every year the Elite League gets stronger and stronger, and we are very close to have the most stable Snooker League in Australia. We would also like to thank our Sponsors Cuesportz, Azureus Hosting and The Billiards & Snooker Association N.S.W for your support, we certainly can not do without you.

We would also like to thank all the people behind the scenes who make it possible for the Elite Snooker League to run as smooth as possible. This includes Alex Render, Jimmy Ruisi, Angelo Ruisi, Nick Vasic, and all the captains who do so much work organising venues, sponsors and colling of weekly fees in the Elite Snooker League.

We continually make small changes troughout the years to improve the Elite Snooker League, and we hope you understand that there is always reasons behind these changes, we certainly do not make changes for no reason at all. People involved in decision making are Dallas Hershell, Alex Render, Nick Vasic, Terry Emmett and anyone else who has a good idea than can pass out Positives Vs Negatives tests.

We hope to see you all again in 2011 for hopefully a bigger and better Elite Snooker League.

Elite Cue Sports CEO

Dallas Hershell