Bash Maqsood wins first Bulwell Open of the year

Bulwell Open 6

Congratulations to Bash Maqsood who defeated Lincoln’s Steven Hallworth 3-1 in the final.

Both finalists only just scraped into the knockout stages.  Maqsood was forced to play a one frame play-off match against Steve Burrows due to them both finishing level on points in second place in their respective groups.  Maqsood triumphed, but only just.  Hallworth finished level with Jimmy gratton in their group and so had to play an extra frame against the Belper player to decide who went through.  Hallworth produced a timely 71 break in that frame to seal his place in the quarter-finals.

Maqsood, who made a nice 70 break in the final, defeated Zeb Ahmed 2-0 in the semi-finals.  However, Ahmed came away from that match feeling a little hard done by due to Maqsood’s run of the ball!  Hallworth defeated the in-form Tom Kerslake 2-1.  Kerslake made the day’s highest break of 116 in the group stages and the semi-final with Hallworth could have gone either way.

Alfie Palumbo won the grade 1 plate final, despite Dave Bolton making the highest break of the match, a 56.

Clint Broome beat Shaun Parkinson in the grade 2 plate final, but Parkinson had the consolation of £10 for making the highest grade 2 break of the day, a 30.  Broome almost took this away from him in the final as he fell just short with a run of 29!

The grade 3 plate final saw some quality play from both Steve Burrows and Martin Caulton.  Burrows went 1-0 up but Caulton was on fire in frame 2 as he levelled the match at 1-1.  The deciding frame saw Caulton dominate and Burrows found himself 27 behind with 27 on the table.  Amazingly, Burrows cleared the colours in style to force the respot.  Caulton went first, knocking the black up and down the centre spots twice leaving a difficult long pressure pot for Burrows.  Burrows potted the black cleanly to seal a remarkable comeback and win his first ever snooker tournament!

Full results available HERE