2012 Geelong Open Report

 This year we ended up with 257 entries in total and the players travelled from every part of the country including South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, A.C.T., Tasmania and of course Victoria. We were also lucky enough to have the world under 21 champion from Ireland playing in the comp as well.

We had some hurdles along the way mainly with the announcement of the Davis Cup tennis to be held in Geelong on the same weekend as our tournament. This meant that all of a sudden there was an accommodation shortage and some motels jacking their prices up, unfortunately this was out of our control as our dates were booked in 12 months in advance. This is why I always encourage people that are coming to book in early.

The next hurdle we encountered was the Friday night competitions at the main venue which were all running smoothly until we had a power blackout around 10pm due to a car accident in the vicinity. Unfortunately these things do sometimes happen and even though a select few believed we were responsible for the loss of power I can assure you this wasn’t the case. Anyway, the power was back on after an hour or so and we got through most of the knockouts which we had to complete on the Saturday night.

 The Friday night $10 knockout attracted 64 entries was won by Wayne Stubbs from Tasmania defeating Steve McCormick from Melbourne. The other 2 semi-finalists were Mick Norton from A.C.T. and Blair Kirkaldy from Tasmania.

 The Friday night $50 knockout attracted 32 entries with $1600 in prize money and was won by the current Australian 8 Ball Champion Rusty Wheeler who defeated the much improved Ben Pottinger from Melbourne 5-2. The other semi-finalists were Roy Tan from Geelong who lost to Rusty Wheeler 5-4 and Steve McCormick losing to Ben Pottinger 4-2.

The Friday night ladies competition was won by Carol Nunn from Adelaide defeating Dee Rispoli from Melbourne. The other 2 semi-finalists were Tracy Scerri who lost to Carol Nunn and Katrina Defina losing to Dee Rispoli.

 The Sunday non-qualifiers competition had 128 entries and was won by Peter Butterworth from Melbourne defeating his Victorian team mate Michael Scerri in the final. The other semi-finalists were last year’s non-qualifiers winner Brent Hampton from A.C.T. who lost to Michael Scerri and Nathan Harris from Melbourne who lost to Peter Butterworth. The other 1/4 finalists were Matt McKenzie from Geelong, Blair Kikaldy from Tasmania, Semisi Naupoto from A.C.T. and the very promising junior Matty Curwood from Ballarat. Prize money was over $1200 and paid to the last 8.

The final was played between Ben Judge from Perth who defeated Karl O’Donoghue from Ireland 5-4 after being 4-1 down, a massive effort from Ben to hold his nerve and claw his way back and to win the match.

Some other finals results were:

Semi Finals

Ben Judge d Kurt Dunham

Karl O’Donoghue d Steve Tran

1/4 Finals

Karl O’Donoghue d Ben Nunan

Kurt Dunham d Wayne Stubbs

Steve Tran d Roy Tan

Ben Judge d Rusty Wheeler

Congratulations to all of the finalists on their efforts.

Overall we paid out over $20,000 in cash prizes from Friday night to the Sunday night, not bad for a tournament that was nearly cancelled after its 3rd year due to the lack of support and running at a loss.

I would like to thank all of the players that have supported us continuously over the years and also to every new player that we get participating each year. These tournaments wouldn’t survive without the social type players, the players that come to play, socialise and to have a fun weekend away. I’d also like to thank each and every interstate person that traveled to the tournament. The air fares, rental cars, buses, trains etc plus the accommodation on top of that. It’s not a cheap weekend away for anyone, but their love and devotion to the game we all love to hate keeps everyone coming back.

Finally, I’d like to thank a few certain people in particular who work tirelessly and don’t receive the recognition they deserve for all of their hard work.

Danni Scanlan, Michelle Eaton, Vera Knezevic and Patrick Hood. These 4 in particular make my job so much easier and help keep the stress levels down. Also thanks to Mik Hanson and Boris Krasic for their assistance over the weekend and Robyn Alsop from Jolie Image for the magnificent photos.

Finally to Joe and all of the staff at White Eagle House, John Russell from All Star Pool Tables and Johl Younger from Slate Pool Lounge.

Thanks heaps guys hope to see everyone back next year in hopefully a bigger and better tournament and can’t wait to do it  all over again next year.

Velo Dulic

Tournament Director