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Wednesday 10th June 2026

IPA Tour 2009

TOUR 1

At the start of my first year on the IPA tour my main aim was to get inside the top 100 of the rankings. The year started well in Blackpool as I won my first match on the tour 7-4 against Kevin Holland ranked 92. Many people find it hard to win their first match on the tour so I was happy to get the monkey off my back at the first time of asking. Next I lined up against Professional Steve Sears who I had beat in competition just a month previous. Unfortunately from 4-4 Steve turned up the gears and I did not have another shot in the game and ended up losing 7-4.

Now out of the main event my concentration moved on to the club open after being 3-0 down in my first round match I managed to come back and win 4-3 but that was as far as I got as I lost to 4-2 to Glyn Craze in the next round.

TOUR 2

I faced a tough first match at Hinckley as I lined up in the preliminary round against quarter finalist from Tour 1 Jason Hill. I always knew this was going to be a tough match and Jason didn’t give me any pleasant surprises as he ran out a 7-2 winner. With the disappointment of not winning a match on the tour this time around I was determined to go and do some damage in the club open. It started off very well as I won my 1st two matches both 4-0. I then lined up against highly rated Jeremy Hooper in the last 64 but I passed the test with a 4-2 victory. Patrick Kelly from Nottingham was next and although I was strong favourite for the match I only just managed to squeeze through 5-4 as Patrick put up a very strong performance. The last 16 was to be as far as I got as Club-Open-Tour-1 winner John Sullivan beat me 5-2. I felt a bit hard done by as I only missed one ball in the match but that is how it goes.

TOUR 3

Ian Crosbie was my opponent in the 1st round of Tour 3 and although I did not put in my best performance of the year I still managed to struggle over the line winning 7-5. Professional Kevin Barton was my next match. Kevin, ranked 18th on the tour, has a reputation for being a very slow player so I knew I had to be patient. I took a 2-0 lead which should have been stretched to 4-0 but unfortunately I missed a tricky black in frame 3 and went in-off on the black in frame 4, so what should have been a very strong 4-0 lead was just 2-2. After this Kevin showed his class and punished me for those to mistakes as he ran out a 7-4 victor. Having played well against Kevin, only making those two mistakes I was confident of doing well in the club open. My 1st round match was against one of the top Welsh players Tom Cousins, Tom is always one of the favourites to win the club open and feared by a lot of players, but unfortunately for Tom I turned up with my "A" game and went through to the next round winning 4-2. I breezed through my next match against England Men's manager Rob Uzzell winning 4-1. Good friend and last year's World u21 Championship R/UP Karl Sutton was next, we have played with each other for many years but this was the first time we had played in competition. The first 8 frames where shared 4-4 leaving a final frame decider. The frame went very tactical and scrappy but unfortunately for me all the balls were in Karl's favour, and after a lengthy tactical fight for me to keep in the match Karl eventually closed the match out winning 5-4. Karl went on to win the club open beating Mark Thrussell 6-5 in the final.

TOUR 4

After my disappointment at the World Championships, I had to try and pick myself up and start climbing up the Tour rankings if I wanted to get inside the top 100. Philip Mallam was the opponent at Tour 4. After far too many missed shots and poor positional shots I left it far too easy for Phil as he beat me 7-0. I was hugely disappointed with myself after this match as I didn't really get beat 7-0 but it was more a case of me losing 7-0; every frame I made uncharacteristic mistakes which eventually cost me each frame. So with my form and confidence low I had to try and dig deep for the club open. My first match was against top 70 player Neil Walsh. With a dramatic change in form, I won the match 4-0. Next up was England u21 player Dan Brazil, and with the TV camera on this match there was extra added pressure which is the last thing you need when your confidence is suffering, I played well in the match winning 4-1. In the next round, it was another last 32 exit and another whitewash, as I got beat 5-0 by Daryl Lovegrove who turns professional for 2010 season.

TOUR 5

A couple of weeks before Tour 5 the IPA started the qualifying rounds, so players could qualify to fill up the spaces that are currently filled with byes. There was only one qualifying spot available for Tour 5 so whoever won the spot was going to be a very strong player. I got drew in the preliminary round but strangely there was not an opponent next to my name, 7 other people also had the same draw. What this meant was that one of us were to draw the qualifier, and sure enough it was me who drew qualifier Rob Southey from Hertfordshire. Knowing this would be an extremely tough match I had to make sure that I did not make careless mistakes like I did at the previous tour. The match started very well with both players having 8ball clearances in the first 2 frames. With huge amounts of bad luck I lost the next 5 frames leaving me needing to win 6 frames on the trot. It started well with me having another 8ball clearance making the score ling 6-2 but Rob ended the match in the next frame winning 7-2. My luck was not to change in the Club Open as for the first time I made a first round exit in the competition.

TOUR 6

With confidence and form seemingly to be coming back I was really looking forward to the last tour of the year and determined to have a good tournament. Professional Mickey Wareham was my first round opponent and as much as I would like to say that a class performance gave me a 7-0 victory, unfortunately the 7-0 win came through Mickey not turning up. So with me through to round 2 without playing a match I had to face Professional and twice Junior World Champion Jordan Church, I took a 1-0 lead through an 8-ball clearance, 1-0 should have become 2-0 but with the tables running extremely fast I slightly over hit a shot leaving me struggling to play any sort of shot to win the frame. I played a defensive shot leaving us a tactical battle which went in the way of Jordan making it 1-1. From then on neither of us had any luck from the break and every frame went scrappy and tactical, unfortunately for me every frame seemed to be in the favour of the Jordan right from the go. From 1-1 Jordan showed his experience at the highest level winning the next 6 frames for a 7-1 win. I showed good form in the Club Open as I won 4-0 and then 4-3 in the first two rounds taking me though to the last day where I faced Pat Ward in the last 32. I started the match well and went 2-0 up. It should have been 3-0 but with a huge slice of luck Pat won the 3rd frame to make it 2-1. The match was fairly even after that as it went to a final frame decider. Pat broke off in the final frame and the break could not have worked out better for him with all of the balls sitting lovely. He finished too straight on his last ball to get an ideal position on the black so he left himself a tricky shot and a very miss-able black. I thought I was going to get a chance to get to the table and win the match, but after taking a lot of time to compose himself, Pat got down and potted a very good black leaving me walking away at the last 32 for the third time of the year.