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| (l-r) Lai Chee Wei and Mohd Reza |
It has been quite some time since anyone or Mohd Reza himself remembered when he took a stand on the Champion's podium. But all that will be refreshed tonight as he beats Lai Chee Wei from Cue 2 to win Leg 4 National Ranking Snooker Championship 2011 at New Five Snooker.
In the afternoon session, both current two top seeds Moh Keen Hoo and Rory Thor crashed out in the Semi Final stages with the identical scoreline of 4-2, allowed Reza and Chee Wei to chase up and narrow the gap on the ranking points.
The Final was a rematch of the One Class encounter in 2010 where Chee Wei beat Reza to win that leg and this time around both were equally on top of their match play form after their Semi Finals win. Cueing off in the first frame, Reza immediately sprang to a 2-0 lead but was chased close behind as Chee Wei raced back to level the match at 2-2. Frame 5 was a scrappy game and it was who Chee Wei conceded it after a few continuous foul and miss, making him requiring a few snookers.
In frame 6, Reza had one hand on the Champion's trophy as he gained a 52 points lead with Chee Wei still left in the smokes as he plays blindly. Maybe it was nervousness or too anxious to cross the finish line, Reza fumbled and let Chee Wei in whom cleared the colour balls to win frame 6, forcing the match to go into overtime and to be decided on the final frame.
As both players shook hands and broke off in the final frame, Chee Wei fresh from the table, took an aggressive approach and scored first to lead. Reza, after the scare in the previous frame, appeared calmer and played steadily. After numerous safety plays and potting, it all boiled down to the final Black. Reza after clearing to Pink, played safety on the Black and left Chee Wei with a 12 feet gap as two balls rested on two ends of the cushion. Chee Wei pulled a smart move and played a double kiss and brought the cue ball back down with the Black ball 2 feet from the diagonally corner top pocket. Reza, without giving much thought, walked to the cue ball, took a deep breath, took his stance and executed the shot of the match as he potted the Black without it even touching the pocket's jaw, and lifted his right hand up to win frame and match.
Mohd Reza finally walks away with the long awaited Champion's trophy, cash prize RM 2,500 and a grin as wide as his face while Lai Chee Wei takes back cash prize RM 1,000 and trophy. Highest break of the Championship goes to Rory Thor from Original Omin with 101 points in his Quarter Final match against Moh Loon Hong.
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Semi Finals Results
Moh Keen Hoo
2 vs 4 Mohd Reza
50-55, 63(63)-62, 66(58)-49, 4-91(63), 66-69, 33-81(49)
Lai Chee Wei
4 vs 2 Rory Thor
83(67)-31, 6-83(44), 105(64)-17, 84(50)-47, 16-72(48), 72-32
Final Result
Mohd Reza
4 vs 3 Lai Chee Wei
65-49, 76-27, 26-56, 52-53, 59-48, 58-69, 70-65
