County news: Davis wins world title

Sussex snooker star Mark Davis has won the World Seniors Championship.
Mark Davis won the World Seniors Championship in Preston last nightMark Davis won the World Seniors Championship in Preston last night
Mark Davis won the World Seniors Championship in Preston last night

Davis, from St Leonards, emerged triumphant from a 16-man field at The Guild Hall in Preston this weekend, clinching the title by beating Welsh amateur Darren Morgan 2-1 in the final last night (Sunday).

World number 23 Davis won eight matches in total to capture the title, the first four of which came in the qualifiers just before Christmas when he didn’t drop a single frame. In all, he won 16 frames and lost only two.

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The 43-year-old began the event proper with a 2-1 win over 1997 world champion Ken Doherty on Saturday night. Davis took the opening frame 90-15 and was closing in on victory in the next when he missed the final yellow with the rest while on a break of 58 and Doherty pinched it 68-58. The decider was a tight affair which Davis eventually clinched 65-42 after potting blue and pink.

He returned yesterday afternoon to record a very good 2-0 victory over 22nd-ranked Robert Milkins in the quarter-finals. Davis bagged the opener 65-24 before knocking in a run of 73 to win the second frame 77-11.

Davis then overcame 58th-ranked Rory McLeod 2-0 in the semi-finals yesterday evening. He eventually clinched a lengthy opening frame in which both players had chances 81-58 and went on to comfortably take the second 71-7.

Davis won the opening frame of the final 62-15 and led early in the second before Morgan knocked in a 55 break to take it 70-30. Davis fashioned a terrific run of 76, however, to land the decider 81-0 and claim the £18,000 winner’s cheque.

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He told Sky Sports afterwards: “I’ve lost a lot of matches I should’ve won this season so it’s nice to hold myself together there in the last frame. Even though the balls were there you’ve still got to do it so that will give me a bit of self-belief.

“I had no expectations really, just to hopefully play well and get in first in most of the frames. I knew I had Ken first round and that was a tough game so I was just focusing on that.”

The event featured five former world champions in Peter Ebdon, Joe Johnson, John Parrott, Doherty and Mark Williams, all of whom were beaten in the first round. Six-time World Championship runner-up Jimmy White made it to the semi-finals and one-time Crucible finalist Nigel Bond was knocked out in the quarter-finals.

It’s not the first time Davis has won a world title, but it is the first time he’s done so in the traditional 15-red format of the game. He has also won the Six-Reds World Championship on three occasions, once in Ireland and twice in Thailand.

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