Snooker winner pushes the boat out (From This is Hampshire)
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Snooker winner decides to push the boat out
7:00am Monday 8th October 2012 in Hampshire Sport
PRIZE GUYS: Chandler’s Ford SC £3,500 Roll-Up winners: From left: Steve Boterhoek, Tony Brine, Marc Russell, John Barton, John Thomas, Phil Budden. Not pictured: Nathan Page, Steve Tonks, Carlo Cavagnetto, James Weaver.
MARC Russell vowed to really push the boat out after scooping his third £1,000 jackpot in four years in Hampshire’s richest snooker competition.
The Woolston building contractor announced he is quitting the Chandler’s Ford SC £3,500 Roll-Up for a year and taking to the water.
Russell missed only two of the 105 tournaments and amassed £893 over the year to finish top of the prize-money list. And that earnt the 37-year-old a £1,000 bonus.
“It’s been hard work so I’m going to have a break for a year,” he said. “It’s been quite difficult for a few months where I’ve been changing my cue-action (with World Snooker coach Dave Mumford). But in the end, I’m playing better. “I was thinking about taking up kayaking because I live right next to the shore.”
The 21-strong field for the last tournament meant second-placed Phil Budden and last year’s champion John Thomas both needed to win the final, and knock out Russell on the way, to snatch top spot.
Budden beat Russell 2-0 in the first round, James Weaver 2-1 in the next and Thomas 2-0 in the quarter-finals. But hopes of a fairytale finish ended in a 2-0 semi-final defeat by Tony Brine.
