I managed to remain patient and although I missed out on a monster 7 card brag pot(over $200!) I managed to win my first two matches 5:0 and 5:1.

This booked my place in the last 32 and meant I could go home for a few hours sleep before returning Sunday morning for an early start. In my first match I lost the first two frames to Brian Bently before waking up and running out 5:2 winner for a place in the last 16.

Next I played Joe D (the number 7 seed) and I played quite well to win 5:1. It was my old foe George M (the number 3 seed) next and despite missing two simple balls for a 4:0 lead I managed to fall over the line 5:4 with a couple of special clearences. In the semi final I played Hok (the 2002 winner) and although I started poorly I pulled of some very good finishes to win comfortably 5:1.

This put me in the final where I played Digby Paul for the first time. I missed an easy ball to lose the first frame but then ran out the next two to lead 2:1. In the next frame I snookered myself by a inch on my last ball to go 2:2 instead of 3:1 up. I won the next with a good clearence to lead 3:2. The next frame proved to be the turning point of the match. Digby went for the finish first but despite a couple of attempts could not develop his last ball. This left the table open for me to finish which I did up until my last ball which was over the corner pocket. The white was no more than 6 inches away and with the black over the middle pocket I only had to screw back a foot or so to lead 4:2. When I was down on my shot I was thinking about how I jumped the white ball in Las Vegas (which cost me a place in the 9 ball semi finals) and I tried to make sure I didn't do this again. Unbelievably I hit the white and it jumped clean over my last ball and even though it came back and hit my ball, a ball didn't hit a cushion which meant ball in hand to my opponent. Digby snookered me and I played a good escape to leave the white down the table . Digby played an outragous length of the table treble which he missed but he only left me a very difficult cut down the cushion which I also missed. Digby finished the frame to square the match at 3:3 and I was left wondering how I hadn't already won the match 5:1? Digby then produced a couple of excellent finishes to win the next two games and run out 5:3 winner.

Although I was dissapointed to lose the final I was pleased to have got that far since I hadn't played pool for a month and I had missed a lot of balls and hadn't really played my best pool over the weekend.