Bonney win for Emma

SEVEN-time beaten finalist Emma Bonney has finally potted her way to glory in a women’s ranking event - with a £15 cue picked up at a car boot sale.

First tournament win for Emma Bonney

The 31-year-old from Portsmouth clinched the WLBSA South Coast Classic at the Q Ball SC in Eastbourne with a 3-2 victory over world number three June Banks from Orpington.

Stand-in film star Reanne Evans took centre stage in the quarter-finals with her highest break, a 140 total clearance in the first frame of a 3-0 last-eight win over Hampshire’s Suzie Opacic.   

But Bonney had not read the script and ended the IBSF world champion’s 35-match unbeaten run on a fifth-frame black-ball decider in the semi-finals after trailing 2-1. Evans took the lead with breaks of 83 and 52 but two-time world billiards champion Bonney levelled and won the decider which was dominated by high-class snookers.

Bonney, who lost 3-2 to Evans at the same event in Brighton last year, said: “It’s about time I won. I’ve had a few chances to beat her and I managed to do it today. It’s always satisfying to beat someone when you know they’re cueing well. I had her snookered a couple of times, she had me a couple of times and I pulled out a very good blue, pink and black to win.”

Bonney bought her cue at a car boot sale in Gosport at the start of the season but left it in the car park at the last event at Rushden. It was spotted late at night by the tournament director and taken to Brighton.

Bonney said: “I’ve been getting on alright with it. I work for an insurance company, just hope they’re going to let me have the time off for the World Championship because they’ve changed the date. If they don’t, I’ll have to leave,” she laughed.

Surrey’s Marianne Williams beat local girl Martina Lumsden 2-1 in the Plate final.

The day before the fourth ranking event of six, mother-of-one Evans stood in for actress Kristin Scott Thomas to play a snooker shot in Noel Coward’s Easy Virtue which was being filmed in Reading.

Results (breaks in brackets):

LAST 32: Tina Owen-Sevilton bt Jane O’Neill 3-0, Maureen Logan bt Charlotte Holloway 3-0, Joanne Davies bt Maureen Twomey 3-2, Martina Lumsden bt Mary Hawkes 3-2, Vicky Ashby bt Sue Selby 3-1, Gaye Jones bt Marianne Williams 3-1.

LAST-16: Reanne Evans bt Owen-Sevilton 3-0, Suzie Opacic bt Logan 3-1, Emma Bonney bt Pam Wood 3-0, Jenny Poulter bt Hannah Jones 3-0, Katie Henrick bt Lumsden 3-0, Chris Sharpe bt Ashby 3-1, June Banks (58 and 32) bt G Jones 3-0, Maria Catalano (40) bt Davies 3-0.

QUARTER FINALS: Evans (140 and 43) bt Opacic 3-0, Bonney bt Catalano 3-1, Henrick (55) bt Poulter 3-0, Banks bt Sharpe 3-0.

SEMI FINALS: Bonney bt Evans (83 and 52) 3-2, Banks bt Henrick 3-2.

FINAL (£300/£150): Bonney by Banks 3-2.

PLATE RESULTS:

LAST 16: Selby by H Jones 2-1, Wood bt G Jones 2-0, Lumsden bt Logan 2-0, Williams bt Davies 2-0, O’Neill by Hawkes 2-1, Owen-Sevilton bt Holloway 2-0.

QUARTER FINALS: Selby bt Twomey 2-1, Lumsden bt Wood 2-1, Owen-Sevilton bt Ashby (49) 2-1, Williams bt O’Neill 2-1.

SEMI-FINALS: Lumsden bt Selby 2-0, Williams bt Owen-Sevilton 2-1.

FINAL: Williams bt Lumsden 2-1.