Bristol’s Shane Thompson hasn’t had the best of seasons. He entered the final tour of the season placed 62nd and finished 9th in the Premier League, meaning that he missed out on the knockout and was instead placed in the Challenge event. This, however, proved to be a nice turn of events as he found form at just the right time, having a nice run on the tour, getting to the quarter finals before losing out 7-5 to Adam Davis and then going all the way in the Challenge event.
Thompson’s run to the final was not an easy one as he went to decider’s again both Champion of Champions winner Gerry Canning and England player Mike King. He next faced tough opposition, and a local derby, against Max Nosko, running out a 5-2 winner before dispatching of Brett Wild with relative ease 5-1.
On the other side, Wharne was having another great weekend. He followed up his tour 4 final appearance with another at tour 5 and then made the final of the Challenge event, no mean feat. Wharne appeared to make short work of some tough opposition, tour 2 finalist Dylan Leary and Morocco’s Yasser Amrani Hanchi amongst them.
The final was a close affair against the two England teammates and it was to be Thompson who would run out a 6-5 winner and pick up the cheque for £1000.
| FINAL | SHANE THOMPSON [6] | ROB WHARNE [5] |
| SEMIS | Brett Wild [5-1] | Gavin Lomax [5-1] |
| QUARTERS | Max Nosko [5-2] | Pat Ward [5-3] |
| LAST 16 | Mike King [5-4] | Reece Townsend [5-1] |
| LAST 32 | Gerry Canning [5-4] | Mark Price [5-0] |
| LAST 64 | Steve McCann [5-1] | Yasser Amrani Hanchi [5-2] |
| LAST 128 | Luke Austin [4-0] | Dylan Leary [4-2] |