Djorne Fong wins snooker title again
DEFENDING champion Djorne Fong won the Bank South Pacific Port Moresby Snooker Open trophy for the second consecutive year after a powerful display in the final on Sunday.
The 19-year-old defeated his uncle Peter Fong with a domineering
5-0 result at the Port Moresby Country Club to also pocket the K1,500 prize money.
Djorne, seeded number two, needed to keep his composure against the PNG champion and number one seed Peter, who had earlier beaten Madia Dunley 3 frames to nil in the final 16, Vani Toka (3-1) in the quarter final and Ken Leo (3-1) in the semi-final.
While Djorne had to get past Mari Kapi (3-1) in the final 16, Poliap Pokanau (3-0) in the quarter-final and Roger Ng (4-2) in the semi-final to get to the decider.
Djorne admitted that it wasn’t an easy run to the final, struggling with his form in the early stages of the four-day tournament.
“I was lucky to get through the quarters,” he said after landing the major prize.
But in the grand final Djorne was in his best form while Peter was having a bad day.
“I was expecting a closer game and I had a very good day too,” Djorne said.
There were shots he made while trying to get out of tough positions and they ended up going in which started him on the roll to victory.
Djorne won the first frame 64-37 and Peter had little luck when he went down 65-0 in the second frame. At 3-0 after Djorne won the third frame 66-41 Peter, who is also the president of the PNG Billiards and Snooker Association, started to fight back and led at various stages of the remaining frames. But each time Djorne provided solid resistance and wrestled the fourth frame 70-41.
Peter needed to win the fifth frame to give himself any chance of salvaging the game in the best-of-nine frame challenge.
Potting the blue ball to trail 47-39 Peter needed the remaining balls to wrap up the game but unfortunately gave points away after fouling as he attempted the pink ball.
Djorne made no mistake when he had a clear shot to force the PNG champion to settle for the runners-up purse of K800 and trophy.
Other prizes went to Yiannis Nicolaou for his highest break of 53, C Grader Lasark Joseph being named the most outstanding player after he surprised many by making the final 16, Milan Dirua as most outstanding outstation player and Geua John as best female.
POMBSA president Howard Lahari thanked major sponsors BSP, Imprint Copy Centre, NCS, Grafitti Signs, Streetscene as minor sponsors and Airline PNG, Bestcars, Budget Real Estate, Lae Biscuits, Lamana Hotel, Moni Plus, Pacific MMI, SP Brewery and Woodstock Sawmill as supporting sponsors.
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