Welsby retains her title

PAPUA New Guinea women’s No.1 Geua Welsby retained the Bank South Pacific National Snooker Title after defeating Damita Bray four frames to nil in Port Moresby on Sunday.
This is Welsby’s 13th title, having dominated the women’s snooker scene since her first title win in 2006 and making it back-to-back titles since BSP came to the fore to back The National-sponsored tournament.
Although outplayed on the day, Bray should feel proud of making it to the final after displaying excellent potting and tactical snooker in her matches in the Top-16 against Waisina Laho, Boio Toua and May Vare.
As for Welsby, her run to the final was against some good opposition, having qualified in fourth place after the round robin because of her dropped frame against Clara Navi.
Welsby found herself against Tanya Mossman-Tam in the top-16, Helen Samuel in the quarterfinals, then her semifinal opponent and top seed Madeline Kaina had to pull out of the tournament due to personal reasons robbing spectators the chance to see PNG’s top-two female players go head to head and giving Welsby a free ride to the final.
The final saw Welsby win the first frame 47–39.
After that, Welsby showed her class by easily winning the next three frames 46-10, 45-21 and 57-18 to be crowned champion for another year.
Also played on Sunday was the plate final for all of the women who didn’t make the top-16.
With a full complement of all 16 players, it was a hotly-contested plate event with Esther Wilson and Pepertua Vagikapi battling it out in the best-of-three final.
Vagikapi proved too good, winning two frames to nil.
The presentation for the women will be held in conjunction with the men’s title, which will starts today and finishes on Sunday.
PNG Billiards and Snooker Association president John Chan was happy to announce the addition of the Car Club as the fourth venue for the event which will ease the player’s schedules, making for what should be a very exciting week of snooker.
“We have two confirmed players from Kavieng, Djorne and Monty Fong as well as Robin Charles coming in from Alotau,” he said.
“The rest of the field will be made up of players from Port Moresby Billiards and Snooker Association, led by the likes of defending champion Marcus Ng and last year’s runner-up Roger Ng.”