Gary McNabb clinches Champion of Champions crown

GARY McNabb is on the brink of a ‘perfect’ season after he picked up the Short Mat Players Tour’s Champion of Champions title in Manchester.

The Trillick man defeated Sion Mills’ Mark Beattie 17-5 in the final after two days of action, during which the Mid Tyrone Zone star almost missed out on a place in the knockout part of the tournament following a disappointing start to his Group A campaign.

He lost two games against Jack Pye and Alex Kley early in the group stage before staging a remarkable turnaround to dig himself out of a hole, with a win over Swede Joel Hager at the end of day one proving crucial.

“It was a very tough weekend and I felt I wasn’t going as well as I should be on the Saturday, but as the day went on I got better or more consistent,” he observed.

“I lost two group games on the Saturday and I was in danger [of not qualifying] if I didn’t win my last game on Saturday, but I managed to beat Joel which then put it back in my hand because the top four in each of the four groups progressed. It meant I needed to win one of the two games on the Sunday morning to get myself through but I won both.”

After progressing to the last-16, McNabb was involved in a series of nerve-wracking tense fixtures from their to the final. He defeated Chris Mann 12-11 before overcoming Lawrence Moffat, who ousted one of the favourites Matt Worden, 7-6 in the quarter-finals.

In the last four, McNabb came from behind to gain revenge over Pye with a 13-11 victory to set up a decider against fellow Tyrone man, Beattie, who defeated Ben Pay 16-11 in the last-four, Stephen Williams 13-3 in the quarter-finals and Alastair McCrea 12-10 in the last-16 after finishing second in Group D with five wins and just one defeat, 10-9 to Warden.

And while the 17-5 scoreline in the final looks emphatic, McNabb was keen to stress it wasn’t as comfortable as the figures suggest.

“In the final, I just got away early and maintained it but it wasn’t comfortable because it was a final,” he explained.

“It was a case of a few things went well for me at the start and I managed to maintain it. It was more a case of keeping him down on shots and at arms length.”

McNabb’s season is far from over after Sunday’s success as this Saturday he travels to Belfast to play either Lee Hall or Daniel Davidson in the semi-finals of the National Singles.

“If I win that I’ll be into the final on the 29th of March and if I was lucky enough to do that – we were talking about it last night among us, you’d nearly call it the perfect year because I won the World’s at the end of last year, then the Champions Singles, this Champion of Champions on the Short Mat Players Tour, so to add the National Singles to that would cap it off nicely,” he explained.

“I’m two wins away from it, but it won’t be simple.”