Rico Diks won his first BPPPA tour stop at the Manchester Open this weekend at Rileys Stretford, beating Adam Clarke 11-9 in a tense final. Clarke made a spirited comeback from 9-5 down, but just couldn't hang on long enough and it was the London-based Dutchman who walked away with the biggest trophy and £1000 first prize.
Rico qualified on the winners' side of the first day's double elimination format, knocking up comprehensive victories over Stefan Fisher, Andy Worthington and Jon Davies, with no-one managing more than 4 racks against him. In the last 32 knockout on the second day, Diks knocked out Joe Sims and Lee Chenman before pipping David Walsh, the 2003/04 BPPPA Young Player of the Year, to a 9-8 win in the quarters. Diks' semi-final produced the biggest upset of the weekend, with the Dutchman beating tournament favourite and winner of the last 3 events Raj Hundal 9-1. Adam's route to the final in the single knockout phase was via wins of 9-5, 9-3, 9-8 and 9-5 against Neil Jenkins, Brett Armer, Kevin Hew and Daryl Peach respectively.
The sizeable Manchester contingent tried hard to win on home soil, with seven Mancunians making it through to the second day. Three of the seven - last season's Manchester Classic winner Steve Higton, snooker professional Nick Dyson and James Kay, managed to make it to the last 16 stage, before being knocked out by Daryl Peach, Paul Williams and Kevin Hew respectively.
Losing quarter-finalists were Steve Brown, Kevin Hew, David Walsh and Paul Williams, with the remainder of the last 16 being Steve Higton, Jon Davies, Brett Armer, James Kay, Lee Chenman, Kevin Uzzell, Wayne Lloyd and Nick Dyson.
Adam Clarke's second BPPPA final appearance has moved him 3 places up the rankings to number 5, with good performances by David Walsh and Steve Higton pushing them up to number 3 and 4. Raj Hundal's semi-final appearance has helped him break into the top 16 at number 11. The full ranking list is available at http://www.bpppa.com.
