It was a grueling final match of the 2008 Hainsworth Snooker Invitational Open that saw all 11 frames played in a 3-hour-long Race to 11 showdown for the title on June 6 at Snooker Zone in Toa Payoh.

Moh Keen Ho of Penang, Malaysia, found himself up against his countryman, Lai Chee Wei of Perak, and lost 5-6 in an intense finale that attracted over 150 spectators.

The finals were held after 16 Singaporean players battled it out with 16 foreign players from Brunei, India, Thailand and Malaysia in preliminary Round Robin matches, which led up to the Last 16 matches on Wednesday and the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Despite sailing through their individual Last 16 and quarterfinal matches, the pair had gone through a tough semi-finals in the morning, with Moh beating Malaysian 11th seed John Loh 5-3 and Lai barely advancing with a 5-4 victory over Indian opponent Aditya Mehta , who bagged the Silver in the Asian Snooker Championship 2008.

Left-handed Lai had sent Singaporean 20th seed Alex Puan, the last local player to remain in the tournament, packing in a 4-0 quarterfinal win.

Local top seed Marvin Lim had earlier been knocked out of the competition by Manan Chandra of India who bested him 1-4 in the Last 16 stage.
Cueing off

Moh went into the game as the favourite to win, being the top snooker player in Malaysia, having a personal best break of 136, and having bagged the Gold for the Men’s Snooker Singles at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand. He was looking very much in form with a 117 break in the Open’s Quarterfinals, the highest break in the Open.

Lai, on the other hand, with a personal best break of 135, seemed destined to lose, being ranked 3 places below Moh in the Malaysian Snooker Rankings and having never won a title before.

In the 1st frame, Moh was going strong, leaving Lai with 1 red ball and the colours to fight back with while leading 48-21. However, Lai kept his cool and cleared the table to win by a narrow margin of 48-55.

The next frame saw Lai coming up from behind once again to win 47-64. Thereafter, the duo came almost neck to neck during the 3rd frame, with Moh looking set to win the frame while playing the blue at 37-all.

He missed, with the ball bouncing cleanly off the cushions, allowing Lai to clear the last 3 colours to win 37-55.

By the 4th frame, Moh’s frustration with his near misses and poor placing
was clearly showing. In a brash move, he hammered the cue ball into the pack of reds, spreading them all over the table in an attempt to break the momentum of Lai’s calm, focused and orderly game. Though visibly shaken, Lai steadied himself and proceeded to clear most of the table in a 96-point break, which led to referee Eddie Lau awarding the frame to Lai.

After the dinner reception, the match continued, with Lai leading by 4 frames to none. Moh, rested after the break, came back with guns blazing, potting shots with chilling accuracy and assaulting Lai with a barrage of cleverly-placed snookers. Lai failed to stay afloat, conceding 2 frames in a row, as he suffered a shocking dip in accuracy and failed to break most of the snookers.

Fatigue was showing on the faces of the 2 players by the 7th frame. Play began to get sloppy and silly fouls were made in the 7th to 10th frames as both struggled to concentrate. Moh would frequently disappear with his cigarette pack as the referee was racking the balls between frames in a desperate attempt to perk himself up. Lai was also taking considerably longer to plan his shots in between turns.

Those cigarette breaks seemed to work for Moh, as he drew level with Lai with 5 frames each after the 10th frame. However, Lai managed to pull himself together yet again, and after another reckless spreading of the pack of reds by Moh, earned himself 58 points in 2 turns, which left Moh with no choice but to concede the deciding frame, awarding Lai with his first title.

Post-Match Interview

A smiling Lai told UrbanWire about how surprised he was at his win.

“Previously, I’d met Moh 5 times in several competitions in Malaysia. I lost each of the 5 times. The sight of Moh instills terror in me!” he said in Mandarin.

However, his stellar 4-frame streak in the first half of the match affected his concentration and he admitted that he was looking just a little too far ahead in a game that requires plenty of foresight and precision.

“I got a little too excited after the first 4 frames, because I thought the win was in sight and I’d never won a competition before. But the more I told myself to concentrate and not to make any mistakes, the more I screwed up in the second half,” Lai said sheepishly.

Thankfully, he managed to pull through and won his first title with a cash prize of $2,500 sponsored by Wiraka .

Will the new champ of the Hainsworth Snooker Invitational Open remember Singapore more fondly now?

“Well, it’s a pretty nice country to play snooker in, and the food is good!” he said with a laugh.