Players Tour Championship Event Three 2011 - Ben Woollaston's triumph

Ben Woollaston, the 2011 PTC 3 champion

Ben Woollaston captured his first ranking title after winning 4-2 over the 2006 world champion, Graeme Dott. It's been an incredible journey for Ben, who defeated names like Rod Lawler, Kurt Maflin, Andrew Higginson, Ken Doherty, Alan McManus and Anthony McGill, to book himself a place into the Players Tour Championship Event Three final and win it.


Leicester' man and I am not talking about the Jester Mark Selby, started his day with a perfect 4-0 over Ireland's Doherty, continued with a tight 4-3 against a very powerful and determined to win Alan McManus, whitewashed the sensational Anthony McGill 4-0 and ended with 4-2 in front of Graeme Dott. So, that makes three Scottish players that were defeated by Ben. Impressive stuff and more since we are talking about some really fine players.


The final started with Dott potting a beautiful long red but losing position, this creating the perfect opportunity for Woollaston to get in and take the opener with a 70 break. However, Dott replayed with a series of 19, 24 and 30 to equal the situation at 1-1.

Graeme Dott, the 2011 PTC 3  runner-up

The third frame was going to be won also by the Scottish player, but that resulted to be his last victory, as the following three frames were cashed by Woollaston with runs of 42, 33, 43 and 50.
He sure took revenge from losing 4-3 to Graeme during last year's EPTC 4 from Gloucester, while playing in the Last 16. ;-)


But all things aside, we can't overlook Dott's performance during this tournament. He had a terrific run beating James Welsh, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins, Jamie Jones and Barry Hawkins. Now that's something for a player that had an awful last season, but seems to be back in business.
Players like Alan McManus, Barry Hawkins and Anthony McGill has registered remarkable results also, especially if we talk about the first two, because it feels like ages have passed since we saw both McManus and Hawkins playing at their best. As for McGill, he has improved his performance from PTC 2, when he almost reached the Last 16 round (lost his last match 4-0 to Neil Robertson), so I'm sure we'll see him doing better and better in next competitions.


This concludes out five days in Sheffield, but don’t you worry for Players Tour Championship Event 4 is just around the corner. On 25th of August we'll be in Germany at Fürth where the cue battles will begin all over again. ;-)
See yaaaa!


Last day list of results:


10am (Last 16)


Not before 1pm (the quarter-finals)


Not before 4pm (the semi-finasl)


Not before 7pm (the final)