David Craggs suffered the agony of a black-ball defeat in the final of the English Association for Snooker and Billiards Play-Offs against Sam Baird.
Craggs led the final at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds 5-1 before Devon’s Baird battled back to 5-5. In the decider, Baird missed a match-ball red when leading by 49 points, and Craggs had a chance to clear up, only to miss the last black off its spot, leaving Baird to tap it home.
The 20-year-old from Cullompton earned a nomination to the 2009/10 World Snooker Tour, while Craggs was left to ponder another close defeat, having lost the English Amateur final against Jimmy Robertson 9-8 on the final pink a few days earlier.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite “I was lucky that he missed that last black, I expected him to get it,” Baird told worldsnooker.com. “He left it pretty easy for me, around six inches from the pocket, but it was still missable under that pressure. It’s definitely the biggest title I’ve won so far,” added Baird, who topped the under-21 series at Pontin’s last season.
“To be on the professional Tour next season would be surreal, I’m not sure how I’d feel yet. I’ll have to work harder than I have done before.”
Baird practises with Bristol’s Judd Trump and names legend Jimmy White as his favourite player. “He got me excited about snooker because of the way he plays. I like natural sort of players like Jimmy and Tony Drago, although I also admire the likes of Stephen Hendry, Peter Ebdon and Steve Davis for their drive,” said Baird.
In the semi-finals of the EASB event, Craggs beat Stuart Carrington 5-3 while Baird came from 3-0 down to edge out Paul Hunter Scholar Jack Lisowski 5-4.
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