Australian Billiards & Snooker Council

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Mifsud Crowned Australian Champion
15 Oct 2006

Steve Mifsud has won the Australian Open Snooker Championship defeating New Zealand’s Dene O’Kane 8-7 in a gripping final. This is the fourth time the 34 year old Victorian has won the title.

The road to the final saw no major upsets, with the quarter finals contested by the top eight seeds for the event. These also went in seeding order with Dene O’Kane defeating Rudy Sulaiman 5-1, Glen Wilkinson defeating Matthew Bolton 5-3, Aaron Mahoney defeating James Mifsud 5-2, and Steve Mifsud defeating Robby Foldvari 5-2.

The semi finals also went according to form, Dene O’Kane defeated Glen Wilkinson 6-2 and Steve Mifsud defeated Aaron Mahoney 6-3. The high break for the event was set in the semi finals, with both Steve Mifsud and Dene O’Kane making 136 clearances. Eight century breaks were made in the tournament, with Steve Mifsud making three of them.

From the first frame it was clear that the crowd would be treated to highest quality snooker as Steve opened with a break of 131. O’Kane went to the interval leading 4-2 as the players settled into the match with precision safety battles.

Mifsud returned from the break and took the next five frames to lead 7-4, needing just one more frame to seal the victory. Looking as though he would cruise to victory on a break of 43, Mifsud potted the blue and went into the pack to open the reds – the crowd gasped as a red dropped into the corner pocket ending the break.

Dene O’Kane showed his trademark determination to fight back and take the frame, then followed on with breaks of 71 and 57 in the next two frames to bring the scores level.

The deciding frame was one of the most tense ever played in Australian snooker. The crowd were willing on the local hero, but the tension in the air kept the scores tight. With all the reds potted the score stood at 41-30 in favour of Mifsud. O’Kane sniffed a chance, potting the yellow and green, but could not navigate the difficult brown.

Mifsud was faced with a similarly difficult shot on the brown, and the roar from the crowd was deafening as it dropped. However, there was still work to be done, with the white sitting hard up on the side cushion and the blue behind the black spot. Mifsud took a moment to compose himself with a sip of water then returned to the table and potted the ball which left O’Kane needing snookers.

The black was tight against the side cushion half-way up the table – one of the most difficult positions to gain a snooker. O’Kane managed it twice, and was unfortunate on the second not to leave a very difficult position – there was just enough room for the white to sneak past giving Mifsud a fairly simple escape.

The room erupted when Mifsud potted the pink to take the title and confirmed his position as the top ranked snooker player in Australia. This is the tenth Australian title Steve Mifsud has won, with four Open and four National Snooker, along with Open and National Billiards Championships.