Patrick Wallace has won his ninth Northern Ireland Snooker Championship after beating Raymond Fry 10-7 in the final at the Antrim Sports Club.
The Dungannon man, whose first title came in 1993 and his eighth in 2016, held off a brave fightback from the host club player, who is still seeking his first title after losing 10-8 to Robbie McGuigan two years ago.
The clash between the two top-ranked players on the circuit didn’t disappoint, especially in the opening session, in which eight of the nine frames were won with a 50-plus break.
Breaks of 66 and 78 had Wallace 2-0 up but Fry replied to level at the mid-session with runs of 87 and 65.
Wallace’s 80 in frame five edged him ahead again, but 53 from Fry made it 3-3. However, Wallace, who also won the last two ranking events on the NIBSA calendar, took control from there, firing breaks of 65 and 61 before winning the only scrappy frame of the session to lead 6-3 at the end of the session.
He also claimed three of the first four in the evening to move to within one frame of victory at 9-4. Fry, however, showed his bottle and fight by winning three in a row to exert pressure, but Wallace stood up to it and eventually got over the line with a break of 59 in frame 17.
Post-match, both players paid tribute to NIBSA for the fine organisation and excellent conditions throughout the tournament and to sponsor That Prize Guy.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals had been played on Saturday, with Wallace beating Maurice McCusker (5-0) and Danny Boyle (6-2, while Fry accounted for Sean Gray (5-2) and club-mate Declan Lavery 6-2).
Boyle had beaten Joe Meara 5-2 in the last eight, while Lavery saw off another club-mate by the same score.