Chaperon Is Canadian Snooker Champion Again

Bob Chaperon was back lifting silverware earlier this month after winning the Canadian National Snooker Championship for the second time – an amazing 38 years on from his maiden triumph in the competition.

The event was once again held at the Corner Bank in Toronto, a club part-owned by another prominent former Canadian professional player, Jim Wych. Over 50 players from Ontario and beyond travelled to the Canadian Billiards and Snooker Association’s most prestigious event that has been claimed in the past by national greats Cliff Thorburn, Bill Werbeniuk, Kirk Stevens, Alain Robidoux, Alex Pagulayan and Wych himself.

Defending champion and former Crucible qualifier Brady Gollan – whose two victories in this event also came 30 years apart – was an early casualty when he lost to Lobsang Lama 4-3 in his opening match. Lama followed this up with wins against Amar Sadig (5-0), Steve West (5-2) and Derrick Claus (5-3) to reach the final for the first time.

Chaperon, surprise winner of the 1990 British Open, dropped just a frame during rounds one and two but he had a tougher time dispatching three-time champion Floyd Ziegler, 5-3, in the last 16. The 60-year-old then eliminated youngster Edward Ling 5-2 in the quarter-finals and John Everekian was given the same treatment in the next round.

In a meeting of varying scales of experience, the opening four frames of the final were shared before Chaperon established an advantage and moved one away from victory at 5-2. A determined Lama refused to give in, forcing a deciding frame after a trio of frames for himself, but Chaperon regrouped in the eleventh to get his hands back on the trophy that he first lifted in 1981. The former world number 25 pocketed $4,000 for his work; he also made the highest break of 120 earlier on in the tournament.

In the proceeding Canadian National Seniors Championship at the same venue, 1980 world champion Thorburn defeated last year’s victor Ziegler, 4-2, in the final to claim the title.

2019 Canadian National Snooker Championship

Results (from the quarter-finals onwards)

Lobsang Lama 5-2 Steve West

Derrick Claus 5-0 Ricky Leon

Alan Whitfield 3-5 John Everekian

Bob Chaperon 5-2 Edward Ling

Losers each received $800

Semi-Finals

Lama 5-3 Claus

Everekian 2-5 Chaperon

Losers each received $1,500

Final

Lama 5-6 Chaperon

Lama received $2,700 / Chaperon received $4,000