BRACKNELL’S Matt Ford missed out on glory as Mike Talmondt completed a hat-trick of titles on the regional over-40’s snooker circuit by the narrowest of narrow margins.

Organisers were forced to delve deep into the rules book and trawl through the whole season’s records as the extraordinary events unfolded at Salisbury Snooker Club.

Talmondt even apologised to unlucky runner-up Ford after every exquisite twist and turn went his way during the seventh and final leg of the Cuestars South of England Seniors Tour.

The 44-year-old said: “I feel really bad for Matt, to be honest.

“Matt’s been the better player all year, been more consistent. I’ve been hot and cold, played all right in one tournament and a bit iffy in the next. I’ve sneaked it, really.”

The first ripple of excitement went around the bar when hot favourite Ford (pictured) lost to his Sunninghill Comrades clubmate Chris Stocker.

That started a frenzy of ‘what ifs’.

If Stocker did not drop another frame, Ford would be runner-up in Group A and would face the Group D winner, which was likely to be Talmondt, in the quarter-finals.

If Talmondt were to knock out Ford, who was defending a 13-point rankings lead, and go on to win the final, the pair would finish the season on exactly the same points.

The count-back system would then come into play: most tournaments won, most runners-up, most semi-finals or most quarter-finals. Remarkably, they would have identical records and so performance in the final leg would be the separating factor.

And so it came to pass.

Stocker won both his matches 2-0 and Ford had to beat Talmondt to claim his first seniors title.

Leading 1-0, Ford jawed a title-winning doubled black in the second frame. Talmondt snapped up the subsequent medium length pot to square the pivotal match.

In among the balls on a run of 15 in the decider, Talmondt fluked the blue which hit both jaws of one middle pocket and disappeared into the opposite middle bag – and went on to make a match-winning 55.