Nordic Snooker Victory for McCabe

Sweden’s Benjamin McCabe dethroned reigning champion Rune Kampe in the final to win the 2016 Nordic Snooker Championship held at the Copenhagen Pool and Snooker House in Denmark.

A field of 40 players lined up for this year’s event with each of the Nordic nations – Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and hosts Denmark – sending eight representatives each.

Beginning with round robin action, the top two from each pool qualified for the last 16 knockout stages. McCabe finished second in Group E to progress before eliminating Audun R. Heimsjo (Norway) 4-1, Antti Tolvanen (Finland) 4-1 and then fellow Swede Simon Lindblom 4-3 for a final berth.

Kampe recovered from an opening loss to Tolvanen to come through second in his group. During this phase he constructed the tournament’s highest break – a run of 113. The experienced Danish cueist dispatched Erik Dullerud (Norway) 4-1, Juha Lehto (Finland) 4-2 and Jyri Virtanen (Finland) 4-2 in the subsequent rounds.

Twelve months earlier in the same competition in Olso, Kampe defeated McCabe in the last four, but this time the youngster would come out on top with a 4-1 triumph.

All five participating nations had qualifiers for the last 16. There was a rare outcome in Group C where all five players ended up on two wins and two losses each.

Next year’s championship is set to be held in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Event date: middle of March 2016.