Ploner’s Prize in Austria

Andreas Ploner completed a hat-trick of Austrian National Snooker Championship titles after winning the 2016 edition in Vienna.

The event featured the top 32 players from last year’s Austrian Snooker League ranking list, but 22-year-old Ploner reached the final dropping just one frame following victories over Dominik Petzold 3-0, Clausdieter Franschitz 4-0, Thomas Janzso 4-0 and then Sebastian Hainzl 4-1.

In the final Ploner faced Manuel Pomwenger, who had dethroned reigning champion Paul Schopf 4-2 in the quarter-finals. A trio of half-centuries helped Ploned record a 5-3 triumph to add this title to the ones he claimed in 2013 and 2014.

A week later in the capital, 14-year-old Florian Nuessle completed a junior snooker double when he scooped both the national under-16 and under-21 championships.

In the older category, Nuessle won his group undefeated before getting the better of Patrick Stift 3-2 in the last four and then Pomwenger 3-0 in the final.

The following day Nuessle remained unscathed to triumph in the under-16s.

Elsewhere in Austria over recent weeks, Bernhard Mullner won the national masters championship whilst Markus Pfistermuller and Maximillian Thurr were successful in the national doubles.

Written and published by Michael Day on the 4th February 2016.