Coming into the Pro Cup, the provisional British rankings made Imran Majid and Craig Osborne the two highest ranked players in the country. It was little surprise, therefore, that it was these two players who ended up contesting the last Pro Cup Final of the season. With Majid and Osborne also sitting pretty at second and third in the Pro Cup rankings respectively, each began their campaign in the last 16 of the competition.

Majid’s first victim on Friday evening was Adam Shaw, the Wirral potter bravely fighting but ultimately succumbing to the Maharaja 9-6. The quarter finals saw Scottish hopes of the Pro Cup title end when Michael Valentine was knocked out by a score of 9-5. In the semi-finals Majid went one rack better again, with 2011 Southern Masters champion Kevin Uzzell falling at the penultimate hurdle by 9 racks to 4. This result saw Majid into his fourth final in all competitions this season – a quite staggering achievement in the ever more difficult world of GB9.

Osborne appeared to adopt the attitude that steered him towards the Northern Masters title back in August to start his campaign. Luke Rollison was the Suffolk man’s first victim in the last 16, leaving the competition with a 9-2 defeat. James Kay suffered an identical scoreline at the hands of Ozzy in the quarter finals. Young prodigy Phil Burford was looking to end this 2011 GB9 season the way he made it begin, but his quest fell apart at the penultimate hurdle. 9-4 was the scoreline in favour of Osborne, and with it his third final of the 2011 season was upon him.

Despite Majid being docked a rack prior to the final for illegal practicing between matches, both players saw out what was a final of tremendous quality and it was unfortunate that there had to be a runner-up. On this occasion, and indeed for the fourth time this season, that happened to be Imran Majid – Craig Osborne held his nerve to win the fifth and final Pro Cup of the season and a second gold medal to add to his Northern Masters victory back in August. Both players consolidate their positions in the top 4 of the Pro Cup rankings going into next season.

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