Hawke's Bay cueist Dean Garnett almost didn't go to last weekend's Levin Classic 8-Ball tournament.
"Our youngest daughter Macey was in Hawke's Bay Hospital the day before it started. We thought she had appendicitis ... Fortunately it was just a scare and she was released on the Friday morning," Garnett recalled.
The Taradale Club player travelled to Levin and got there in time to start the Friday afternoon session of the 25th annual three-day event which attracted 80 of the country's best players.
In his fourth appearance at the biggest prizemoney tournament in the North Island Garnett won the $5000 first prize with a 5-3 win against Queenstown's Simon Singleton in the final.
"This is the highlight of my eight years' playing the game in New Zealand. I was always ahead in the final but Simon kept coming back," Garnett, 48, who started playing in Britain as a 12-year-old, said. When Garnett, who finished second in Levin three years and had also recorded semifinal and last 16 finishes at the event, took a 4-3 lead he left Singleton with six balls on the table. In the next frame which would prove to be the last Singleton, who finished second in last year's Clubs New Zealand nationals, almost fluked the black before Garnett sunk his final three balls and then the black.