Snooker: Poms setting sights on claiming Classic spoils

Check out the Hawke's Bay snooker scene and listen to the banter going on between frames, particularly the accents.

One would be excused for thinking they were at an after-match function for either of the Hawke's Bay United or Napier City Rovers soccer teams.

"Yes, the Poms are taking over," quipped one Heretaunga Club stalwart as yours truly last night chased the inside oil on this weekend's Bridgeman Concrete-sponsored 32nd annual Heretaunga Classic.

"There's 50 times as many people playing the game back in Britain as there is here. So those of us from Britain playing the game here have reached a reasonable standard back home. I've noticed it on the national eight-ball scene, many of those doing well are from back home too ," Dean Garnett explained.

One of six players from the Bay in the country's richest snooker tournament (it has a first prize of $2400), Garnett will be tackling the tournament for the third time. Having upset the province's top player and fellow Pom, Bayden Jackson, in the semifinals before winning the Hawke's Bay A grade title earlier this month, Garnett understood why he was gaining the bulk of the media attention two sleeps out from the first break in the 24-player event.

"I didn't know Jacko back in Britain. But I arrived in Havelock North a month after him five years ago and we've been best of mates ever since," Garnett said.

"I'm one of the few players in the country to have beaten Jacko twice in one day [in section play as well as the semifinal in the A grade champs] but I still rate him as the best player in the country. If Jacko has got his head right he's absolute class," Garnett said of the former New Zealand Open winner and the country's third ranked player.

A father of two daughters, Garnett, 46, has yet to reach the top 16 in the Classic. To do this one must finish in the top two of their six-strong section.

"If I could do that this weekend I would be a happy man. I've got to be realistic, it's going to be pretty tough ... I'm in one of the toughest sections," Garnett said.

An egg deliverer in the mornings and oven cleaner in the afternoons, Garnett is in the same section as the top seed and country's No1 ranked player Chris Maltby of Waikato, five-time winner of the Classic, Harry Haenga of Wellington, Auckland-based former national champion Wyn Belmont, Aussie visitor Trestin Irwin and fellow Bay player Ryan Knott.

"I had just one training session before the A grade championship but I've been sneaking in three or four a week in the build-up to the Classic. My oven cleaning work eats into my training time," Garnett said.

The 2011 New Zealand Masters national champion and a beaten semifinalist at the New Zealand Open the same year, Garnett is likely to make eight ball his main cue sport focus rather than snooker in future. He played county eight ball back in Britain and was an unsuccessful triallist for the England team.

Garnett's eight ball highlight since being in New Zealand was reaching the final of the Levin Classic where he lost 5-2 to Tokoroa stalwart Phil Wilkinson. Asked if those plans will change if he wins the Classic this weekend Garnett replied: "If it's meant to be, it will be."

Other Bay players in the event are Dave Judd, Peter Bevins and Dick Hokianga.

Four-time winner of the Classic, Daniell Haenga, a son of Harry's, is returning from Aussie for the event.