Kirk Stevens is off to Austria.

2008 Canadian Snooker Champion - Kirk Stevens

August 21, 2008 - Kirk Stevens has his bags packed and he's off to Austria. Well not quite yet, but after winning yesterday's Canadian Snooker Championship, Kirk will represent Canada at this year's IBSF World Snooker Championship at the end of October.

Kirk will be competing in today's 9-ball championship and he still has to play in the Hafa Invitational which is being held just prior to the IBSF tournament.

Kirk took an early three frame lead in yesterday's final. Tom Finstad won his first frame with a 43 break that held up to take them into the first interval.

Both players showed a lot of respect for each others skills that resulted in a very tactical style of match, with neither player getting too far in front or far behind. This was the case in the early going, where either player had a chance of winning the frame and would set the tone for the whole match. It was very apparent that both players wanted to win this match.

Tom's tactical play left Kirk in many awkward positions and when he was forced to, Kirk made the long pots that aided his scoring. Finstad struggled with positional play a bit today which affected his break building.

Kirk won frame five; they split frames six and seven with Finstad putting together a 46 in frame seven, that brought the match to 5-2.

Heading into frame eight, Tom seemed to be getting a little more comfortable at the table, where Kirk was getting a bit edgy, pressing to cross the line. Tied at 37, Tom made an error, leaving the last red. Stevens potted a red and blue and cleared the colours for the championship.

In the seniors division Bob King won both sides of the board getting his rematch and beating Lacey Dalton in the final.

In Tuesday's women's 8 ball, Naomi Williams defeated Veronique Menard in the upper bracket final. Menard won the lower bracket final over Brittany Bryant only to lose to Williams in the final.

In Wednesday's open 8 ball final, Felix Beardy won 5 lower bracket matches to overtake Tyler Edey in the final. Edey hadn't lost a match until his meeting up with Beardy.

The draws for today's 9-ball are posted and all brackets are current. More to follow.