Shaun Storry & Chris Day lived up to expectations of being group favourites, showing their 6-red shootout prowess to deny a very spirited Greg Batten & Jez Graham combination and reach Finals Night of the Ultimate Pool Pairs Cup.

The night began with Batten & Graham defeating Conor Treacy & Kristi Caulfield 4-1 before Day & Storry ousted Brian Halcrow & Andrew Russell 3-2 to also take maximum points.

Treacy & Caulfield bounced back from their opening session loss with a 3-1 victory over Halcrow & Russell – a result that eliminated the latter.

In match four, fans were treated to one of the matches of the tournament as Batten & Graham came back from 3-1 down with less than five minutes on the clock to snatch a 3-3 draw – they even had an outside chance of taking the win but missed under time pressure in the deciding frame.

Going into the final session, Westcountry duo Batten & Graham continued to impress, defeating Halcrow & Russell 4-3 in another high-quality, but bizarre, match which saw players from both sides play out of turn in frame six when they mistakenly believed it was a scotch doubles frame as opposed to the scheduled singles.

That result put huge pressure on Storry & Day who had to win in order to join Batten & Graham at the top of the table and force a 6-red shootout. And, despite going one frame down at the start, that’s what they did with a 4-1 win.

For the first time in this edition of the competition, the shootout featured two teams that finished the round robin phase undefeated on five points. Batten & Graham lost the lag and were put in first for the shootout where they registered a time of 30.80 seconds.

Storry & Day, though - who are renowned for their 6-red shootout successes in the past both individually and as a team – comfortably bettered that with seconds to spare to join defending champions Shaun Chipperfield & Karl Sutton for the tournament’s conclusion on Monday 19th December.