Snooker O’Kane makes snooker final

Press, 14 August 1989, Page 24

Snooker O’Kane makes snooker final

PA London New Zealand’s Dene O’Kane swept impressively to his first main snooker final by defeating England’s Gary Wilkinson 5-3 in the semifinal of the Hong Kong Open yesterday. The 26-year-old Aucklander, ranked 28th in the world, now meets Jimmy White or Mike Hallett, both in the world top 10, for the £40,000 first prize. A jubilant O’Kane, already guaranteed prize money of £22,500, said he didn’t mind who he played. "I like being the underdog because it takes the pressure off me and Jimmy or Mike will be the favourite for this one,” he said.

With victories over the former world champion, Terry Griffiths, and Alex “Hurricane” Higgins already under his belt, O’Kane has every reason to be confident. He dropped the first frame of his match against Wilkinson, regarded as one of the up and coming stars of the game, but then made a break of 43 to level at 1-1.

O’Kane went into the lead by winning the third frame only for Wilkinson to hit back with a break of 57 to take the fourth. But the next two fell to O’Kane, and in frame six he compiled a break of 75, the highest of the match. "That frame I think was the turning point,” O’Kane said.

"I felt very confident and relaxed afterwards.” Wilkinson took the seventh frame but the eighth was never in his reach as O’Kane won, 69-16. In fact the only hiccup for O’kane came before the match started.

Hotel staff delivered his newly-laundered dress shirt minus the detachable buttons and it took a frantic search to find them. Semi-final results: Dene O’Kane (New Zealand) beat Gary Wilkinson (England) 5-3 (34-79, 76-22, 72-28, 37-90, 62-0, 75-0, 27-71, 69-16) Mike Hallett (England) beat Jimmy White (England) 5-2 (68-35, 49-52, 84-9, 86-2, 31-96, 65-30, 71-32)