Potting Them Off the Lampshades! Rob Ward Wins Division Four Masters
Rob with League Chairman, Duncan Waring
The first of the weekend’s Masters events, hosted at YM Brotherhood on Saturday, saw the spotlight fall on the Division Four Masters, as the top eight players from the division gathered to battle it out for individual bragging rights and a coveted place in next season’s Champion of Champions competition.
After a day of competitive snooker and some excellent standards throughout, the final came down to Rob Ward and Paul Mace, two players who had both negotiated impressive routes to the showpiece. Rob edged a tight quarter-final against Dave Allen before producing a commanding semi-final performance to defeat Ash Conner 3–0. Paul’s path was equally hard-earned, overcoming Andrew Shepherd in a deciding frame before seeing off Ashley Radford 3–1 to book his place in the final.
Fittingly, the final itself brought plenty of drama.
The opening frame was a real tactical battle, with very little separating the two players throughout. Paul looked to have edged himself into control and eventually left Rob requiring snookers on the pink and black. Matchplay pressure? No problem. Rob pulled off an excellent snooker that forced the error before producing a brilliant pink and landing perfectly on the black, which he coolly dispatched to steal the frame in dramatic fashion. 49–44, and 1–0 to Ward.
That moment seemed to settle Rob.
Growing in confidence during frame two, the YM Brotherhood ‘G’ player barely missed a pot and started to find a real rhythm. To Paul’s credit, he matched him for long spells, but a couple of fortunate rubs at key moments favoured Rob, helping him edge further ahead and move to within one frame of the title. 49–27 and 2–0.
By frame three, Rob was playing with the kind of confidence every cueist dreams about. As one spectator joked, he was “potting them off the lampshades.” Everything seemed to be dropping, while Paul, despite battling hard, simply couldn’t seem to get the run of the ball when he needed it most. Rob closed out the frame 60–20, sealing a convincing 3–0 victory to be crowned 2026 Division Four Masters Champion.
Congratulations to Rob Ward on a superb performance and a thoroughly deserved title. Commiserations to Paul Mace, who played his part in a high-quality day of snooker and can take plenty of positives from an excellent run to the final.
A special thank you to YM Brotherhood for hosting the first of the weekend’s Masters events on Saturday, before attention turned to the Division Three Masters on Sunday. Thanks also to Ben Monk for overseeing proceedings as Tournament Director and helping deliver what was, by all accounts, a day of snooker played in excellent spirit and to a very good standard.
Division 4 line-up…Well, most of them!
Division Four Masters 2026 — Quarter Finals
| Player | Score | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Ash Conner | 3–0 | Dan Barnes |
| Ashley Radford | 3–0 | Dan Thorpe |
| Dave Allen | 2–3 | Rob Ward |
| Andrew Shepherd | 2–3 | Paul Mace |
Division Four Masters 2026 — Semi Finals
| Player | Score | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Ashley Radford | 1–3 | Paul Mace |
| Rob Ward | 3–0 | Ash Conner |
Division Four Masters 2026 — Final
| Player | Score | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Mace | 0–3 | Rob Ward |
Breaks
| Player | Breaks |
|---|---|
| N/A | N/A |
Previous Winners
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Keith Chaplin |
| 2024 | Lewis Longden |
| 2023 | Cameron Easton |
Rob ward & Paul Mace