Tenby Leisure Centre was the venue over the Bank Holiday Weekend for the 10th annual Texaco Charity Snooker Challenge. The two-day event featured five top stars - Joe Swail, Paul Hunter, twice previous winner Willie Thorne and last year's runaway champion Matthew Stevens were the four players initially invited to contest the event, with Dominic Dale (The Spaceman of Snooker!) stepping in for Paul Hunter on the second day due to a serious family illness.

The event saw all players play each other in half-hour matches with their score aggregated up to decide the winner.

The first match saw popular Irishman Joe Swail play Leicester's Willie Thorne (a compiler of over 150 maximum 147 breaks). Willie got off to the best start, taking a tentative first frame 75-34 with breaks of 25, 23 and 26.

Both players were wary and struggling to get into their rhythm, but in the second frame Willie scored a magnificent 77, to leave Joe trailing 152-91.

With seven minutes left, Joe smashed the pack for the third frame and had the better of the remaining exchanges to leave the final score Joe Swail 134 and Willie Thorne 175.

The second match saw Paul Hunter (The Man with the Golden Cue!), World number 9, 1998 Young Player of the Year and quarter-finalist in the 2001 World Championship play Joe Swail. Joe got off the mark with 14, before missing a long shot with his cue extension. Paul had breaks of 20 and 38 and Joe eventually cleared the colours (27) to trail 70-42 at the end of the first frame.

The second frame saw Joe briefly take the lead (110-77) with an excellent 60, before Paul pulled back with 22 and 36 to lead by 120-116 at the end of a highly entertaining second frame.

Paul Hunter really turned on the style in the third frame with breaks of 41 and a magnificent fluent 90 to lead 251-116.

With two minutes to go, there wasn't much Joe could do, but breaks of six and 17 saw the final score of Paul Hunter 259, Joe Swail 139, at the end of the allotted 30 minutes, an excellent performance by Paul Hunter.

Sunday's final match saw last year's runaway winner, Carmarthen's Matthew Stevens, and possibly favourite for this year's event, play Willie Thorne.

The match began scrappily with both players going in-off, and after seven minutes the score was a mere 25-5 to Stevens. Willie then compiled an excellent 68 with several tricky shots to lead 73-25 at the end of the first frame.

The second frame saw Matthew fight back with two 13s, before going in-off again. Willie failed to take advantage, though, and Stevens scored an excellent break of 55 to lead 106-94, agonisingly missing the brown. Willie took the brown, blue and pink and Matthew the black to lead by 113-109.

The third frame began with seven minutes to go, the highlight being Stevens conceding a foul by Thorne who went on to score a quick 43. The final score, 160-138 to Willie Thorne.

The first match on Monday saw Matthew Stevens play the affable Dominic Dale who had stepped in to replace the unfortunate Paul Hunter. The players exchanged early reds before Stevens scored a 34. Some erors then crept into the game, before Stevens potted the last three colours to lead 74-30.

The second frame proved very scrappy, with Dale potting three reds and Stevens two with no colours. Stevens scored 16, Dominic Dale a steady 38 and they then shared the colours to leave Stevens leading 113-87 at the end of the second frame.

With only seven minutes to go, Stevens showed the form that took him to last year's title with a magnificent quickfire 72 to make the final score, Matthew Stevens 191 Dominic Dale 93.

The next match saw Dale play Willie Thorne, and he showed that he wasn't there just to make up the numbers with some magnificent play. A close and exciting first frame saw Dale leading 71-67, Dale's score including an assured break of 64.

The second frame saw Willie score 30, but leave an easy red after a difficult shot with the spider. Dale scored 25 to trail 97-96. Dale enjoyed several small breaks, whilst Thorne was restricted to a solitary red and later the blue to leave Dominic leading 151-103 at the end of the frame.

The third frame saw Dale take his score to 219, with Willie Thorne languishing on 127, having found opportunities few and far between in the final game.

Dale and Hunter's combined score was now 571 from their three games which meant that in the final game between Stevens and Swail, Stevens needed to score 243 and Swail 299 to win. Stevens, despite not being on his best form, started out as favourite, with Joe Swail's target of 299 surely a bridge too far?

The first frame saw Swail open with 32, and Stevens hit back with 26. Swail fouled, Stevens scored 10, failing to capitalize, and Swail hit back with 35, missing the brown. The misplaced colours were then knocked in one by one, Swail taking the brown, blue and pink and Stevens the black to leave Swail leading 88-47 at the end of the first frame.

In the second frame, Stevens scored 40 to make it 88-88, but the winning score required looked a long way off. Several small breaks and a 49 by Swail saw a score of 150-113 to Swail at the end of the second frame.

The third frame saw Joe Swail score the biggest and by far the best break of the tournament with a magnificent and initially hard 111, rattling the final black in the pocket.

Stevens potted the black, and the balls were quickly re-spotted for the fourth frame, with Swail leading by 261 to 120. Sadly for Swail, though, time ran out with the final score being 270 to 121.

Paul Hunter's quickfire potting combined with Dominic Dale's tenacity was enough for them to jointly win the title. The magnificent late show by Joe Swail left him to possibly rue his lower scores on the first night, trailing as he was by a mere 28 points.

Everyone was a winner, though, not only had the event raised a handsome sum for the NCH Cymru Charity to top the £200,000 already raised in the first 10 years. All the crowd, on both nights, had been thoroughly entertained by some top quality snooker by some of the world's best players.

On top of the matches, on the first night, the players returned to the table for a speed snooker competition, the object being to pot the six colours, in order, in the quickest possible time.

They were joined by local professional coach, Don Newcombe, and Texaco's own sound and lighting manager, David Goffin.

Joe Swail was the only player to correctly pot all the balls, in 29 seconds the first time and 27 seconds the second time. Paul Hunter retired on the yellow and then the pink. Dave Goffin, after breaking the cue tip, agonisingly went in off the brown, and again missed the brown on his second attempt. Don Newcombe missed the pink and then the green. Willie Thorne 'potted' all the balls in 23 seconds, but was red-carded for doing a 'Maradonna' hand of God on the brown! Matthew Stevens agonisingly missed the black on both occasions, going for power. The second time on 23 seconds he looked set to win, before a loud 'hurry up' from one of his fellow competitors put him out of his stride.

On the second night, and before the presentation ceremony, the crowd was treated to a highly entertaining display of trick shots by Willie Thorne, who not only demonstrated his deft skills, but had the audience rolling with laughter with his recollections of such characters as Bill Werbeniuk and Alex Higgins.

Well done once again to Texaco, all the players and officials, including world final referee Alan Chamberlain, Dilwyn Smith and Phil Thomas, not forgetting MC Alan Hughes (the voice of snooker at the Crucible), Tenby Leisure Centre, their staff and everyone who had worked behind the scenes to create a truly memorable event.

The players left the arena on both nights to rapturous applause from a highly appreciative audience and all players and officials stayed behind both nights to ensure every last autograph was signed and every picture posed for. Very well done, roll on next year!

Scores Sunday: Willie Thorne 175, Joe Swail 134; Paul Hunter 259, Joe Swail 139; Willie Thorne 160, Matthew Stevens 138.

Monday: Matthew Stevens 191, Dominic Dale 93; Dominic Dale 219, Willie Thorne 127; Matthew Stevens 121, Joe Swail 270.

Total scores: 1. Paul Hunter/Dominic Dale 571; 2. Joe Swail 543; 3. Willie Thorne 462; 4. Matthew Stevens 450.

JOHN HUGHES