A LARGE crowd was in attendance at Wharton Cons on Sunday night to witness Greg Smith justify his favourite tag to take the 2023 Wharton Cons Open title and the £700 first prize, writes David O'Brien.

In a one-sided final, Smith defeated Matty Worden 21-6.

Smith battled through his semi-final match against Kris Fearnley and looked in danger of losing the game until he put together a deciding break at the end of the game to win 21-14.

In the other semi-final, Worden despatched the 2022 champion Leighton Roberts 21-10 and all looked set for a closely fought final but Worden never got in the game and Smith added the Wharton title to the Castle Sports Classic title he had claimed in July.

Jason Cornes took the spoils in the George Astbury Trophy at Castle Sports on Saturday in a close final.

Cornes overcame Owen Cookson to take the £500 winner’s prize.

The final ebbed and flowed and could have gone either way but Cornes came out on top with a 21-18 victory.

Attention turns to Owley Wood on Saturday when they run the annual Tony Whitney Memorial Trophy where a possible £1000 could be available for the winner. Play gets underway at 10am.