Mark Joyce takes form to the max

The Walsall potter fired in his maximum during a last-16 victory over Lee Richardson and went on to edge out double champion Mark King 5-4 in the final, despite trailing for much of the encounter.

That meant he brought home more than £2,500 from the pro-am event in Austria, as well as the winner’s trophy.

“To turn up to Vienna and have eight centuries and a 147, it’s a good confidence-boost going into the new season,” said Joyce, who practices at QBar in Walsall Wood. “I was delighted with how I played because I’ve been playing well for a few months.”

Joyce made four centuries in qualifying from the group stage before getting two more, including that 147, against Richardson.

He swept aside 2018 winner Michael Georgiou 3-0 in the quarter-finals and Craig Steadman 4-0 in the semi-finals.

The final against world No.28 King was much tighter as Joyce found himself 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 behind. He fought back on each occasion, but then trailed by 47 points in the decider – only to sink a match-winning 83 break to get over the line.

He said: “We’ve played each other a few times in the last few years and always seem to have pretty close matches.”

Victory – and the continuation of his recent good form – was also justification for Joyce and the work he has undertaken to remodel his game since the start of last year.

“When you have done something for 20 years it’s difficult to change habits, so the first few months were really hard going,” he said. “But now I’ve started to see my form pick up on the practice table.”

The goals for the 2019/20 season now are to reach the semi-finals of a world ranking event and qualify for the Crucible for the first time.