19th April, Barnsley: Dominic Barrett of England had an amphatic victory over much favored Australian, Jason Belmonte to win the PartyPoker.com World Tenpin Masters 2009 title in his second appearance on Sunday.

Barrett, 23 became the first English winner since 2003 after thrashing the Aussie, 503-424 in the finals in front of a packed at the Barnsley Metrodome. The Englishman fired 279 against Belmonte's 195 to take the first match with a massive cushion of 82 pins.

The champion just had to make sure that the second game was a close one and that was exactly what Barrett did despite losing the second game, 224-229 but more importantly, a total of 504 to 424.

"I'm so relieved, this is the best feeling in the world," said Barrett after his amazing victory. "This is definitely the biggest tournament I have ever won so I'm really over the moon.

It was a dream start for me and Belmonte didn't have a very good game which definitely helped me out, but in the second game I just wanted to keep everything under control, so I kept making good shots right through to the end. I really couldn't be more pleased.

"Yes, I've won the Masters. It's a great tournament and I love it, the atmosphere is amazing so it's all unbelievable."

Much credit to Belmonte who tried in vain to fight back, but Barrett just kept up enough pressure to deny the 2007 champion his double victory, a feat only achieved by Norway's Tore Torgersen.

A pair of fantastic semi-final matches put the crowd on the edge of their seats, especially the opener with Barrett taking on the formidable Barnes.

It looked as though Barrett was dead and buried after leaving the 4-6-7 split in the fifth frame of the second game, giving a huge advantage to Barnes, progressing with a six-bagger. But Barrett did what seemed impossible and put together seven strikes to take the match by just three pins.

Last year, Barnes was the losing finalist. This year a losing semi-finalist again, but all credit to him for getting into the semi-finals after placing at the bottom of the group table after his first match.

In the other semi, Caminsky and Belmonte were both on good form with just an edge of two pins to the Aussie after the first game. The 4-6-7-10 big four left Caminsky with big problems in the second game and he was never able to play catch-up, letting Belmonte through to face Barrett in the final.

There is no doubt that this year's Masters has been up there among the very best and the new format has added much excitement and tension to the tournament. Those in next year's confrontations will have a lot to equal.

Photos courtesy of Keith Hale, Bowlers' Journal International.