Tolworth snooker star Marc Harman’s victory in the Cuestars Open at Salisbury SC has blown the Snooker & Billiards Pro-Ticket Tour title race wide open.

Although Harman emerged unbeaten from a 24-strong field, it was a 3-2 first-round defeat of ranking leader Neil Craycraft that gave the chasing pack hope.

Harman - ranked No 70 on the English Association of Snooker & Billiards (EASB) Pro-Ticket Tour, a feeder for the professional circuit - overcame 14-year-old Liam Burnet (The Academy, Eastleigh) 3-1 in the final.

A first tournament win of the season took Harman up to 11th.

Craycraft heads to his home club, Jesters SC, Swindon, on May 17 for the final fixture of the ten-event series across the South of England.

He holds a slender three-point lead over Nathan Williams, who also suffered an early exit.

Williams (Salisbury SC) beat Dennis Hushley (Copnor SC, Portsmouth) 3-2 in the first round but went out 3-0 in the last 16 to Phil Wildman (Colours, Reading) to close the gap by just one point.

In fact, Salisbury proved to be a graveyard for the title contenders.

None of the top seven won more than one match in the main competition.

Sixth-placed David Volante (Jesters, Swindon) kept alive an outside hope of the title with a 2-0 Plate final victory over 15-year-old Lee Bell (The Academy, Eastleigh).

Any of the top nine have a chance of claiming the title.

Harman became the ninth different winner of Cuestars Open events this season. Neil Herd, Nick Birney, Williams, Craycraft, James Sumner, Sebastian Worrall, Billy Castle and Shane Castle all have one victory each.