My thanks to Derick Townend who has as usual supplied the results from the last three A.B.C. tournaments which I have in turn converted into match reports; due to family commitments it is difficult for me to get to many of these events so if there are any volunteers or regulars out there who would be prepared to knock up a few brief notes covering the highlights of the day it would enhance the coverage that we are able to give. The Odsal Top Bradford event produced 37 entries including 4 juniors and saw the usual hard core contingent up from the West Country in addition to the more locally based players and the inevitable onslaught from Teesside.
Chris Shutt was quickly into his stride with a 524 total and several sizeable breaks but no century, and there were other good wins by Lee Lagan, Jim McCann, Paul Bennett and Mark Hirst.
Bill Andress won the West Country clash in convincing style against Brian Harvey and Lee Lagan prevailed in his Teesside duel with Paul Bennett; Chris Shutt continued his form of the previous round with a comfortable win over Derick Townend.
This round saw some high quality pairings with Peter Shelley getting home by almost one hundred against Bill Andress and Jim McCann just squeezing out Lee Lagan by 9. Chris Shutt moved up a gear with a couple of centuries and Mark Hirst also booked his place in the semis.
Chris Shutt proved just too strong for Peter Shelley with a 451 total including a break of 161 and Jim McCann got home in a nail biter against Mark Hirst by a mere 4 points.
Chris Shutt broke the 500 barrier for the second time in the day and also knocked in breaks of 197, the day's highest, and 94 for good measure on his way to the first A.B.C. title of this season's programme. Jim mustered 206 points and can be well pleased with his day's efforts, it looks as if Chris is establishing the same sort of A.B.C. pre-eminence once enjoyed by Causier and Goodwill and it will take a man on top form to oust him.
J. Moore 156 B. Hoole 104 (retired ill)
The Kings Lynn event was well supported with a total entry of 57 including 3 junior players. With several of the leading amateurs missing, (and even with them there!!) the wise money would have been on Chris Shutt to continue his meteoric rise through the ranks by adding this title to the one he picked up in Bradford the previous month.
The pick of the games saw good wins for Karen Corr, Robin Sutcliffe and Phil Welham with the top clash between Chris Shutt and Steve Crosland producing a fairly comfortable win for the Middlesbrough man.
Robin Sutcliffe narrowly edged out Karen Core, Fos Wilson had a very creditable win over Dick Watts, always a hard man to beat, and Chris Shutt moved ominously into form with a score of 565 including a couple of centuries.
Jim McCann prevailed over Robin Sutcliffe, Chris Shutt topped the 600 mark with 620, including another big century, Mark Gray had a good win over Fos Wilson including a 94 break and Derick Townend fell to the increasingly impressive Jamie Moore.
Jim McCann dug in deep and ran the favourite, Chris Shutt, very close, the margin being only around 50 points Shutt had the expected century and Jim chipped in with 62 & 54. In the absence of any other top ranking player at this stage of the tournament it was difficult to see anyone upsetting the from book. In other semi Mark Gray had a comfortable win over Jamie Moore and thus booked his passage to a first A.B.C. final appearance, in itself no mean feat.
As expected Chris Shutt proved too strong for Mark and ran out a comfortable winner 478-306 with breaks of 104 and 94 for his second A.B.C. title of the season. With seven centuries in the day and a 600+ total Chris is following in the recent Causier/Goodwill mould and has clearly got the pros in his sights.
P. Shelley 263, P. Bennett 273.
Another good entry of 52 with 3 juniors especially given the dreadful weather conditions with freezing fog over much of the country, is anything capable of keeping billiards nuts at home on the first Sunday every month?
The Nuneaton club is a good venue with a separate match area and it was announced during the day that it would be the venue for the latter stages and finals of this year's English Amateur Championship.
The pick of the round were good wins by Lee Lagan over the fancied local man Neal Rewhorn including a century Steve Crosland saw off Jim McCann with a couple of 50's and Jamie Moore continued his good form by beating Dick Watts and knocking up a good century on the way. Phil Welham had a good 400+ total. Brian Harvey prevailed over Darren Kell despite a century from his opponent, Chris Shutt moved into gear with a customary century against Dean Bavister and organiser Derick Townend condemned yours truly to an early bath down the A34 with a solid all round performance.
Lee Lagan and Phil Welham were the pick of the bunch in round two both scoring centuries in 400+ totals while Steve Crosland, Bill Andress and Tony Keeling all moved steadily through. Chris Shutt actually failed to make a century but still had too much for Paul Dunning.
The top match on paper was between Lee Lagan and Steve Crosland and the Yorkshireman contributed his first century of the day when he needed it to reach the semi final. Branston Hoole had a good win over the always hard to beat Bill Andress and Phil Welham included the day's best break of 174 in his victory over Tony Keeling. Chris Shutt moved on with a number of middling contributions but did not manage to reach 400 for the first time in ages, was this an omen for events to come?
Steve Crosland and Branston Hoole produced a real nail biter with Steve winning by 2 points and claiming his second A.B.C. final place. The trend of the earlier rounds continued in the other semi with Phil Welham recording a great win over Chris Shutt by 408-187, there can't be many times when Chris fails to reach 200 in one hour's play (see Albert Hanson's secretary's report for some hair raising scoring statistics) but all credit to Phil for a well deserved victory.
The final turned out to be a comfortable win 372-201 for the ever solid Steve Crosland with a consistent string of middling breaks to his credit. Steve is one of those undemonstrative, unassuming players with a very strong all round game who is always hard to beat and so it proved on this occasion. Phil had a great day and maybe mentally had played his final in the previous round but such is billiards. Congratulations to Steve and Phil for causing a hiccup in the Shutt roller-coaster.
E. Lloyd 297, A. Marsden 192.
Another good day's billiards so typical of the A.B.C. circuit. No particular fireworks no massive breaks but intense and friendly competition of the highest order and a chance to catch up with news, gossip and meet up with old friends, long may it continue!
As we go to press an English A.B.C. representative team organised by Derick Townend is about to depart to Belfast for a weekend of competition against a Northern Ireland side. Derick's intention has been to gather a team that is representative of the top echelon of amateur billiards taken from the four corners of the land, this factor being a greater importance than just selecting the top players per se, hence all areas of the country are represented. The event promises to be a very competitive and, given the traditional hospitality of the Irish, hopefully a very sociable affair and Derek hopes to make it an annual event.
We gather that interest and press coverage in Belfast will be high and as a member of the team I will be well placed to provide extensive coverage of the event in the next issue: the team is as follows:- Jim McCann, Peter Shelley, Phil Welham, Brian Harvey, Chris Shutt, Bill Andress, David Burgess, Steve Crosland.
The following list has been put together by Derick Townend based on results in the above three A.B.C. tournaments; it therefore goes without saying that inclusion in the list depends solely on these tournaments so if you want to get in the rankings get involved in the A.B.C.!!
| C. Shutt | 80.0 |
| J. McCann | 50.0 |
| J. Moore | 45.0 |
| P. Bennett | 40.0 |
| S. Crosland | 40.0 |
| P. Welham | 40.0 |
| W. Andress | 35.0 |
| B. Hoole | 35.0 |
| P. Shelley | 35.0 |
| D. Townend | 35.0 |
| L. Lagan | 30.0 |
| P. Dunning | 25.0 |
| M. Gray | 25.0 |
| R. Watts | 25.0 |
| D. Kell | 22.5.0 |
| J. Carman | 20.0 |
| J. Rees | 20.0 |
| I. Stevenage | 20.0 |
| R. Sutcliffe | 20.0 |
| B. Harvey | 20.0 |
| M. Hirst | 20.0 |
| E. Lloyd | 20.0 |