ENGLISH JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Erimus Quoit & Rifle Club, Middlesbrough

Saturday 2nd May 1998

The National Finals

Robin Wilson, Matthew Sutton and Jimmy Chambers were doubly engaged having qualified for the latter stages of both competitions.

U16 Champion Matthew Sutton, receiving the trophy from Peter Gilchrist, a former champion himself in 1983

Involvement in both finals would require 6 hours of play within a 6 hour 50 minute schedule. Only Robin Wilson, last year, has managed to win both events on the same day.

Regional qualification determined the final eight in each in each competition to play at the Club that is now known as the "Crucible of Billiards"with the event having been held there seven times in the 1980's and now for the seventh time in the 90's.

In the U16's David Wells of Fakenham made a hasty return up the Al after his defeat by Jimmy Chambers (Ely). Having been up at Sam to attend the venue at 10am. David left within minutes of losing thereby failing to appreciate the Teesside hospitality provision.

Matthew Sutton (Kettering) showed good early form when comfortably beating Mark Coates with a 57 break included.

The"all Teesside"clashes saw Darren Clark beat Billy Bousfield and Robin Wilson set the scoring standard with 354 that included a break of 48 when beating Martin Shutt.

U19 Champion Robin Wilson, receives the trophy from Peter Gilchrist.

Prior to the start of the U19 Robin Wilson complained of tiredness and his coach Stuart Robinson confirmed, that against his advice, the 14 year old had been putting in hefty practice sessions that week including a stint prior to reporting to the venue.

Robin struggled to get past Matt Lee (Lincoln) and only some missed pots by Matt in the closing minutes allowed Robin victory. Wayne Bean (Lincoln) lost out to a fine performance from Lee McKenna.

John Hartley later stated his win over Jimmy Chambers was his best performance to date and included a 72 break in a 366 score that proved to be the highest in the event.

Ben Hooton, whose declared ambition is to own a flock of sheep [no Wellington boot jokes, Ben, where on Elm Tree Estate are you going to keep them? —Ed.] was a narrow seven point loser to Matthew Sutton.

Returning to U16 action Matthew had 20 points to spare over Jimmy in his semi final and a shock was potentially on the cards as after 40 minutes Darren Clark was holding Robin Wilson. A grafted—rather than a crafted—break of 108 materialised to ease Robin's supporters fears and he went on to take the match largely by that margin.

In the U19's Lee McKenna was heartened by what he had seen and played Robin with some confidence and went into an early lead that was maintained for a good while till Robin with a 48 break struck back. He eventually took the match by 30 points.

John Hartley meanwhile couldn't produce his early form and lost to Matthew after a 59 break.

I've personally followed every boys and junior staging since 1976 and have never seen both finals contested by the same pair of players.

The under 16 final saw Matthew dominate from the start, 66 and 46 breaks took him to a comfortable win over a seemingly dispirited Robin.

Having taken one of his titles from him and an U19 title only 10 minutes away the odds were firmly on Matthew to complete a double.

While Matthew made a 69 break Robin dug into his mental and physical reserves to produce runs of 31, 52 and 43 to retain the under 19 title despite having just lost the under 16 version.

Peter Gilchrist the world No.3 professional, himself a winner of the under 16 competition in 1983, presented the trophies and prize money to the competitors who subsequently received personalised certificates which included photographs taken that morning.

The Erimus Club lived up to it's reputation with it's provision of facilities, the event was well supported and the local radio station took live reports into it's sports programme, all attendee's made use of the buffet food provision and all competitors were rewarded for their efforts, here's to next year!

Under-16 Results

Under-19 Results