The second of the Junior Ranking Series took place at the Raunds Cuesports Club, in Northampton on 15th January. A problem with transport meant that a number of players who had intended to compete from the Teesside area were left to find their own way to the venue. Thirteen of them managed to complete the trip, but it was not a good day for the North-East players, Glen Bythman's semi-final place being the best performance from their ranks. It was Kettering's Matthew Sutton who emerged victorious from the field of twenty-four players, and having also won the first event at Fakenham, remains unbeaten so far this season.
The opening round saw some good scores from the youngsters. Breaks of 48, 32 and 30, helped Darren Clark to a one-hour total of 417 in his match against fellow Teessider, James Clare, and this proved to be the highest aggregate of the day. Matthew Sutton, Jeff Henderson and Martin Shutt also passed the three-hundred mark, all progressing comfortably to the next round.
Martin Shutt and Darren Clark - Teesside's best performers in the preliminary round - were now drawn together and produced a high- scoring encounter. Martin eventually proved victorious in a match which saw 651 points scored in the hour. Matthew Sutton was also in splendid form as he dominated his game against Scott Casey making breaks of 81 and 41, the former being the best of the day. Gavin Lewis also found his touch, breaks of 51 and 48 helping to see off a determined challenge by Jeff Henderson. In the closest finish of the day, Dean Bavister finished just three points in front of Jimmy Chambers. Matthew Sutton made a fine break of 71 in his quarter-final match against Martin Shutt, but was still pushed all the way by the improving Teesside player. Sibling rivalry was given an opportunity to flourish as the draw brought together Gary and Gavin Lewis. Equally matched, they fought out a nail-biting encounter with both players making thirty breaks. After 60 minutes play, Gary just managed to hold off his younger brother, progressing to the semi-finals with a five point victory. Glen Blythman tried his best to keep pace with Matthew Sutton for the early part of his semi-final match, but found the task too difficult and Teesside's last representative had to give way to the Kettering star. Gary Lewis also progressed with a comfortable victory over Dean Bavister.
The final was something of an anti-climax as Gary Lewis was unable to raise an effective challenge and Matthew Sutton completed and easy win without having to produce anything special.
Jimmy Chambers made some amends for his narrow defeat in the first round of the main competition by winning the Plate event. Playing some good billiards, he made a break of 62 in the final against Billy Bousfield, having earlier made a break of 49 in his quarter final match. Chambers twice passed 200 points in the 30 minute games with 226 in the quarter- finals and 216 in the final. Billy Bousfield had taken his place in the final at the expense of Daniel Beagrie, Paul Gifford and Chris Appleton
Moving on to Lincoln, the next Junior ranking tournament was held at the Breaks Snooker Club on Sunday 21st February with a good turn- out of 45 competitors. Teesside players were prominent in the preliminary round matches with Steven Hassack knocking in a break of 61 and Robin Wilson producing a huge 510 aggregate in his one hour match against Liam O'Neill. This included three breaks over 50. Jimmy Chambers also looked in good touch, two 40+ breaks helping him to an aggregate total of just under 400 points.
The first round (last 32) saw Robin Wilson and Jimmy Chambers drawn against each other, and breaks of 75 and 54 helped Wilson to progress by a comfortable margin. Matthew Sutton played his first match of the competition and also looked to be in good form, overpowering Michael Donnelly with breaks of 50 and 42.
Martin Shutt was the star performer of the second round, breaks of 54, 47, 38 and 31 seeing him through against Tony King. Peter Gamblin also put together a good score of 439 made up of small but useful contributions.
In the quarter-finals, Billy Bousfield was the unlucky opponent as Robin Wilson struck top form. The highlight of his seven 40+ breaks was a magnificent run of 102 made towards the end of the game. Not surprisingly, these added up to the highest 60 minute aggregate of the day - a massive 578 points. An excellent performance by any standards.
Martin Shutt continued his improvement this season, coming out on top against Matthew Sutton and so reversing the earlier result at Raunds. Shutt put together three 50+ breaks with a best of 74. Peter Gamblin continued to put his potting skills to good effect as he dominated his game against Gavin Lewis, turning in an impressive 324-197 scoreline.
Robin Wilson did not have things entirely his own way in his semi-final match, a spirited attempt by Chris Appleton saw him amass 338 points, but he still finished over 100 points behind Wilson, whose break of 82 was the highest of the game.
Peter Gamblin caused something of a surprise when he overcame Martin Shutt. The rather unorthodox potting tactics of Gamblin seemed to unsettle Shutt, who despite a break of 50 lost out by just 8 points. In the final, Robin Wilson put an end to Peter Gamblin's good run as, without any of the big breaks we have come to expect of him, he progressed to a comfortable victory.
The Plate competition was won by Craig Murphy who defeated Darren Clark by 187-109. The second round of this competition saw a spectacular finish to the match between Michael Donnelly and Anthony Peacock. With the game seemingly lost, Peacock launched himself into his last stroke just as the bell sounded. To his delight - and the dismay of his opponent - he saw all the balls disappear for a 10-stroke, giving him victory by one point! There was also an excellent performance in the same round from 10 year-old Dominic Mulhall who managed to score 157 points in his 30 minute match.