ENGLISH JUNIOR RANKING SERIES

All Games One Hour

Gateshead - Sunday 9th April 2000

The last of the season's Junior Ranking competitions was scheduled to take place at Middlesbrough, but a change in management at the intended venue resulted in a rapid search for an alternative location. Unable to find anywhere suitable on Teesside, the organisers were forced to go further North and eventually settled on the Gateshead Snooker Centre in Newcastle. This resulted in extra travelling for all the competitors—there being no interest from the Tynesiders—but a total of 28 players still completed the journey from the more traditional billiards areas.

The preliminary round saw Robin Wilson overpower James Clare, his 380 point total being the highest of the round. Jimmy Chambers was also scoring well, although he had more difficulty in throwing off the challenge of Darren Clark who made a break of 39 but finished on the wrong side of a 334-243 result. Another high scoring match came from Teessiders Craig Brown and Michael Donnelly. Brown does not compete in the Teesside Boys' League, but is evidently coping well enough without this additional competitive experience, as he came through this match 322-268. Jeff Henderson had a break of 42 which helped him to put out the new under-16 Champion, Peter Gamblin, with a 271-235 scoreline. Billy Bousfield also looked in fine form as he made a personal record break of 55 to overcome Scott Casey 319-173.

In the first round (last 16) Martin Shutt made an impressive entry to the competition with a string of big breaks. Runs of 74, 48, 47 and 32 saw him comfortably home against Craig Murphy. With most of the first round winners producing some heavy scoring, it was once again Robin Wilson, with a best break of 49, who led the way with a 436-179 result against Daniel Beagrie. In two of the closest finishes of the day, Andrew Fairley edged out Craig Brown by 19 points, and John Hall played an excellent game to defeat Redcar's Jason Robinson by a slender 14 point margin.

John Hall was again involved in a close match in the quarter-finals, but this time he finished on the losing side, going down 243-232 to Billy Bousfield. In another exciting finish, Chris Appleton edged out Steven Hassack by just 9 points. However, the pairing of the round was undoubtedly Wilson versus Shutt, who were scheduled to meet in the final of the under-19 Championship the following month. A break of 44 by Shutt gave him an early advantage, but this was soon matched by a run of 45 from Wilson. Another break of 58 helped Wilson to open a significant gap and, as Shutt struggled to put his game together, he forged further in front. Going into the last ten minutes of the match, Wilson looked to be "safe" with a lead of over 130 points. At this point Shutt showed something of his potential with a rapid-fire 77 break, played at a pace which would have done credit to is elder brother. However, with just 4 minutes remaining and the deficit still over 50 points, the task proved too great, and Wilson completed a 357-279 victory. In the remaining quarter-final match, Jimmy Chambers, the sole survivor from the Southern contingent, produced another solid performance to defeat Andrew Fairley. His 364-244 result included a break of 53.

Perhaps Billy Bousfield is just unlucky, or perhaps there is something in his game which brings out the best in Robin Wilson. Having suffered a massive defeat a Lincoln when Wilson produced a top break of 102, Bousfield again found Wilson in unstoppable form in their semi-final encounter. A string of big breaks, many unrecorded, were topped with runs of 118 and 76 as Wilson set a record one-hour aggregate for the Junior Ranking Tournaments with a total of 612. Whilst this match took the attention of most spectators, Jimmy Chambers also eased his way into the final with a comfortable victory over Chris Appleton. The final was a disappointingly one-sided affair as Wilson put in early breaks of 46, 33 and 43 before Chambers managed a contribution in double-figures. Then a fine break of 110 by Wilson took him to a lead of 285-83 after 30 minutes. This looked to have settled the match as a serious contest, and so it proved. Although Chambers began to find his touch in the second part of the game, he never really threatened to make a recovery, his best run of 57 coming with the match already beyond his reach.

Peter Gamblin maintained his interest until the end of the day by defeating Robert Hall 170-95 in the 30-minute final of the Plate.

TEESSIDE JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The individual championships for the Teesside League were decided at the South Bank St. Peter's Club on Wednesday 7th June with the destination of both the League trophy and the under-15's title being decided. All games were 30 minutes duration.

Michael Donnelly wins the Teesside U-15 Championship.

The under-15 championship was won by Michael Donnelly (Riley's) who defeated team-mates John Hall and Daniel Beagrie in the semi-final and final respectively. This victory represented a tremendous achievement for Donnelly who has been playing the game for less than a year. In his semi-final match 13 year-old Daniel Beagrie had a fine win over the experienced Scott Casey, who had reached the final of this event in 1997 and was no stranger to "big- match" situations.

Robin Wilson and Chris Shutt again found themselves in opposition in the "senior" (under-19) final and Wilson once more confirmed his superiority, winning by some fifty points. In his semi-final game against Darren Clark, Wilson—who had the additional distraction of being in the middle of his GCSE exams at school— had impressed with a fine break of 85. This was made even more impressive by being compiled on the notoriously tight St. Peter's billiard table. Martin Shutt also made a break of 42 in a massive 210 aggregate win over Jason Robinson in his semi-final match.

Ralph Macklin U-15 Championship

Albert Hanson Individual Championship