ENGLISH JUNIOR RANKING SERIES
All Games One Hour
The Maltings, Kings Lynn - Sunday 1st October 2000
The Juniors opened the English season with the first of their ranking competitions at Kings Lynn on 1st October. The early starting time for the tournament made it difficult for the players travelling from the North, but nine Teesside players still managed to complete the journey, making up a field of 23 entries. The games in the main competition were all 60 minutes.
The first round saw an intriguing clash between current Teesside Under- 15 champion Michael Donnelly, and English Under-16 champion Peter Gamblin of Lincoln. Donnelly, after a long journey which had seen him arrive at the venue for 8.30am, may have been affected by the uncommonly early start to his day. Whatever the reason, he never threatened Gamblin and after a slow start by both players, the Lincoln player drew away with breaks of 51 and 32 (twice) completing a comfortable victory by 302-175. Matthew Sutton (Kettering) also started well. A break of 44 helped him to an overwhelming 317-57 win over Neil Attew (Norfolk).
| Matthew Sutton 44 | 317 | Neil Attew | 57 | ||
| Matthew Peaker | 284 | Robert Nash | 88 | ||
| Gavin Lewis 35, 34 | 227 | Neil Hall | 139 | ||
| John Gallafant | 187 | Keith Sillis | 97 | ||
| Robert Hall | 230 | Nathan Mann | 126 | ||
| Peter Gamblin 51, 32, 32 | 302 | Michael Donnelly | 175 | ||
| Craig Brown 38 | 327 | Andrew Thompson | 196 | ||
| Chris Appleton 37 | 283 | Paul Jones | 119 |
In the second round, Sutton was even more impressive putting together three 60+ breaks and another of 35 to overpower Matthew Peaker 355-66. The result must have been disappointing for Peaker who was reported to have been playing very well, and no doubt had intended to make his mark in this competition. However, Sutton gave him no chance by making sure he not only scored well when given the opportunity, but also occupying the table for as long as possible. His top break of 64 taking 11 minutes.
Peter Gamblin was pushed all the way by his travelling companion Robert Hall, but breaks of 51 and 34 in the last 10 minutes of the match were enough to see him though. The 89 point winning margin hardly reflecting the closeness of the contest.
Daniel Beagrie must have wondered why he had set off quite so early from Teesside as, having avoided the first round draw, his opponent for the second round, Jimmy Chambers, telephoned the organisers to say that he wouldn't be attending. This followed his telephone call two hours earlier which had reserved his place.
Craig Brown impressed with the top score of the second round, his 333-177 victory over fellow-Teessider Chris Appleton including a break of 45. Calvin Daws had one of the closest finished of the day, edging past Darren Noble by just 5 points in their all-Norfolk encounter.
| Phil Dales 33 | 302 | Tony Jefferson | 127 | ||
| Calvin Daws | 196 | Darren Noble | 191 | ||
| Matthew Sutton 64, 63, 61, 38 | 355 | Matthew Peaker | 66 | ||
| Gavin Lewis 36 | 237 | John Gallafant | 146 | ||
| Peter Gamblin 52, 31 | 268 | Robert Hall | 179 | ||
| Craig Brown 45 | 333 | Chris Appleton | 177 | ||
| Paul Gifford | 316 | Phil Liddle | 146 | ||
| Daniel Beagrie | w/o | Jimmy Chambers | scr. |
Calvin Daws again finished on the right side of another close match. His quarter-final against Phil Dales (Teesside) seeing him progress by the relatively comfortable margin of 28 points. This earned him a semi- final place against Matthew Sutton who emerged untroubled from a pedestrian encounter against Gavin Lewis.
Peter Gamblin continued to look in good form, producing a string of useful breaks to defeat Craig Brown 345-224 in the highest scoring match of the day.
After waiting over 5 hours at the venue, Daniel Beagrie was eventually called into action against Paul Gifford (Norfolk). In a hard fought game which saw the players equally matched, Beagrie managed to reach his first ever semi-final by just 5 points.
| Calvin Daws | 245 | Phil Dales | 217 | ||
| Matthew Sutton | 211 | Gavin Lewis | 105 | ||
| Peter Gamblin 46, 38, 37, 32 | 345 | Craig Brown | 224 | ||
| Daniel Beagrie 36 | 224 | Paul Gifford 35, 32 | 219 |
A break of 65, the best of the tournament, helped Peter Gamblin to overcome Daniel Beagrie. A contribution of 30 unfinished going some way to improve the 293-239 scoreline for the Teessider. The other semi-final was won by Matthew Sutton, with Calvin Daws powerless to make any impression on the Kettering player.
| Matthew Sutton | 281 | Calvin Daws | 118 | ||
| Peter Gamblin 65 | 293 | Daniel Beagrie 30 | 239 |
Peter Gamblin was unable to keep up the run of big breaks he had been producing in earlier rounds and eventually went down to the more experienced Matthew Sutton, who took his sixth win in the ranking series. The conclusion of the tournament had an element of farce when one of the unused timers went off in advance of the scheduled finish. Everyone thought the match had concluded and the players had shaken hands before someone noticed that the large match timer still showed seven minutes remaining. The game was hurriedly resumed and Sutton managed to hang on for a narrow 10 points victory
| Matthew Sutton | 194 | Peter Gamblin | 184 |
Michael Donnelly made up for his early exit in the main competition by taking the Plate. He defeated Nathan Mann 317-153 in the one-hour final, putting together runs of 49 and 43. His 30 minute aggregate of 184 in the first round of this competition gives some indication of the potential of this youngster, who many on Teesside are watching with interest.