At the Atack Snooker Centre, Nuneaton, I was attending the closing stages of my 5th successive English Amateur Billiards Championship. Whilst this period has seen five different venues and a rather bewildering "she loves me, she loves me not" relationship between the EABA and the EASB, the one consistent thread has been the continued Teesside dominance of the amateur billiards scene.
At the start of play on the morning of Saturday 25th May, the pundits' feeling was that this dominance would continue. The pre-tournament favourite, Chris Shutt and Darren Kell were both Teessiders, with the challenge coming from Peter Sheehan from Widnes and Terry Ward from York.
| Chris Shutt
97, 126, 128, 154, 59, 66 | 1,854 | (19.7) | Peter Sheehan
67, 102, 84 | 1,179 | (12.7) |
If anyone was capable of halting the Shutt steam-roller, surely it was Sheehan, arguably the number 2 amateur billiards player in this country and an awesome exponent of top-of-the-table play.
In the first session, the expected high scoring match started to materialise with both players scoring century breaks and threatening more, gradually however, Shutt gained the upper hand to end the session with a comfortable, if not unassailable, lead of over 300 points.
The second session saw in fact, not a Sheehan revival but a virtual repeat of the first, with Shutt continuing his ascendancy and running out a winner by 1854 points (Ave 19.7) to 1179 (Ave 12.7), a high scoring total for a four hour match. Sheehan had breaks of 67, 102, and 84 but was out-gunned by Shutt's 97, 126, 128, 154, 59 and 66. The feeling in the crowd (dare I say it!) was that, with the top break of 154, Chris Shutt was as yet, under performing!
| Terry Ward
| 917 | (7.3) | Darren Kell
| 834 | (6.6) |
The outcome of this game was very difficult to call, with the seasoned Ward (appearing in his 7th semi-final) against Kell, a player with an impressive record on the circuit this season.
The first session witnessed both players performing well below par, seemingly frustrated by their inability to get their all-round game going at the level of which we all knew they were capable. The interval arrived with Kell ahead by over 100 points with no breaks over 50 from either player, and still anybody's game.
The second session say a slow but sure fight -back by Ward, with two half-century breaks helping him to a 100 point lead with 25 minutes remaining. Any possibility of a Kell come-back was then negated by Hard who, a fierce competitor with an abundance of Yorkshire grit closed up the game with some killing safety play to win by 917 (Ave 7.3) to 834 (Ave 6.6).
It would take a brave man to back anyone against Shutt, but one thing was certain- Ward would not bow his head!
The first session progressed as expected with Shutt out-pointing Hard but with the latter hanging on and being only about 150 points adrift as we entered the second hour.
THEN IT HAPPENED!!! Shutt suddenly erupted like an unstoppable volcano and ran in a magnificent 566 break which, although it included some 400 points at the top end, it also contained some fine all-round billiards to underline his overall mastery of the game. With additional breaks of 71, 85, 81, 66 and 52, Shutt's interval lead of over 700 points was truly daunting.
The second session, was inevitably anti-climatic, with Ward refusing to give up, actually out-pointing Shutt during the session, with a veil-crafted 76 break against Shutt's best efforts of 50, and 54.
| Chris Shutt
566, 71, 85, 81, 66, 52, 50, 54 | 1,609 | (22.7) | Terry Ward
76 | 938 | (13.2) |
With another final over, thoughts inevitably turned to the future. With the imminent departure of Shutt to the professional ranks, the three stars of recent years Causier, Goodwill, Shutt will be out of the frame. Will Sheehan retain his amateur status to add another national title to the EASB version he von two years ago? Will Hard go one step further and win his first amateur title? Hill a new shooting star arise from the banks of the Tees (or elsewhere) or will one of the golden oldies now stand a better chance? Who knows? But we can be sure of one thing — with people at the administrative helm of the calibre of Albert Hanson, Derick Townend, Malcolm Lax, the future of Amateur Billiards is in good hands.