ENGLISH JUNIOR RANKING SERIES
Breaks SC. Lincoln - Sunday 5th November 2000
All Games One Hour
The Breaks Club in Lincoln was the venue for the second of the Junior Ranking Tournaments which saw an entry of 30 players from around the country. Robin Wilson was making his first appearance this season and opened his account with an exhibition of first class billiards (at any level), as he romped through the competition, dominating all his matches to win with impressive ease. The first round saw Wilson make no less than five breaks over fifty against the unfortunate Anthony O'Brien, running up a 517-128 scoreline in the allotted 60 minutes. Matthew Sutton was the only other player to notch up a fifty break, his 52 helping him to overcome Robert Hall 252-159. Wilson was again unstoppable in the second round, breaks of 88, 61, 53, 50 and 47 giving Craig Brown no chance as he registered a 476-142 victory. The only other player to pass the 400 mark was Michael Donnelly, who recorded a similarly one-sided result against Calvin Daws. His 432-166 score including breaks of 54, 48, 33 and 31.
Matthew Sutton also impressed as he ran in breaks of 85, 43 and 39 in his win over Andrew Fairley. Mark Coates almost managed to pull off a "shock" result, but fell 14 points short of defeating of the current under-16 champion, Peter Gamblin. A good performance nevertheless. The quarter-finals saw Gamblin face Robin Wilson, but he could provide no more resistance than any of Wilson's previous opponents as the Teessider almost put together the first century of the day, just failing at 99. The result however, was never in doubt as Wilson ran out a 418- 173 winner. Michael Donnelly also had an impressive win over the improving Jason Robinson, a 77 break being the highlight of his 349- 251 victory. Darren Clark and Billy Bousfield made it an all-Teesside semi-final when they defeated Matthew Sutton and Daniel Beagrie respectively. Clark's hard-fought win included runs of 47 and 44.
Darren Clark had another hard match in his semi-final against Billy Bousfield who has been making an impression on the senior circuit this year. With steady consistent scoring from both players, it was Bousfield who proved just the stronger, wining by a 35 point margin. Michael Donnelly´s good run came to an abrupt end as he could find no answer to the scoring power of Robin Wilson. The current under-19 Champion produced a magical display with two centuries (115 and 102) and no less than five others over fifty in a one-hour total of 618!
Without resorting to any of the fireworks he was producing in earlier rounds, Robin Wilson then completed a highly successful day by defeating Billy Bousfield 381-274 in the final. Although beaten by 107 points, Bousfield could take the consolation that he had finished closer to Wilson than any of his other opponents on the day.
Matthew Peaker took the Plate competition, defeating Jeff Henderson 122-116 in the 30 minute final. In the quarter-final of this event, Anthony O'Brien and Nathan Mann finished level at the end of their allotted time and needed to play an extra 10 minutes. This resulted in O'Brien edging home by just 5 points, only to become one of Peaker's victims in the semi-final.