ENGLISH JUNIOR RANKING SERIES
Northern SC, Leeds - Sunday 7th January 2001
Robin Wilson looked a class above the competition at the Leeds Snooker Centre as he notched up another win in the Junior series without ever appearing to be seriously threatened.
Wilson started the day with breaks of 93 and 58 in his preliminary tie against Jason Thomas, running up a 336-112 scoreline. Also looking in good form were Steve Hassack and John Hall who, without any major contributions, still managed to better Wilson's total with 352 and 382 respectively.
In his first round match, Robin Wilson stepped up a gear against Steve Hassack to produce a crushingly consistent display. With a string of minor break's in the 20s and 30s he put together a total of 430 points, giving him a winning margin of 230. Another big winner was Michael Donnelly who defeated his Riley's team-mate, Danny Beagrie, 345-232. John Hall produced the highest break in this round, a 48.
Darren Clark put up a spirited challenge to Robin Wilson including a run of 42 in his total of 238. But this was insufficient to match the scoring power of Wilson, who with contributions of 68 and 45 made sure of a comfortable win by 116 points. Peter Gamblin looked impressive as he dominated his match against Michael Donnelly winning 358-220. A break of 55 being the highlight of some fluent and confident all-round play. Matthew Peaker reached his first semi-final with a victory over Calvin Daws and was joined by John Hall who finished with a narrow 8 point advantage over Graham Palmer.
John Hall had the unenviable task of facing Robin Wilson in the semi-final and was duly dispatched 411-188. Wilson making breaks of 68 and 57. A general shortage of referees for the event resulted in these players having to "field-out" and score themselves. They were not assisted in this task by a table which regularly deposited the cueball on the floor through a damaged centre-pocket net! Matthew Peaker had an only slightly less daunting obstacle in his path to the final as he met the Under-16 Champion Peter Gamblin. Although both players made 30+ breaks, it was Gamblin who proved stronger, winning 244-188. Nevertheless, a good performance from Peaker who remains the solitary representative from central Yorkshire on the Junior Circuit.
Peter Gamblin, who had played so confidently in the previous rounds, looked significantly less self-assured in the final against Robin Wilson. He was certainly given plenty of opportunities to shine as the Teesside player also struggled to find his touch. However, even well below his best, Wilson was always scoring more strongly and completed a 316-192 victory without any significant contributions from either player.
Full Results
Breaks SC, Lincoln - Sunday 4th February 2001
The fourth of this year's junior ranking series took place at the Breaks Club in Lincoln with a rather disappointing entry of just 19 players, over half of whom had made the journey from Teesside. The Teesside squad included a couple of new names on the circuit, Trevor Snaith and 14 year-old Anthony Hartshorn. The latter player in particular is an exciting prospect and although he had limited success on the day, he managed to provide plenty of excitement in those matches with which he was involved. After losing by seven points in the main competition, he won the first round of the plate by just 5, before going out in his next match by only 3 points!
Robin Wilson chose not to compete in this event, and in his absence Matthew Sutton kept up the remarkable domination of the junior ranking tournaments by this pair, which have all been won by one or the other since January 1999.
Receiving a bye in the Preliminary Round, Sutton entered the competition against the Teesside newcomer Trevor Snaith, giving the youngster something of a baptism of fire as he produced breaks of 59, 45, 33 and 32 in a 404-54 scoreline. Craig Murphy also put up a good performance to defeat fellow Teessider Phil Dales 409-262. Breaks of 44 and 34 assisting in this win. Also looking good and producing useful breaks in their opening round victories were Danny Beagrie (49, 47, 36); Craig Brown (42); Billy Bousfield (39); Peter Gamblin (34, 30); Michael Donnelly (35) and Graham Palmer (32, 31).
Matthew Sutton continued his good form in the quarter-finals, making breaks of 70, 50 and 41 to impressively dispose of Peter Gamblin 336- 102. Danny Beagrie struggled to overcome Billy Bousfield 252-239, while Craig Brown, despite breaks of 52 and 38, still finished 28 points behind Craig Murphy. The semi-final line-up was completed by Michael Donnelly who had runs of 39 and 35 in a somewhat more comfortable win over Graham Palmer.
The semi-finals produced some excellent matches. Fifteen year-old Craig Murphy almost pulled off a shock result over Matthew Sutton as he put together his highest ever competitive break of 78 (the day's best) to give himself every chance approaching the final minutes of their match. However, the next opportunity went to Sutton who compiled a decisive break of 21 to clinch the game by just 13 points. Michael Donnelly also faced a daunting task as his team-mate Danny Beagrie swept into a commanding lead with early breaks of 49 and 32. Donnelly however, hit back with runs of 43, 34 and 32 to win 331-243. In the final, Matthew Sutton took an early lead with breaks of 45 and 38, but Donnelly kept up with his illustrious opponent and helped by runs of 50 and 32 had edged in front mid-way through the match. The turning point came when a bad kick caused Donnelly to miss an easy middle-pocket in-off. Sutton exploited the resulting position to compile a carefully crafted 61 break and establish a lead which Donnelly could not recover. The final score of 304-207 gave Sutton his fifth win in junior ranking events.