The final event on the Amateur Billiards Circuit took place at The Reardon, Stoke on Sunday 8th April. There was a relatively light entry of 40 competitors, but they had plenty to play for with no less than 16 players still in contention for the important top eight places in the rankings. Lee Lagan, who was clear in the No.1 position decided to miss the event, but he was not so far in front of the field that he could not be overtaken. For this to happen, Peter Shelley would have to win, while Darren Kell or Phil Welham could also tie the No.1 spot with overall victory on the day.
Paul Dunning was the only one of the top eight contenders to be involved in the Preliminary Round and overcame the first hurdle with an impressive 447-56 win over Dick Watts which included breaks of 86 and 56.
The first round saw Dunning progress again, albeit with more difficulty, at the expense of Matthew Sutton. He was joined by all the main contenders with particularly good performances from Peter Shelley (with breaks of 81, 73, 51), Stephen Crosland (60, 59, 56), Brian Harvey (80, 62) and Tony Done (88, 55). However, the star performance of the round came from Michael White, who with breaks of 149 and 68, demolished young Graham Palmer 446-88.
The second round saw Peter Shelley continue in impressive form, breaks of 70, 66 and 63 contributing to a 467-113 win over Matthew Peaker. The match between Stephen Crosland (73, 53) and Jim McCann (91, 52) could not have been much closer, with Crosland getting home by just 5 points! Paul Dunning had breaks of 145 and 68 in another classy performance against Tony Done, but Phil Welham lost his chance of getting to No.1 position when he went out to Tony James.
Darren Kell, who had been quietly progressing through the rounds, suddenly came to life in the quarter-finals when he demolished the inform Paul Dunning with runs of 137, 107, 72 and 58 unfinished, giving his opponent no chance. Dennis Marr ended any thought of Peter Shelley taking the No.1 spot with runs of 108, 86 and 64 contributing to a fine 358-172 win. Stephen Crosland and Brian Harvey completed the semi-final line-up with victories over Bill Andress and Tony James respectively.
Crosland continued his good form with a comprehensive 474-144 victory over Dennis Marr in the first semi-final. This proved to be the highest aggregate total of the day and included breaks of 111, 66 and 62. Meanwhile, Darren Kell overcame Brian Harvey with an equally comfortable 378-150 win.
Kell, who had a disappointing start to the season, took a leap up the ranking positions when he had reached the final of the English Championship a few weeks previously, and was now within one match of finishing the season level with Lee Lagan as English No.1. Stephen Crosland however, had other plans, and a cautions final round saw him emerge victorious by 256-207. Even so, Kell finished at No. 2 in the season's ranking list and Crosland with this victory went to No.3. The remaining places were Peter Shelley (4th), Brian Harvey and Phil Welham (equal 5th), Bill Andress (7th), Paul Dunning and Jim McCann (equal 8th). A full ranking list appears on the back cover of this issue. The 2000-01 season had seen 117 players take part in the Amateur Billiards Circuit at an average of just under 50 competitors at each of the six events. The English Championship with 73 entries made up the full compliment of ranking competitions.
Results:
Graham Palmer made an impressive debut on the senior circuit at Stoke when, after a disastrous opening match in the main competition, he pulled himself together to win the Plate event, defeating Tom Terry 174-165 in the one-hour final. The 16 year-old plays in the same team as Robin Wilson in the Teesside Boys League.