Under-16 & Under-19 Qualifiers

Northern Region (Tables SC; Thornaby, Middlesbrough)

Sunday 18th November 2001

The Northern Qualifying sections of both the under-19 and under-16 Championships took place at the Tables Snooker Centre, Thornaby on Sunday 18th November 2001. Robin Wilson progressed through the under-19 event without trouble making a top break of 85 in his qualifying match against Andrew Fairley recording an average of 11.2 in his 436-190 win.

Several of the younger competitors tried their hand in both competitions with John Hall and Michael Donnelly getting past more seasoned opposition to earn a place in the competition proper. Donnelly in particular was impressive as he produced a break of 68 to come back from eighty points behind Dominic Mulhall and win their first round match by just 13 points. Mulhall's one-hour total of 356 was a record losing score for the Junior event under the new EABA rules, and one which may stand for a long time. In the qualifying round Donnelly went on to dispose of the improving Mark Coates 293-243.

The fourth Northern qualifier was Michael Price who defeated Kyle Cunningham and Craig Murphy in his two games and will make his first appearance in the final stages at Lincoln.

With three of the sixteen entries for the U-16 event failing to appear, there were some unexpected byes awarded. Dominic Mulhall was favoured with a passage straight through to the qualifying round, but surprisingly failed to beat Jason Thomas, who put up a good performance to win 286-237. Another unforeseen casualty was John Hall who failed in his final match, going down 204-198 to Kyle Cunningham in an undistinguished game. Hall had previously eliminated the stylish Danny Beagrie 334-227 and Liam O'Niell 375-262, but seemed to just run out of steam at the end of a long day's involvement in both competitions. His total playing time was an almost continuous five hours, the longest of any competitor. Michael Donnelly made up the three Northern qualifiers finishing with a strong performance against Stephen Woodall making breaks of 81, 41 and 35 in a 372-141 win.