Teesside Pro-Am

Tommy Coulton Invitation Billiards Handicap

South Bank St. Peters SC, Middlesbrough (9th & 16th July 2002)

Lee Lagan wasted no time in claiming his first success as a professional player by dominating the Tommy Coulton memorial billiards handicap, which was held at South Bank St. Peters SC, Middlesbrough, on Tuesday 16th July. All games were one-hour with the Amateurs receiving 120 points from the Professionals, this having been reduced from 150 in previous years. The manner of this victory sent a clear signal of his potential in the game as he not only defeated two of the World's best players in Chris Shutt and David Causier, but simply swept them aside as if they had been mere League opposition. In fact, Lagan's toughest match was his opening one against Teesside Boys' League player, Robin Wilson. It was also perhaps the scrappiest contest of the evening with neither player coming to terms with the club's tight "billiard" table. A break of 83 by Lagan was the highest of the match and the key to his 24 point victory. Wilson, who had made breaks of 79, 70 and 65 on the same table during the qualifying rounds the previous week, was on this occasion, unable to make a contribution over 40. Moving to the easier "snooker" table for his semi-final match against Chris Shutt, Lagan found conditions more to his liking. It also appeared to be to the liking of Shutt, who knocked in a break of 80 at his second visit, quickly putting him into a lead of over a hundred. But looking confident and relaxed, Lagan responded with 53 and then came a magnificent effort of 275, giving him a lead of almost two hundred with 15 minutes remaining. Adding another break of 80 in this time, he finished a comfortable winner at 524-235, returning an average of 40.3. The other semi-final matched Dave Causier with Geoff Charville. Charville had not needed the 120 points he had received from new professional Dave Nichols in his opening game. In fact, it would have been a better contest if this allowance had been reversed, as Charville with breaks of 80 and 67 was hardly extended as he cruised to his meeting with Causier. Nichols has recently moved to Teesside with the view of experiencing a higher level of competitive play than is available in his native Norfolk, which, as he is discovering, is not restricted to the area's resident professionals. Charville has a good record against Dave Causier in this event, having defeated him in both of their previous meetings, and once again the Amateur gave a good account of himself. However, on this occasion, Causier managed to retrieve most of his start with a break of 101 and with the match evenly poised, had the better of the later exchanges to run out a 334-276 winner. If Causier was hoping for an easier match in the final, he would be disappointed, as Lagan was quickly off the mark with contributions of 61 and 95 in consecutive hands. This was followed at his next opportunity with another huge run of 242 and after 30 minutes the score stood at 406 to Lagan, with Causier's on six! Breaks of 40, 60 and 57 followed from Lagan, before Causier eventually found his touch, and with some style, threatened to take the high break prize, falling just short with a nevertheless excellent contribution of 216. All this activity left the scores 565-303 in Lagan's favour with just three minutes remaining, and Lagan used this period to advance his score still further with an unfinished 55. His average at the close was 62.0, and Causier, although never in the match, still returned figures of 27.5. Lagan collected £200 for his win plus another £50 for his high break of 275, but perhaps more importantly has sent a clear signal to the top professionals that they will have some serious new competition during the coming season.

Amateur Qualifying Group (Tuesday 9th July 2002)

Darren Kell	220		Mark Hatton	151
Geoff Charville 64, 53	209		Tony Mackinder 78	182
Robin Wilson 79, 70, 65	372		Jeff McKeown	143
Michael Donnelly 51	251		Neil Hutchinson	230

Competition Proper (Tuesday 16th July 2002)

Lee Lagan 83	296		Robin Wilson (+120)	272
Chris Shutt 72, 68, 56	583		Michael Donnelly (+120)	269
Geoff Charville (+120) 80, 67	384		Dave Nichols	206
Dave Causier 98, 57	299		Darren Kell (+120)	265

Dave Causier 101	334	(n/r)	Geoff Charville (+120) 59	276	(n/r)
Lee Lagan 275, 80, 53	524	(40.3)	Chris Shutt 80	235	(19.6)

Lee Lagan 242, 95, 61, 55unf

620

(62.0)

Dave Causier 216

303

(27.5)

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