Entrants from throughout England gathered at Nuneaton for the second of the four event series.
Cleveland's Paul Bennett once again showed his dominance by taking the title and yet another 30 ranking points. Norfolk's David Nicholls also did very well, especially in the final where he held Bennett to a 271-236 point victory, no mean achievement when you consider that Paul is one of the favourite for this years English Championships.
Dean Bavister played well in the quarterfinals defeating Eastern Counties Under 21s champion Matt Willard 262-205 with a 64 break from Bavister.
Northants player Fraser Adams did well to reach the semi-finals along with Bavister only to be beaten by Norfolk's more experienced 20-year-old David Nicholls by 242-139. 20-year-old Paul Bennett had no problems in reaching the final by beating Dean Bavister by 337-167.
As ever interest in billiards in Middlesbrough attracted 20 juniors to compete in the third national ranking event. Dean Bavister was the only competitor from outside of Teesside.
In his third ranking event final, 21 year-old Paul Bennett beat Gareth Evans with a 214 points margin along with a highest break of 72 in the first round. In the early rounds Previn Shukle did well to beat the Under 16's and Under 19's champion Robin Wilson by 283-181. Shukle went on to reach the semi-finals losing to Gareth Evans by 245-209. Scott Stewart, the other semi-finalist, played consistently throughout the day scoring 220's in each match. Dean Bavister reached the quarterfinals to earn 15 points to go to second in the latest ranking list.
The final junior ranking tournament of the '96/'97 season was held at Raunds in Northamptonshire.
A large contingent of Teesside juniors made the long journey to make a total of 25 entries. How delightful to see young Jimmy Chambers in his first final unfortunately for him his opponent, Paul Bennett, was unstoppable over the 45 minute final. Bennett had breaks of 124, 70, 63, 46, 37, and 36 to win 492-107.
The first round drew two of the youngest competitors together with 11 year-old Robbie Harvey from Teesside against 10 year-old Ashley Thomas from Raunds. A close match until Harvey made an excellent 35 break to become the eventual winner, with a score of 193-142.
The first round produced hourly totals of 480 from Huntingdonshire's Matt Willard and a 566 from Paul Bennett. This high-scoring was beaten with a massive one-hour score of 664 from Paul Bennett against James Whiles from Middlesbrough.
This second round match produced the highest break of the day of 134 from the newly crowned English Amateur Champion.
The semi-finals saw Bennett dispose of fellow Teesside Scott Stewart by 340-136. In the other semi-final 14 year-old Jimmy Chambers narrowly beating the second ranked junior Dean Bavister by just four points by 170-166. The semi-finals and final were played over 45 minutes to give the Teesside players time for the long journey home.
The ranking series has shown that there are many young juniors coming into the game and are enjoying it. Special thanks for The Makings SC in King's Lynn, The Atack SC in Nuneaton, Inn Off The Park in Middlesbrough and for Raunds Cuesports for staging these junior events.