The B.&S.C.C

Under 16 and Under 19 Championships

The Championship were held on Saturday, 27th April, at the Potters, Middlesbrough. Any billiard player who has visited this Club will know what a good venue it is and one that is ideal for Championships of this nature as having all the necessary facilities.

Preliminary rounds had reduced the field to the quarterfinal stage. Two players, Lee Lagan (Cleveland) and Peter Sheehan (Cheshire) were competing in both events. If either of these two had reached both finals it would have meant them playing 6 one-hour games to get there, two more hours finals making a total of eight hours which would have been enough match play in one day to have satisfied even the most addicted of players. (I am reminded of a story concerning the famous golfer Harry Vardon who said he could not recommend three rounds in one day, two, said Vardon, should be enough for anyone. Ed.) It didn't happen, Lagan played five hours and Sheehan four.

Under 16 title for Westthorp

Lagan, defending the Under 16 Title made a rather poor start and went out in the second round to Michael Westthorp, also of Cleveland, who went on to take the Title. His opponent - Sheehan, had had a fairly comfortable ride but could only watch as Westthorp ran up breaks of 42, 36, 31, 42 and 31 to win by nearly two hundred.

Causier takes the Under 19s

Peter Sheehan's bid for both titles was sharply stopped in the first round of the U19s by a string of useful breaks from David Causier, whilst Lagan had the day's highest of 90 in overcoming Paul Reeves. Causier continued making breaks in his semi to reach a final with fellow Clevelander Lee Lagan. It seemed that Lagan's supporters reckoned that a total of around 350 would win it and at the half way stage he was well on target. Causier made all the late running and with a bit of judicious safety play towards the end won by just 35 points. Causier, who was later to make a good impression in "The Amateur," finals at Cubbington thus took the tile, whilst Lagan was presented with the highest break awards from Mr. Neil Hutchinson of the, "Northern Echo," which had generously sponsored the trophies. These were for breaks of 112 and 103 in the preliminaries, Lagan could have done with one of those in the Final.