Amateur Billiards Circuit: Stoke

Peter Shelley has a Hectic Day

Reardon Snooker Centre. Hanley. Stoke on Trent

Derek Townend's second Amateurs-only was held on the 8th October at the Reardon Snooker Centre, Hanley, a place made famous as one of the, "Five Towns," in the novels of Arnold Bennett. The Reardon is a very nice club indeed with good playing conditions, a spacious bar area, lots of beautiful comfortable armchairs, a separate dining area. Stoke has the reputation of being something of a sprawling place and players might have anticipated difficulty in finding the venue. Not so, not so at all, Stoke has changed a great deal since the days of Stanley Matthews when it was known as, "Smoke on Trent." There is not a pottery chimney to be seen. The Reardon is near the Library in Hanley and can hardly be missed, there is plenty of free parking space just a minute's walk away.

Shelley's Busy Day

Club co-owner Peter Shelley must have felt pretty exhausted by the end of the day. He was up at five preparing the necessary ingredients for a Roast Beef, Yorkshire pud, and two veg, "proper," Sunday Lunch and making sandwiches for a cold buffet in between peeling spuds. He was on hand to give his personal welcome to arriving players, he helped serve coffee, he took orders, he pulled pints and he carved the joint. In between times he discarded dinner jacket and waiter's apron to take part in the tournament which he won with a series of good breaks only once seeming to be in any kind of trouble -and that against Amateur Champion Martin Goodwill.

There were some close games the closest being that in which Ken Shirley beat Ken Hobbs by only 8. The BQR editor's game with Tony Done was far from close. Done reeled off breaks of 68,80,92, and several 30s to win by a mile.

Gerry Tutt and Jamie Moore, both from Nottingham, and both playing in their first tournament were both winners though Tutt by only 1 against John Barker. The 17-year-old Moore did particularly well to beat the much more experienced Widnes player Graham Lloyd. Mark Hirst had a 52 and lost by only 32 to Martin Goodwill. The Johnson family set-to saw the 'Old man' get through, not many in it with everyone rooting for young Phil. Tony Done maintained his form and made a century against Mick White - 108 - which eventually proved to be the highest of the day.

The surprise of the round was Tony Done's defeat at the hands of John Hills. Not that Hills is not a good player but Done's form had been such as to suggest him as a possible tournament winner. Peter Shelley had some good breaks but the best match was that between Bill Andress and Steve Crosland the Yorkshireman scraping through at the last gasp by a mere 13 points.

Shelley had his closest game of the day and did well to put out Martin Goodwill though by only 21. David Causier also had a good win against Crosland whilst Peter Sheehan defeated fellow Widnesian Arthur Johnson to claim a place in the semis.

Terry Colby had a fifty break but was well beaten. The two 17-year-olds Sheehan and Causier stayed neck and neck, Causier drawing away in the last 15 minutes to finish a comfortable winner.

Shelley took an early lead with breaks of 33,46, and 26, and at his seventh visit made a 98 to lead 224 - 83. The young Middlesbrough player countered with 24,19, and 49, but 96, 13, 39, and 49 saw the Stoke man increase his lead. A 60 unfinished by Causier at his last visit gave more respectability to the final score. David Causier had done well to reach the final but he did not make the best of his opportunities. He lost position too easily, was too much inclined to give the balls a bit of a bash and trust to luck. He did not play as well as he did at Morley nor as he did in the Amateur Championship. But he does have talent, his temperament is vastly improved, and his game will mature. Having said that it would have taken a very good amateur performance indeed to have beaten Peter Shelley on his own table - a table on which he has made dozens of billiards centuries and a snooker maximum. When Peter gets the balls rolling he is a very attractive player to watch with a remarkable range of recovery shots, he was a good winner deserving of victory if only for the efforts he put in to help make the day the success that it was.

Stoke Plate

There was one preliminary game in which Ken Hobbs, who had so nearly beaten the 1986 Amateur Champion Ken Shirley, was well beaten by Brian Hoole.

There were some very close games. Eddie McNicholas won by 2 as did Mick Daniels, Andy Reeve won by 6, and Mark Downing by 10. Paul Reeves - a century maker at Morley - had an atrocious run of the balls and was well beaten by the BQR editor.

The games were less close than in the previous round. Trevor Gent scored a fine 230. Tom Terry's good run continued - a fact to which his opponent was not slow to draw attention.

There was a hectic finish to the game between Andy Reeve and the BQR Editor. With little more than a couple of minutes left Terry, leading by 25 made a mistake in attempting to score when a safety shot would have been better. He paid for this as Andy Reeve rushed up 26* to win by one. Trevor Gent had a fairly comfortable win.

The Final was an evenly matched game until near the end when Andy Reeve went away to win by 41. Andy has played in many tournaments - especially Mini-Prix - and this was his first win, indeed his first time, "in the money." Well done Andy.

Andy Reeve: Stoke Plate Winner