EASB Strachan English National Billiards Championship

Peter Sheehan takes the Title

The (official) version of the English Amateur Championship organised by the English Association for Snooker and Billiards attracted 32 entries and was won by 18-year-old Peter Sheehan of Widnes - a semi-finalist in the EABA championship of 1983. With the coming together of the two bodies, it is likely that the EASB tournament would have been cancelled but for the fact that entry fees had been taken and arrangements were well in hand before the affiliation was agreed. There is no doubt which was the stronger of the two championships. The EABA version attracted 129 entrants including the country's leading amateurs. However, a player can only beat those against whom he is pitted. Sheehan's victory was achieved against good opposition and is highly meritorious.

All billiard lovers will be very glad to be under one umbrella next season and there is a real possibility that the game will make strong progress.

Yorkshire/Northern Region

Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds

South and Midlands Region

Raunds Cuesports

North West Region

Liverpool Snooker Centre

Finals

Raunds Cuesports

Brian Harvey had played very well in his semi with Paul Bennett but was unable to make much progress in the first session of this final. The table, though in excellent condition, seemed on the slow side for top quality billiards, but Sheehan adapted the better of the two and ran up a century and a 96 to take a very useful first interval lead. Harvey was heavily out-pointed in the second session. Sheehan took an unfinished 41 to 77, and a number of smaller items, together with a 115, saw him leading at the second interval by very nearly 500. Harvey could manage only one break over 50 - a 75.

Brian Harvey's cause was all but lost but he did get a good start to the third session. A break of 78 followed by one of 59 reduced the arrears to around 300. Another couple of fifties would have put the Bridgwater man in with a real chance of pulling the game out of the fire. But with Sheehan doing little - he had only one break over 50 in the session - Harvey seemed far more concerned about the run of the balls than sticking to the task in hand. It is true that at times the balls did run badly for the Bridgwater player - but it is also true that he missed a good half-dozen quite simple shots when in excellent position. Sheehan had a poor session and the game should have been much closer, but he had done enough to take home, for one year at least, what is possibly the most famous trophy in billiards.

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