2001 ENGLISH AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Regional Qualifying Rounds - Sunday 3rd December 2000 (all games 90 minutes)
North-East Area
Gateshead Snooker Centre, Tyne & Wear. (14 entries, 6 qualifiers)
The fourteen entries for the North East section were depleted by one at the last minute, when Alf Nolan telephoned to advise that he was too unwell to take part. This came as a great surprise, as all who know Alf Nolan are aware of his proud record of having competed in every Amateur Championship since 1946—an unbroken run of 54 years! As the event was also being staged in his native Newcastle, he must have been ill indeed.
There was an encouraging entry from the Juniors this year, with four players (Michael Donnelly, Billy Bousfield, Martin Shutt and Robin Wilson) all still in their mid-teens. Also making a welcome return was Allan Scott. He was the English under-16 Champion in 1994, but subsequently dropped out of the game for a long period. He is now playing regularly in the Teesside Leagues as a member of the Hemlington team, alongside Lee Lagan and Mark Hatton. Allan Scott produced one of the best performances of the day when he rattled in 956 points his final heat against John Hartley. Team-mate Lee Lagan wasn't far behind with an aggregate of 857, including a break of 236 and three other centuries. Both of these totals beat the previous record for a 90-minute heat in the Championship. Tony James was also in good form as he put together two centuries in his match against Billy Bousfield.
Northern Area
Club House in Cue Gardens, Bradford (16 entries, 8 qualifiers)
With a total of sixteen entries this was the largest qualifying section of the Championship, which would provide two qualifiers from four groups. The closest contest came in Group A, where three players finished with two wins apiece. After count-back of aggregate points, Stephen Crosland and Dennis Marr went through, with Norman Routledge being the unfortunate player to miss out. Richard Lodge had the highest break of the day with 134, winning all his games in Group B to qualify with ease. Paul Dunning and Peter Shelley were also unbeaten in their Groups, both players recording centuries.
Eastern Area
Breaks Snooker Club, Lincoln (8 entries, 3 qualifiers)
The surprise of the Eastern Region was the success of Peter Gamblin who defeated reigning Champion, Phil Welham in the final and deciding heat to win Group B. Welham was relegated to second place, but with an aggregate of +806 due to his massive wins in the earlier heats, he qualified as best runner-up in preference to Sean Bean (+218). David Nichols looked to be in good form as he won all three of his matches in Group A, to qualify with some ease
.Southern Area
Executive 147 Club, Southampton (15 entries 7 qualifiers)
There were plenty of close results in the Southern Area. In Group C, Chris Ross and Robert Shanks could not be separated after 90 minutes, their scores finishing level at 317. With both players then defeating Ivan Stevenage, the Group winner was decided by their comparative results. Although Ross defeated Stevenage by 100 points, Shanks won by 183 to secure his qualification to the next round.
Aggregate score was also required to find the winner of Group E when all players finished with one win apiece. Of these, the best was Ernest Shorney (+100) who edged out Trevor Thorn (+21).
Terry Azor Terry Colby and Jack Hedley were the other Group winners, each being undefeated on the day. Chris Ross had the consolation of going through as one of the best runners-up, as did Maurice Wright.
South West Area
Riley's Snooker Club, Exeter (8 entries, 3 qualifiers)
After two good wins, Bill Andress was in the happy position of knowing that he could afford to lose his last heat against Michael White by almost 200 points and still head Group B. In the event, White did pull off a win, which although still 72 points short of this target, was enough to give him the third qualifying place as best runner-up.
In Group A, Brian Harvey was untroubled as he cruised to three comfortable wins to take his place in the next round of the Championship.
Midlands Area
Atack Snooker Centre, Nuneaton (12 entries, 4 qualifiers)
The absence of Tom Terry brought Group C down to a shoot-out between Jimmy Chambers and David Rees. This resulted in a comfortable win for Chambers who therefore qualified as a group winner. He was joined by the more familiar Midlands representatives, Neal Rewhorn, Jamie Moore and Jim McCann, who all finished top of their respective groups. Tony Keeling managed to secure the last qualifying place as the best runner-up, largely due to a big win over Dean Bavister in Group D.
LAST 32
With the previous regional qualifying sections having reduced the field to 32 players, these were now drawn into eight groups of four, playing in a 90 minute round-robin format. Two players from each group would progress to the knock-out stages. Theses matches were played at four different venues on Sunday 18th February.
Breaks Snooker Club, Lincoln.
Jack Hedley was unable to attend due to illness and his place in Group A was taken by Trevor Thorn, who had been the next highest placed from Hedley's section in the previous round. However, the group was dominated by Darren Kell who won all his games, with Stephen Crosland finishing as the second qualifier.
Robin Wilson was still looking for transport to the venue the day before the event, but having succeeded with that last-minute task, looked to be playing well below his best in his first Group B match against Peter Gamblin. He nevertheless emerged victorious from that encounter and in his next game went on to produce the day's highest aggregate with a 758-203 win over Terry Colby. This included three centuries, with a best of 159. He remained undefeated to head the group and Colby recovered to clinch the second qualifying place with a win over Peter Gamblin in the final session.
Spondon SC, Derby
Lee Lagan came close to beating his own high break of 236 when he opened his account at Spondon with a run of 227. His opponent, Eddie Fielding, had little more to do than watch as Lagan put together additional breaks of 132, 116, 95, 82 and 56 in a massive 933 total. This was just 23 points short of Allan Scott's English record for a 90 minute session, set in the previous round. Lagan continued in great form as he included three centuries (184, 137, 134) to brush aside the challenge of Paul Dunning, who himself had a confidence-boosting break of 154 in winning his previous match. Lagan completed a successful day with a 645-350 win over Tony Keeling and was joined in the qualifiers from Group A by Paul Dunning who finished with a comfortable victory over Eddie Fielding.
A tough Group B saw Peter Shelley emerge undefeated, and he was joined by Allan Scott whose place was assured by a key match against Brian Harvey which he won 525-445. In a high scoring game, Scott had breaks of 179 and 106 against four 50+ breaks by Harvey.
Atack SC, Nuneaton
Phil Welham won all his matches to finish top of Group A at Nuneaton, although he struggled in his last game against Teesside's Steve Best, edging home by 441-403. Jim McCann made one of only two centuries on the day (100) which came in his first heat against Best. McCann then made sure of his place in the last 16 with a crushing 572-125 victory over Terry Azor.
Group B saw the surprise elimination of David Nichols who, after starting with a comprehensive win against Maurice Wright was then defeated by both Tony James and Michael White. This enabled both these players to qualify with James heading the group and White runnerup. In his last heat White recorded the day's second, and highest century, with 137 against Maurice Wright.
Pockets, Kidderminster
There was another late substitution in the draw as Gary Rogers pulled out of Group A and his place was taken by Derick Townend who had finished behind Rogers in the previous round. However, it was Neal Rewhorn who looked to be the class player in this group, producing a string of good breaks—including a best of 152—to go through undefeated. He was joined by Chris Ross who proved the better of the three remaining players.
Richard Lodge won all his games to top Group B and Bill Andress also went through as runner-up, both producing solid, if unspectacular, results.
Last 16 (Saturday 10th March 2001)
NE Derbyshire SC, Clay Cross
The knock-out stages arrived with the last 16 competitors at the excellent facilities provided by the North-East Snooker Centre, Clay Cross. The matches, which were all played simultaneously, were now extended over four hours in two sessions.
| Neal Rewhorn 194, 119, 93, 90, 63, 61, 61, 56 | 1211 | Phil Welham 127, 56, 53, 52 | 879 |
The defending champion lost this match in the first two-hour session as Rewhorn, with a top break of 194, established an interval lead of 494 points (731-237). Welham played better after the resumption but never looked likely to close the gap finishing 332 points in arrears.
| Richard Lodge 62, 61, 57, 56 | 1155 | Chris Ross 96, 70 | 861 |
The match was closely contested over the first two hours, Lodge finishing this period with a 47 point advantage. After this Ross faded a little and allowed Lodge to draw away, the Yorkshireman eventually winning comfortably.
| Terry Colby 62, 56 | 830 | Michael White 99, 56 | 694 |
Michael White took an early lead in his match against Terry Colby and with 30 minutes to go in the first session was some eighty points in front. However, Colby turned this around to take a narrow 28 point advantage into the interval, and thereafter slowly drew away to win by 136 points.
| Darren Kell 165, 111, 109, 99, 84, 56 | 1417 | Paul Dunning 50 | 537 |
In the rush to depart for the venue, Paul Dunning forgot one important thing—his cue! He played the first session with a cue borrowed from Branson Hoole, but not surprisingly was unable to produce his best game. Kell, meanwhile, looked to be in fine form and had built up an almost unbeatable advantage of 371 points at the interval. An urgent call to home managed to produce Dunning's missing cue in time for the second session, but Kell still dominated the match, two more centuries, including a best of 165, giving him an easy victory.
| Robin Wilson 163, 78, 66, 62, 60, 58, 50unf | 1252 | Stephen Crosland 81, 66 | 968 |
This was an intriguing contest between two champions who had just regained their titles, Robin Wilson the under-19 Championship, and Stephen Crosland the Grand Masters (over-50). Despite Crosland's greater experience in Championship play, it was Wilson who always had the upper-hand in this match, going into the interval with a useful lead of 176 points. Half-way through the second session Wilson had extended his lead to 239 before Crosland made some inroads with a break of 66, bringing the deficit down to 175 points. At this stage however, Wilson dispelled any lingering doubts and made sure of his place in the quarter-finals with a fine break of 163. This was a personal best in match-play and secured an impressive 284 point win.
| Bill Andress 71, 68, 65 | 944 | Jim McCann 73, 56, 52 | 921 |
Bill Andress was trailing by 64 points at the interval but turned the match around in the last two hours with breaks of 71 and 68 to win by just 23 points. Jim McCann must have been particularly disappointed with this result as a win would have seen him play the closing stages at his home club in Darley Dale.
| Lee Lagan 226, 212, 161, 135, 99, 79, 76, 67, 66, 65, 57, 51 | 1961 | Allan Scott 100, 154, 66, 64 | 984 |
Allan Scott started strongly against Lagan, jumping into a 70 point lead and causing some problems for his Hemlington Club team-mate over the first 30 minutes. Even a break of 99 by Lagan was immediately pulled back by one of 75 by Scott. After this however, Lagan found his touch. Consecutive visits produced 161, 43, 57, and 37, soon followed by another of 79 which took him well clear. He finished the first session with a massive break of 212 to go into the interval 991-309. Not surprisingly, Scott had struggled to find his touch during this onslaught, but came out for the second session in a much better frame of mind.
However, even two centuries (100, 154) hardly slowed Lagan, who had another double century (226) and finishing with a 135 recorded a massive four-hour aggregate of 1,961 and a match average of 32.1. Scott's total of 948 with an average of 16.4 could hardly be described as a bad performance despite losing the match by almost a thousand points!
| Peter Shelley | w/o | Tony James | scr. |
Peter Shelley was awarded a walk-over as Tony James was forced to withdraw from the competition after a fall on ice the previous week had resulted in a broken rib.
Quarter-finals (Sunday 11th March 2001)
The Whitworth Institute, Darley Dale
The following day the competition moved to Darley Dale where it would remain for the remainder of the Championship. Both of the tables at the Whitworth Institute were used for the quarter-finals, with additional seating being erected around a single table for the semi-finals and final.
| Neal Rewhorn 135, 75, 73, 73, 69, 58, 55, 52, 52 | 1490 | (n/r) | Richard Lodge | 748 | (n/r) |
Richard Lodge had defeated Neal Rewhorn at the same stage of the competition last year, but on this occasion Rewhorn dominated from the start and completed a comfortable victory with Lodge unable to mount a significant challenge.
| Darren Kell 95, 76, 67, 63 | 1054 | (16.2) | Terry Colby 72, 54, 54 | 618 | (9.7) |
Darren Kell established a lead of over 200 points after his first six visits against Terry Colby which included consecutive breaks of 63, 76, 67 and 40. From this point, he was satisfied to maintain this advantage and was careful not to leave Colby too many chances. This he did successfully, and nearing the end of the match, Kell opened up again to put together a sequence of 41, 95, 49, and 43, extending his winning margin to 436.
| Robin Wilson 151, 103, 90, 81, 57, 62, 61, 52, 52 | 1209 | (19.8) | Peter Shelley 160, 84, 75, 59, 57, 52, 51 | 993 | (16.0) |
Robin Wilson completed a great week-end when he defeated last year's runner-up, Peter Shelley, with a top-class performance. Starting the second session with an advantage of 101, he immediately added to this with a run of 103 and soon afterwards also produced a splendid break of 151. Peter Shelley, who is one of the most prolific break-builders on the circuit, responded with a typically fluent run of 160, reducing Wilson's advantage to just 200 points with an hour of play still remaining. This was a real test of the youngster's temperament, and one which he passed impressively. Breaks of 61 and 52 restored his lead to almost 300 points and even though Shelley came back with contributions of 57, 51 and 84 he never again looked likely to catch Wilson, who finished winner by 216 points.
| Lee Lagan 177, 119, 107, 105, 78, 78, 68, 61, 54, 53 | 1494 | (19.2) | Bill Andress 85, 75, 54, 51 | 1219 | (15.6) |
It appeared as though Bill Andress was destined to be on the wrong end of another dominant performance by Lagan when his misjudged break- off resulted in a contribution of 119 by the Teesside player at his first visit to the table! However, Andress, apparently undaunted by this disastrous start, immediately responded with a break of 43, which set the pattern for the match. Andress, while never quite threatening an upset, piled on the points with minor contributions, while Lagan did his scoring less regularly, but in more significant breaks. A highly entertaining match, full of interest, saw the pair put on a total of 2,713 points in four hours! Andress actually outscored Lagan over the last two hours, which in itself can be considered a significant achievement.
Semi-finals (Saturday 17th March 2001)
| Darren Kell 145, 70, 98, 64 | 963 | (17.2) | Neal Rewhorn 99, 98, 92, 74, 58 | 849 | (14.9) |
The match between Darren Kell and Neal Rewhorn was always closely fought, and although the first session began very slowly, this may have had more to do with the 10.30am start than any nerves associated with the occasion. The first break of any note came after one hour's play when Rewhorn put together a run of 98. Thereafter the lead changed hands several times until a break of 145 by Kell, occupying the last 15 minutes of the session, gave him an advantage of almost a hundred points at the interval. In the second session, Rewhorn struck back with breaks of 99 and 74 in consecutive visits and following soon afterwards with a 92, established a lead of just over a hundred for himself. Kell, aided by a break of 70 clawed his way back into contention and with 20 minutes remaining there was once again, nothing between the players. Both now appeared tense, with each in turn squandering good openings. At this stage Rewhorn offered Kell just one chance too many, and the Teesside player held his nerve to produce an impressive all-round break of 98 under the greatest pressure. This left Rewhorn 113 points in arrears with just over seven minutes remaining. It would have required something of a minor miracle for even the talents of Neal Rewhorn to overturn this deficit, and when his reply broke down at 23 Kell's victory was assured.
| Lee Lagan 337, 133, 108, 93, 92, 75, 68, 56 | 1565 | (26.5) | Robin Wilson 141, 122, 106, 90, 76, 74, 66, 58, 53, 52 | 1219 | (20.7) |
It was the pairing of Lagan and Wilson at the last-16 stage twelve months ago, that had resulted in Lagan's controversial disqualification for late arrival at the Darley Dale venue. It was therefore with some interest that the match now proceeded as each player clearly had a point to prove. Wilson seemed singularly unimpressed by the reputation of Lagan as he made all the early running, the 1999 champion being forced to catch up as best he could. Two centuries (122 and 106) gave the youngster a lead of 133 before Lagan levelled the scores at 428-all with a break of exactly that amount. With three-quarters of the first session gone, Wilson was again forty points in front, but just as thoughts of an upset began to appear, so Lagan produced something of his very best. Over the next 23 minutes he put together a huge break of 337, the highest in the competition, and surely ending the hopes of Wilson. Even so, he refused to give in, and showing a coolness and maturity which belies his 17 years, used the remaining minutes to put together an unfinished run of 133 and go into the interval trailing 767-608. On the resumption, Wilson took this break to 141 and set about the task of chasing Lagan, who was forced to pull out all the stops to maintain his lead. It was only approaching the last 30 minutes, when Lagan put together breaks of 75 and 92 in consecutive visits to take his lead over 400 points for the first time, that the realisation seemed to come to both players that the result of the game was decided. Even so, this just signalled an increase in the pace of scoring as the Darley Dale audience were treated to a spectacular period of exhibition billiards which saw Wilson, now visibly relaxed, conclude with breaks of 53, 90, 66 and 46. Lagan's winning margin of 346 suggests that this was an easy victory, but the reality was very different. Another highly entertaining match and a tremendous display of skills from both players. It was comparable in many respects to the 1995 English Amateur Final when David Causier beat Chris Shutt 1783-1568 over four hours. Robin Wilson has certain come of age with this Championship and who would now bet against him picking up the winner´s cheque next year?
Final (Sunday 18th March 2001)
| Lee Lagan 258, 174, 159, 138, 107, 104, 93, 73, 56, 55, 53 | 1536 | (30.1) | Darren Kell 171, 68, 68, 64 | 864 | (17.3) |
The final started at an incredible tempo which reflected the keen rivalry between these two Teesside stars. Kell producing 38 and 64 at his first two visits and Lagan responding with runs of 93, 138 and 104. Although the pace inevitably slackened a little after this, it was not long before Lagan produced another century—a 159—taking him to a commanding 537-154 lead after 60 minutes play. Kell, who had been scoring quite lightly after his impressive start suddenly came to life again with a break of 171 (17 minutes) reducing the arrears to just over 200 points. But at the end of the session Lagan had restored his advantage with 116 unfinished which was interrupted by the interval bell. He subsequently carried this break to 174 in a total playing time of 11½ minutes, and when he immediately followed with a run of 107 Kell was facing a deficit of 486 points and his position was looking increasingly hopeless. To his credit, he responded with two identical breaks of 68, but Lagan settled any doubts when he ended the following protracted spell of safety play with a magnificent 258. This gave him a lead of 645 with an hour remaining, an advantage he kept to the end. Although looking very tired during this closing period, Lagan managed to maintain an average of 30.1 for the four hour match
.He received the Herbert Beetham Trophy which was presented by EABA Chairman, Peter Shelley, along with a cheque for £350 which included £50 for his high break of 337. Lagan was the only player to make a break over 200 in the championship, a feat which he accomplished six times. Darren Kell, who has every reason to be pleased with his performance throughout the competition, received £200 as runner-up.