The first Amateur Billiards Circuit tournament of the 2005/06 season attracted a goodly entry of 57 players from all corners of the country. It was gratifying to see several new faces, particularly those young men who turned up from the South East, and we were graced with the pleasure of two lady entries. The event was generously sponsored by the Haverhill Snooker and Bowl and Carlsberg UK and very kindly hosted by Keith Pawley. Keith has for several years been very accommodating towards billiards and always taken a keen interest in billiards events both at local and national level.

Strong contestants, Brian Harvey, David Burgess, David Nichols, Bill Andress and Steve Crosland all went out in the early stages. Tony Clegg had a narrow win over fellow Yorkshireman Steve Crosland and Tony's travelling partner and newcomer to the ABC Rob Armitage accounted for Phil Davis. Chris Mitchell from Liskeard had good scoring matches on his way to a quarter-final place, and Mark Graham the Teessider who seems to be taking a keener interest in the Circuit these days played well before going out to on form Paul Dunning. John Mullane one of our most recent billiards enthusiast from Winchester continued his upward progress and shows great promise as a converted snooker player.

Peter Shelley scored strongly on his way to the final but had a narrow squeak against the Chester man, Paul Dunning. A little bit of running eluded Paul, as it always does, in the latter stages of his match with Peter and the Stoke man came home by a head. Phil Welham looked good from start to finish in this very successful event. He was a worthy winner of the tournament and missed very little throughout the day.

Having bowed out of the main competition early doors David Nichols never looked like getting beat in the Plate. He had a very good win against Brian Harvey in the final and captured the High Break Prize at the same time.