Egg-citing new tournament

[snookerdad]

A BIG-money tournament will be held on Easter Monday in Marchwood, near Southampton.

Steve Rutherford, the new owner of Cue T’s Snooker Lounge, revealed this week that his first high-quality event will be held on Monday, April 9.

The date has been carefully chosen not to clash with any Cuestars events or EASB competitions.

Subject to 32 entries, the prize fund will total a whopping £650. The winner will pocket £400, the runner-up £200 and there will be £50 for the highest break.

Entry fee of £25 is payable on the day. Registration is at 10am and the draw takes place at 10.30am prompt.

The format is a best-of-five frame scratch knockout. The final will be best-of-seven. The miss rule will be applied if both players agree before their match. There will be no Plate competition.

Cue T’s has nine tables - including a professional silver leg with tournament grade cloth, which will be used throughout the day and for the final.

It is the practice base for England internationals Shane Castle, Billy Castle and Alex Dunkley.

The club will serve hot and cold food all day.

Address:

Cue T’s Snooker Lounge
Unit 14
Marchwood village centre
Marchwood
Southampton
SO40 4SF
Tel: 02380 870001

Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)

[Terry Davidson]

Tim:

As I will be in Gloucester during the month of April and I always like to play in tournaments I am going to check and see how long the drive would be from Gloucester to Southampton so I can see if it would make sense. Maybe I can talk Paul Williams at SWSA to play in it and we can drive down together.

But I would love to play if I can and if my schedule allows

Terry

[snookerdad]

I'll be helping out on the day, Terry. I'd love to meet you and perhaps have a chance to put the world to rights.

Tim

[Deepscrew]

take around 2 hours in total roughly from Glos to Chandlers Ford. Perhaps a little longer.

[Terry Davidson]

Tim:

Just a quick question...32 x 25 = 800GBP but the prize fund is 650. If there are 32 players will the prize fund increase to 800GBP?

Or is the remaining 150GBP for table time or am I missing something?

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

Thanks Deepscrew. Now I'll see if I can arrange some kind of transport short of renting a car (or maybe I'll have to)

Terry

[gazza147]

Entering a Tourny at £25 Each and the Winner to get £400 sounds good but isnt Great these Days for 32 Players entering at that Price! Alot of People would be Put off by the Fee unless there very good players.

Terry Griffiths used to Run Tourny's over 15yrs ago with Better Prize Money and Only £10 to Enter and what great tournys they were Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens, Dom Dale, Phil Williams etc just to Mention a few great players.

Gaz.

[Deepscrew]

The £25 will only attract the good players. You must presume they dont want 100 people turning up hence the higher than normal entry fee.

15 years ago was a very different time in the snooker world. Hence why he isnt running a £10 tournament paying more than £400 to the winner now.

[snookerdad]

Yes, the balance is to cover expenses, table light and a tournament director.

[snookerdad]

Three (or is it four?) internationals have confirmed their entries for the Easter Monday tournament at Cue T’s Snooker Lounge in Marchwood, on the edge of the New Forest near Southampton.

They are:

Billy Castle (England international, currently fourth on the EASB Pro-Ticket Tour)

Alex Dunkley (England international and 2009 English Club Players champion)

Jordan Winbourne (England international, finished seventh on the 2011/12 EASB Premier Junior Tour)

Organisers did receive a message from 14-year-old Shane Castle (England international, 2010 English Under-14 Champion, twice Pontin’s Star of the Future under-12 champion, finished third on the 2011/12 EASB Premier Junior Tour).

However, Shane, who is based at Cue T’s, is preparing to jet out for next week’s European Under-21 Championship in Sofia and must have been practising his Bulgarian.

The message read: “I dno prbz.”

Tim Dunkley (World Snooker Coach)

[magicman]

I love the fact that tournaments are available to enter, but object to the TD, ref's and expenses argument. If there are 700/800 people at Prestatyn then YES you need a tournament director but if there's a local 32 man comp at a 9 table club then a paying a TD and/or refs and their expenses seems unnecessary. After all, you just write the winners name in the next box and give them the next available table. I'm thinking more of EASB comps really, where ref's stand around all day, setting up balls, making the odd miss call, and you wait til the semi or even final before you actually get one of them reffing your match.

[Terry Davidson]

At the very least all entry fees in a smaller tournament should be returned as prize money. Usually the club makes some profit from the food and booze sales, but in this example the club is taking out table time, TD pay and other incidentals.

Normally it's sound business practice for a club to hold tournaments and also donate something to the prize money, like high break and not take out green fees as if the players and any spectators like the tables and the club atmosphere they should come back to practice and therefore generate more business for the club in the future. You have to invest money to make money.

Terry

[snookerdad]

European Under-21 runner-up Shane Castle will join at least six other past and present England internationals at the Easter Monday tournament at Cue T’s Snooker Lounge, Marchwood, near Southampton.

England stars Nick Jennings, Billy Castle, Mike Finn, Adam Bobat, Ryan Causton and Alex Dunkley have all confirmed.

Club owner Steve Rutherford announced this week the air-conditioning is now fully operational.

The draw for the best-of-five scratch tournament takes place at 10.30am. Entry fee of £25 is payable on the day. Subject to a 32-strong field, prize money will total £650.

Beware: the standard may be quite high.

Hope to see you there.

For more details, call Steve on 02380 870001.

Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)

[snookerdad]

CASTLE cousins Billy and Shane pulled up the drawbridge, repelled the south-coast raiders and scooped the entire prize fund at today’s Easter Monday Tournament at Cue T’s Snooker Lounge, Marchwood.

After battling through both halves of a top-quality field at their home club, the England internationals agreed to spilt the £210 prize pot.

And Billy pocketed £35 for the highest break of exactly 100.

There was no requirement for the brand new air conditioning system as the rain pelted down outside.

But the weather did not put a dampener on proceedings as the sharpest cuemen from the Southampton area – boosted by some fine talent from Dorset and West Sussex – assembled under the same roof for the first time since the old king died.

On the tables, European Under-21 runner-up Shane Castle saw off Paul Norris (Crawley) 4-0, the 2011 EASB Premier Junior Tour champion Nick Jennings (Chandler’s Ford) 4-1 and Southampton’s 2006 Town Champion Adam Nash 4-0.

After defeating Steve Tonks (Hythe) 4-0, Billy Castle took out Mike Finn (Eastleigh) 4-1. The Mighty Finn had beaten Castle in the Town Championship final in March.

In the second frame of a 4-2 semi-final victory over Zack Richardson (Brighton), Billy compiled a 100, which earned the 19-year-old £35 for the highest break of the day. He potted the last red for the ton but missed a possible 134 after cutting in the black but going ‘in-off’ into the middle pocket.

Match of the day was definitely the epic seven-frame war of attrition on the Silver Leg match-table between Nash and Simon Dent (Shoreham-by-Sea).

Much oohing and aahing from the spectators accompanied the battle on the colours in the decider.

Dent extracted the required penalty points from a Nash foul and, needing the last three colours, sunk the blue. But he missed the pink, which was close to the black cushion, while trying to force the cue-ball into prime position on the black.

Club-owner Steve Rutherford is keen to stage more of these tournaments – aimed specifically at the top amateurs – and is looking at summer dates (now that the air-con is up and running).

RESULTS

Prelims: Billy Castle (Marchwood) 4 Steve Tonks (Hythe) 0, Nick Jennings (Chandler’s Ford) 4 Tom Courtney (Poole) 0, Shane Castle (Marchwood) 4 Paul Norris (Crawley) 0, Simon Dent (Shoreham-by-Sea) 4 Alex Dunkley (Southampton) 1, Adam Nash (Southampton) 4 Adam Bobat (Fareham) 3.

Quarter-finals: B Castle 4 Mike Finn (Eastleigh) 1, S Castle 4 Jennings 1, Zack Richardson (Brighton) 5 Andy Hudson (Poole) 2, Nash 4 Dent 3.

Semi-finals: B Castle 4 Richardson 2, S Castle 4 Nash 0.

Final: Spilt.

BREAKS

Billy Castle: 100, 60, 60, 53, 52.
Nick Jennings: 79.
Adam Nash: 74, 64.
Simon Dent: 63.
Mike Finn: 60.
Shane Castle: 58, 53.
Zack Richardson: 50.

Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)