STOKE teenager Brandon Sargeant stroked in back-to-back century breaks en route to a first tournament win on the national under-21 snooker circuit.
The 17-year-old emerged victorious (and £325 richer) from two long days of green-baize action at the Golden Cue Pool & Snooker Club, Bilston, Wolverhampton.
Sargeant admitted he “struggled a bit” to qualify from the round-robin group stages of the second leg of the Premier Junior Tour run by the English Association of Snooker & Billiards.
But a third-place finish saw him progress to a last-32 clash with Lewis Gillen (Leeds), which ended 3-0 at 10.30pm on day one.
However, that was not the last match to finish. At ten minutes to midnight, Clayton Humphries (Liverpool) eventually wrapped up a 3-2 win against Michael Bamber (Preston).
Now in his third season on the elite tour, Sargeant - who is based at The Reardon, a snooker club in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent - returned the next day to see off Ashley Hugill (York) 4-3.
He produced his best snooker of the weekend with runs of 105 and 102 to take a 2-0 quarter-final lead against Sanderson Lam (Leeds) on the West Midlands club’s tightest table.
Lam battled well but eventually went down 4-3.
A 4-1 victory over Luke Garland (Dudley, West Midlands) and a close 4-3 win against event-one winner Ashley Carty (Rotherham) in the final, which concluded at 10.55pm, earned the Potteries potter £300 plus £25 for the highest break.
Meanwhile, Billy O’Connor (Dagenham) was praised for winning all four group matches following a hospital appointment.
And Thomas Lancastle (Bristol) was overjoyed to qualify for the second day for the first time in his debut season.
The third leg of six is at Woking Snooker Centre on the weekend of January 24-25.
Tim Dunkley
EASB Media Officer South and World Snooker coach
The English Association of Snooker & Billiards is the national governing body for the amateur game in this country. For more information about competitions, rankings lists and results, see www.easb.co.uk.
The 17-year-old emerged victorious (and £325 richer) from two long days of green-baize action at the Golden Cue Pool & Snooker Club, Bilston, Wolverhampton.
Sargeant admitted he “struggled a bit” to qualify from the round-robin group stages of the second leg of the Premier Junior Tour run by the English Association of Snooker & Billiards.
But a third-place finish saw him progress to a last-32 clash with Lewis Gillen (Leeds), which ended 3-0 at 10.30pm on day one.
However, that was not the last match to finish. At ten minutes to midnight, Clayton Humphries (Liverpool) eventually wrapped up a 3-2 win against Michael Bamber (Preston).
Now in his third season on the elite tour, Sargeant - who is based at The Reardon, a snooker club in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent - returned the next day to see off Ashley Hugill (York) 4-3.
He produced his best snooker of the weekend with runs of 105 and 102 to take a 2-0 quarter-final lead against Sanderson Lam (Leeds) on the West Midlands club’s tightest table.
Lam battled well but eventually went down 4-3.
A 4-1 victory over Luke Garland (Dudley, West Midlands) and a close 4-3 win against event-one winner Ashley Carty (Rotherham) in the final, which concluded at 10.55pm, earned the Potteries potter £300 plus £25 for the highest break.
Meanwhile, Billy O’Connor (Dagenham) was praised for winning all four group matches following a hospital appointment.
And Thomas Lancastle (Bristol) was overjoyed to qualify for the second day for the first time in his debut season.
The third leg of six is at Woking Snooker Centre on the weekend of January 24-25.
Tim Dunkley
EASB Media Officer South and World Snooker coach
The English Association of Snooker & Billiards is the national governing body for the amateur game in this country. For more information about competitions, rankings lists and results, see www.easb.co.uk.