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CONNOR Benzey proved how deadly he is amongst the colours as he clinched his first tournament win of the season on the Cuestars circuit.
The 15-year-old from Eastleigh overcame a shaky start to the sixth leg of the South of England Under-21 Gold Tour to beat Aidan Murphy 2-0 in the final.
Benzey, runner-up in the previous two events in London and Bournemouth, is fourth in the rankings following his success at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
All four of his round-robin group-stage matches ended in 2-1 scorelines.
He lost to England international Mickey Joyce (Basingstoke) and former English Under-14 Championship runner-up Jamie Wilson (Havant) and beat his Chandlers Ford clubmate Dan Sykes and Cameron Holt (Reading).
That meant he took one of the two best third-place qualification spots by one frame from another clubmate, Steven Hughes.
Benzey then edged Anthony Rice (Fordingbridge) 2-1 in the last-eight but started to flow in a 2-0 semi-final victory over Joyce.
“I didn’t play too well until my semi-final against Mickey,” he said. “I started playing really well then.”
Benzey - who is sponsored by Pitman Training Winchester, Hillcrest Structural and GH Property Management - trailed in both frames against Murphy but secured both when given chances on the colours.
Clearing the colours is a staple practice routine for the teenager, who cleared the table for a personal best 132 break in a warm-up match five days before the event.
He took brown to pink in the opener after Murphy had gone in-off and he left his 13-year-old opponent from Bristol chasing snookers on the pink in the second.
Second-placed Murphy - who is sponsored by Elite Mobility, Hanham Flooring Centre and NH Couriers - recorded the day’s highest break of 89 in his group-stage match against Arron Smith (Selsey).
He beat rankings leader Bradley Cowdroy (Bournemouth) 2-0 in the quarter-finals and 12-year-old Oliver Sykes (Chandler’s Ford) 2-1 on the final black in the last-four.
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS
Aidan Murphy: 89, 67, 47.
Bradley Cowdroy: 78, 42.
Mickey Joyce: 61.
Connor Benzey: 53.
Dan Sykes: 53.
Jamie Wilson: 48, 47.
Anthony Rice: 46.
Evan Plummer: 43, 42.
Cameron Holt: 40.
GOLD RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Anthony Rice (Salisbury SC); 2nd, Aidan Murphy (Fishponds Cons Club, Bristol); 3rd, Adam Stacey (Legends, Leytonstone); 4th, Arron Smith (Selsey RBL, Chichester); 5th, Evan Plummer (Frames, Coulsdon).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Mickey Joyce (Academy, Basingstoke); 2nd, Jamie Wilson (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 3rd, Connor Benzey (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Dan Sykes (Chandlers Ford SC); 5th, Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Oliver Sykes (Chandlers Ford SC); 2nd, Bradley Cowdroy (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 3rd, Steven Hughes (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Elliott Weston (Top Spot, Havant); 5th, Callum McDonald (Salisbury SC).
QUARTER-FINALS (12 points): Benzey 2-1 Rice, Joyce 2-0 Stacey, O Sykes 2-0 Wilson, Murphy 2-0 Cowdroy.
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Benzey 2-0 Joyce, Murphy 2-1 O Sykes.
FINAL (£77.50/£35, 25/18 points): Benzey 2-0 Murphy.
Nat’s the way to do it - again
FERNDOWN’S rapidly improving snooker teenager Nat Kidner has proved the old adage that winning can become a habit.
After a near five-year wait for a first Cuestars winner’s trophy, the 14-year-old has now clinched back-to-back tournament successes.
And he even admitted he may have added a touch of safety play to his all-out attacking game.
Kidner - who broke his duck in the fifth leg of the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Silver Tour on home tables at Greenbaize Snooker Club, Bournemouth, last month - continued the run on his travels.
The Bournemouth School pupil overcame Brett Wallace (Gosport) 2-0 in the final of the sixth leg at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
“I’ve just hit a run of form where I just can’t stop potting and it feels really, really good,” he said.
“I like winning and I like playing in Cuestars (tournaments) and for all those years I was never really able to get anything out of it.
“I was afraid after Bournemouth that I might just go back to losing in the group stage again.”
And he added: “Perhaps I am thinking more about shots and perhaps playing more safety. It does help.”
Kidner climbed to third place in the rankings, 26 points behind front runner and Greenbaize clubmate David O’Callaghan. Wallace is second.
Callum White (Havant) topped his four-man round-robin group and reached his second semi-final of the season. He climbed to sixth place after a 2-0 defeat by Kidner.
Last season’s Bronze Tour rankings winner Riley Ellis (north Wilts) won his group on frames difference but went out 2-1 to Wallace in the last-four.
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS
Nat Kidner: 30.
SILVER RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Callum White (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 2nd, Brett Wallace (Fareham SC); 3rd, Chloe White (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 4th, Ally Pollard (Salisbury SC).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Riley Ellis (147 SC, Swindon); 2nd, Nat Kidner (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 3rd, Shane Kearns (Jesters, Swindon).
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Wallace 2-1 Ellis, Kidner 2-0 Callum White.
FINAL (25/18 points): Kidner 2-0 Wallace.
Record breaker Sullivan on brink of claiming Bronze title
IT MAY only be February but south London snooker star Ronnie Sullivan already has one hand on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Bronze Tour title.
And he has set one record and is eyeing another.
The 13-year-old from Chipstead celebrated with a generous slice of chocolate Swiss roll after collecting his fourth winner’s trophy of the season at the sixth leg at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
Sullivan, who has appeared in eight consecutive finals since near the end of last season, defeated Riccardo Drayton (Chandler’s Ford) 2-0 to claim maximum rankings points.
“I played out of my skin in the final,” he said.
“At the beginning of the first frame, I didn’t do a lot of damage but then I potted a long ball and that gave me confidence.”
Sullivan is set to become the first player in the nine-year history of the competition to jump straight from Bronze to Gold. He passed the Gold threshold of a 60 break with a 61 in a handicapped tournament at his home club, Frames Sports Bar, Coulsdon.
Cuestars organisers reckon Sullivan “already looks like a Gold player”.
And he now wants to become the first to appear in every final over a season.
Sullivan added he is “looking forward” to next week’s trip to Leeds for the last-16 of the English Under-14 Championship.
Meanwhile, Mason Wilson (Baughurst, near Basingstoke) made the semi-finals for the first time. He won three of his four group-stage matches and overcame newcomer Thomas Sharp (Portsmouth) 2-0 in the last-eight before losing 2-0 to Sullivan.
Sullivan said: “(Mason) played well. He made me fight for it.”
In the second semi, Drayton beat his nine-year-old cousin O’Shay Scott 2-1 from 1-0 down.
Sullivan takes a 36-point lead over Samuel Laxton (Portsmouth) into the remaining four tournaments. Drayton is ten points further adrift in third.
Remarkably, the top three had been drawn together in the same four-man round-robin group - along with Louie Leighton (Basildon), who was runner-up in Bournemouth last month.
Laxton won all of his matches but went out 2-0 to Scott in the quarter-finals.
Drayton qualified as one of the two best thirds via a six-reds play-off against Owen Jenkins (Havant).
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by event sponsor Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS
Oliver Cooper: 29.
Mason Wilson: 25, 23.
Ronnie Sullivan: 22, 21.
Dean Russell: 22.
Riccardo Drayton: 22.
BRONZE RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Oliver Cooper (Frames, Coulsdon); 2nd, Mason Wilson (Academy, Basingstoke); 3rd, O’Shay Scott (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Dean Russell (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 5th, Zak Truscott (Waterlooville Sports Bar).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Samuel Laxton (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 2nd, Ronnie Sullivan (Frames, Coulsdon); 3rd, Riccardo Drayton (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Louie Leighton (Rileys, Benfleet).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Will Forster (Mayfair, Gosport); 2nd, Thomas Sharp (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 3rd, Owen Jenkins (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 4th, Vinnie Rix (Waterlooville Sports Bar).
QUARTER-FINALS (12 points): Drayton 2-0 Cooper, Scott 2-0 Laxton, Sullivan 2-0 Forster, Wilson 2-0 Sharp.
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Drayton 2-1 Scott, Sullivan 2-0 Mason.
FINAL (25/18 points): Sullivan 2-0 Drayton.
Hughes denies Russell first winner’s trophy
GOLD Tour player Steven Hughes won the Plate competition for non-qualifiers during the sixth legs of the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Tours at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
The 16-year-old, who had missed out on a three-way play-off for the two best thirds by one frame, beat Dean Russell (Portsmouth) in the final.
It was Russell’s first Cuestars trophy. The 16-year-old, a product of the junior leagues at Waterlooville Sports Bar, made his debut last September.
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by event sponsor Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS:
Dean Russell: 22
PLATE RESULTS (ONE-FRAME MATCHES)
QUARTER-FINALS: Steven Hughes (Chandlers Ford SC) beat Vinnie Rix (Waterlooville Sports Bar), Chloe White (Waterlooville Sports Bar) beat Ally Pollard (Salisbury SC), Arron Smith (Selsey RBL, Chichester) beat Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe), Dean Russell (Waterlooville Sports Bar) beat Owen Jenkins (Waterlooville Sports Bar).
SEMI-FINALS: Hughes beat White, Russell beat Smith.
FINAL: Hughes beat Russell.
Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)
The 15-year-old from Eastleigh overcame a shaky start to the sixth leg of the South of England Under-21 Gold Tour to beat Aidan Murphy 2-0 in the final.
Benzey, runner-up in the previous two events in London and Bournemouth, is fourth in the rankings following his success at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
All four of his round-robin group-stage matches ended in 2-1 scorelines.
He lost to England international Mickey Joyce (Basingstoke) and former English Under-14 Championship runner-up Jamie Wilson (Havant) and beat his Chandlers Ford clubmate Dan Sykes and Cameron Holt (Reading).
That meant he took one of the two best third-place qualification spots by one frame from another clubmate, Steven Hughes.
Benzey then edged Anthony Rice (Fordingbridge) 2-1 in the last-eight but started to flow in a 2-0 semi-final victory over Joyce.
“I didn’t play too well until my semi-final against Mickey,” he said. “I started playing really well then.”
Benzey - who is sponsored by Pitman Training Winchester, Hillcrest Structural and GH Property Management - trailed in both frames against Murphy but secured both when given chances on the colours.
Clearing the colours is a staple practice routine for the teenager, who cleared the table for a personal best 132 break in a warm-up match five days before the event.
He took brown to pink in the opener after Murphy had gone in-off and he left his 13-year-old opponent from Bristol chasing snookers on the pink in the second.
Second-placed Murphy - who is sponsored by Elite Mobility, Hanham Flooring Centre and NH Couriers - recorded the day’s highest break of 89 in his group-stage match against Arron Smith (Selsey).
He beat rankings leader Bradley Cowdroy (Bournemouth) 2-0 in the quarter-finals and 12-year-old Oliver Sykes (Chandler’s Ford) 2-1 on the final black in the last-four.
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS
Aidan Murphy: 89, 67, 47.
Bradley Cowdroy: 78, 42.
Mickey Joyce: 61.
Connor Benzey: 53.
Dan Sykes: 53.
Jamie Wilson: 48, 47.
Anthony Rice: 46.
Evan Plummer: 43, 42.
Cameron Holt: 40.
GOLD RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Anthony Rice (Salisbury SC); 2nd, Aidan Murphy (Fishponds Cons Club, Bristol); 3rd, Adam Stacey (Legends, Leytonstone); 4th, Arron Smith (Selsey RBL, Chichester); 5th, Evan Plummer (Frames, Coulsdon).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Mickey Joyce (Academy, Basingstoke); 2nd, Jamie Wilson (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 3rd, Connor Benzey (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Dan Sykes (Chandlers Ford SC); 5th, Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Oliver Sykes (Chandlers Ford SC); 2nd, Bradley Cowdroy (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 3rd, Steven Hughes (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Elliott Weston (Top Spot, Havant); 5th, Callum McDonald (Salisbury SC).
QUARTER-FINALS (12 points): Benzey 2-1 Rice, Joyce 2-0 Stacey, O Sykes 2-0 Wilson, Murphy 2-0 Cowdroy.
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Benzey 2-0 Joyce, Murphy 2-1 O Sykes.
FINAL (£77.50/£35, 25/18 points): Benzey 2-0 Murphy.
Nat’s the way to do it - again
FERNDOWN’S rapidly improving snooker teenager Nat Kidner has proved the old adage that winning can become a habit.
After a near five-year wait for a first Cuestars winner’s trophy, the 14-year-old has now clinched back-to-back tournament successes.
And he even admitted he may have added a touch of safety play to his all-out attacking game.
Kidner - who broke his duck in the fifth leg of the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Silver Tour on home tables at Greenbaize Snooker Club, Bournemouth, last month - continued the run on his travels.
The Bournemouth School pupil overcame Brett Wallace (Gosport) 2-0 in the final of the sixth leg at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
“I’ve just hit a run of form where I just can’t stop potting and it feels really, really good,” he said.
“I like winning and I like playing in Cuestars (tournaments) and for all those years I was never really able to get anything out of it.
“I was afraid after Bournemouth that I might just go back to losing in the group stage again.”
And he added: “Perhaps I am thinking more about shots and perhaps playing more safety. It does help.”
Kidner climbed to third place in the rankings, 26 points behind front runner and Greenbaize clubmate David O’Callaghan. Wallace is second.
Callum White (Havant) topped his four-man round-robin group and reached his second semi-final of the season. He climbed to sixth place after a 2-0 defeat by Kidner.
Last season’s Bronze Tour rankings winner Riley Ellis (north Wilts) won his group on frames difference but went out 2-1 to Wallace in the last-four.
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS
Nat Kidner: 30.
SILVER RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Callum White (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 2nd, Brett Wallace (Fareham SC); 3rd, Chloe White (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 4th, Ally Pollard (Salisbury SC).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Riley Ellis (147 SC, Swindon); 2nd, Nat Kidner (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 3rd, Shane Kearns (Jesters, Swindon).
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Wallace 2-1 Ellis, Kidner 2-0 Callum White.
FINAL (25/18 points): Kidner 2-0 Wallace.
Record breaker Sullivan on brink of claiming Bronze title
IT MAY only be February but south London snooker star Ronnie Sullivan already has one hand on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Bronze Tour title.
And he has set one record and is eyeing another.
The 13-year-old from Chipstead celebrated with a generous slice of chocolate Swiss roll after collecting his fourth winner’s trophy of the season at the sixth leg at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
Sullivan, who has appeared in eight consecutive finals since near the end of last season, defeated Riccardo Drayton (Chandler’s Ford) 2-0 to claim maximum rankings points.
“I played out of my skin in the final,” he said.
“At the beginning of the first frame, I didn’t do a lot of damage but then I potted a long ball and that gave me confidence.”
Sullivan is set to become the first player in the nine-year history of the competition to jump straight from Bronze to Gold. He passed the Gold threshold of a 60 break with a 61 in a handicapped tournament at his home club, Frames Sports Bar, Coulsdon.
Cuestars organisers reckon Sullivan “already looks like a Gold player”.
And he now wants to become the first to appear in every final over a season.
Sullivan added he is “looking forward” to next week’s trip to Leeds for the last-16 of the English Under-14 Championship.
Meanwhile, Mason Wilson (Baughurst, near Basingstoke) made the semi-finals for the first time. He won three of his four group-stage matches and overcame newcomer Thomas Sharp (Portsmouth) 2-0 in the last-eight before losing 2-0 to Sullivan.
Sullivan said: “(Mason) played well. He made me fight for it.”
In the second semi, Drayton beat his nine-year-old cousin O’Shay Scott 2-1 from 1-0 down.
Sullivan takes a 36-point lead over Samuel Laxton (Portsmouth) into the remaining four tournaments. Drayton is ten points further adrift in third.
Remarkably, the top three had been drawn together in the same four-man round-robin group - along with Louie Leighton (Basildon), who was runner-up in Bournemouth last month.
Laxton won all of his matches but went out 2-0 to Scott in the quarter-finals.
Drayton qualified as one of the two best thirds via a six-reds play-off against Owen Jenkins (Havant).
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by event sponsor Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS
Oliver Cooper: 29.
Mason Wilson: 25, 23.
Ronnie Sullivan: 22, 21.
Dean Russell: 22.
Riccardo Drayton: 22.
BRONZE RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Oliver Cooper (Frames, Coulsdon); 2nd, Mason Wilson (Academy, Basingstoke); 3rd, O’Shay Scott (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Dean Russell (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 5th, Zak Truscott (Waterlooville Sports Bar).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Samuel Laxton (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 2nd, Ronnie Sullivan (Frames, Coulsdon); 3rd, Riccardo Drayton (Chandlers Ford SC); 4th, Louie Leighton (Rileys, Benfleet).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Will Forster (Mayfair, Gosport); 2nd, Thomas Sharp (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 3rd, Owen Jenkins (Waterlooville Sports Bar); 4th, Vinnie Rix (Waterlooville Sports Bar).
QUARTER-FINALS (12 points): Drayton 2-0 Cooper, Scott 2-0 Laxton, Sullivan 2-0 Forster, Wilson 2-0 Sharp.
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Drayton 2-1 Scott, Sullivan 2-0 Mason.
FINAL (25/18 points): Sullivan 2-0 Drayton.
Hughes denies Russell first winner’s trophy
GOLD Tour player Steven Hughes won the Plate competition for non-qualifiers during the sixth legs of the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Tours at Top Spot Snooker Club, Havant.
The 16-year-old, who had missed out on a three-way play-off for the two best thirds by one frame, beat Dean Russell (Portsmouth) in the final.
It was Russell’s first Cuestars trophy. The 16-year-old, a product of the junior leagues at Waterlooville Sports Bar, made his debut last September.
Fareham Snooker Club hosts the seventh leg of ten on Sunday, February 25.
Trophies were presented by event sponsor Trevor Sanders from Trevor Sanders Snooker and Pool Table Services, a Fareham-based family-run firm that can be contacted via www.snookerandpooltableservices.co.uk/ .
BREAKS:
Dean Russell: 22
PLATE RESULTS (ONE-FRAME MATCHES)
QUARTER-FINALS: Steven Hughes (Chandlers Ford SC) beat Vinnie Rix (Waterlooville Sports Bar), Chloe White (Waterlooville Sports Bar) beat Ally Pollard (Salisbury SC), Arron Smith (Selsey RBL, Chichester) beat Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe), Dean Russell (Waterlooville Sports Bar) beat Owen Jenkins (Waterlooville Sports Bar).
SEMI-FINALS: Hughes beat White, Russell beat Smith.
FINAL: Hughes beat Russell.
Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)
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