The English Amateur Under 16´s Championship

Sunday 14th November – Various Locations

Robin Wilson and Matthew Sutton have dominated the U-16
Championships for so many years that it is almost a surprise not
to see their names featured in the line-up this year. Both, of course, are
now excluded by limitation of age, and therefore we can be certain that
a new champion will emerge from the current contest.

Three regional centres were used, located at Teesside, Lincolnshire,
and in the Eastern Counties area. All games were played on Sunday
14th November and were of 1 hour duration. The qualifiers from these
regional events will make up the eight players for the Competition
Proper.

TEESSIDE

The newly opened Riley’s Pool and Snooker Centre in Middlesbrough
provided an excellent venue for the event which saw 22 entries
competing for the four places in the final stages. Unusually for Snooker
Centres, the tables at Riley’s were not over-generous with the cut of
the pockets, and this, combined with the now ubiquitous “heavy-duty”
cloth found all over Teesside, made break-building especially difficult
for the youngsters.

Nevertheless, there were some good performances, with Craig Murphy
looking particularly impressive as he swept aside Matthew Peaker and
Andrew Fairley to qualify with some ease. Both Peaker and Fairley
had also looked a cut above the rest of the field and must have felt
aggrieved that a more fortunate draw would surely have seen them
into the competition proper.

Those who did make it through with Murphy were Stephen Bingham,
Jason Thomas and that seemingly perennial qualifier, Billy Bousfield.
Coming from Huddersfield, Matthew Peaker was the only player in
attendance who was from outside the Teesside area. It is rare these
days to come across a young player of such obvious ability who does
not reside within the national “hot-spots” of boys’ billiards. It is
understood that some of his knowledge may be attributed to Leeds
professional Ian Williamson, who has been giving him some coaching.

EASTERN COUNTIES

Gavin Lewis was the outstanding player from the Eastern section which
was played at the Pot Black SC in Fakenham. Calvin Daws had two
very close matches with Nathan Mann and Arron Spencer, but came
through them both to take the second qualifying place.

LINCOLNSHIRE

As the draw brought together Allan Taylor and Steven Welsby, and
both were based in the Liverpool area, special arrangements had been
made for their match to be played at the George Scott Club on 13th
November to minimise travelling. Even so, Taylor managed to arrive
three minutes after the appointed time and the match supervisor Bob
Williams, imposed a 12 point penalty and reduced the match time to
57 minutes. Even with this handicap, Taylor made it through by a
narrow 22 points, assisted by a break of 39.

The remainder of the field met at the Breaks SC in Lincoln where
Peter Gamblin made a series of useful breaks to take the second
qualifying place with ease.

The eight qualifiers from the three regions will now travel to the Breaks
Snooker Centre, Lincoln on Sunday 27th February where the event
will be played to a conclusion.