Mickey vows to spend, spend, spend – on hotel rooms

THERE will be no new pairs of trainers or an updated mobile phone for the 13-year-old who pocketed £300 for winning a six-month snooker competition. Instead, Mickey Joyce has vowed to splash the cash on hotel rooms. The England international wrapped up Open Series 20 at Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club before a ball was potted in the 26th and final week.Runner-up and two-time champion Luke Beebe needed a preliminary round match to stand any chance and the draw was not kind.

Cuestars Gold Tour player Joyce, sponsored by Surrey-based Falcon Pools and The Academy in his home town of Basingstoke, recently won promotion to the national EASB Premier Junior Tour that is restricted to the country’s top-40 under-21 players. The two-day tournaments in Leeds, Derby, Chesterfield, Lowestoft, Manchester and Gloucester will involve overnight stops and Joyce said his prize money will help pay for the hotels.

Half-an-hour before club owner Jim Everett dished out the £1,310 prize money to the top-12 ranked players, Joyce compiled a personal best 87 break against Charlie Pringle – and lost the Eastleigh & District Under-19 match 2-1.Connor Benzey, 14, made the series high break of 102 and topped the list of 30+ breaks with 41. Open Series 20 attracted the highest ever average weekly entry since the competition launched in 2009.

MONEY WINNERS.

£40 Phil Morgan, £30 Dan Hammond, £25 Dan Sykes, £50 Barry Doswell. Middle row: £80 Connor Benzey, £20 Steven Hughes, £100 Ryan Hughes, £300 Mickey Joyce (champion), £150 Olly Gibbs, £65 Charlie Pringle, £250 Luke Beebe. Front: £200 Oliver Sykes.

A star-studded cast of 24 kicked off the 21st Open Series, which carries record prize money of £1,540 for the top-12 ranked players after 26 weeks.Along with English Under-18 Championship winner Mark Lloyd, who won the first final, the field included women’s world number seven Suzie Opacic, English Under-14 Championship runner-up Jamie Wilson, England under-16 international Joyce and former Town Champion Danny Gallant.

Handicapped tournaments, open to all ages and to non-members of the club, take place at 1pm every Saturday.

Handicaps change slightly every week thanks to a clever spreadsheet that analyses the previous week’s results.

Weekly cost is £9 for members and £10 for non-members.

There are free practice tables, subject to availability, until the competition finishes at 6-7pm.

Ring 023 8025 4834 for more details or go to www.cfordsnooker.co.uk.

Pictures by Tim Dunkley

Have you got any snooker news? Send me your snooker news now. It doesn’t have to be from a Cuestars tournament. E-mail me details or contact me via Facebook and you could be on the Cuestars website and in your local newspaper.

E-mail: [email protected]