Husband-to-be banks £75

MARCHWOOD star Billy Castle added £75 to his wedding fund with a typical display of bruising break building on the Cuestars South of England Championship Tour.

Castle (pictured left) hammered in seven breaks of 50 or more en route to victory in the second leg at The Crucible Sports & Social Club, Newbury.

The 21-year-old, who marries girlfriend Betsie Kempster next year, accounted for the host club’s Dale Prout 2-0 in the final.

“I’ve been putting in a few hours in practice,” said Castle, who was presumably talking about his snooker.

“It was a good day, nice club, quite nice tables to play on. I always play well up there.”

The last Cuestars event that the Cue T’s Snooker Lounge-based England international appeared at was last June’s Finals Day, in Swindon, where he played exhibition frames against trophy winners. He now has his sights set on a stab at Q School next May.

Daniel Knox earned the ‘Most Notable Achievement of the Day’ award. The 16-year-old Gold Tour player from Woking Snooker Centre was unbeaten in the group stages on his Championship Tour debut and narrowly lost 2-0 to Castle in the semi-finals.

Jon Charlton, who defeated Castle in the group stages, remains on course for a hat-trick of rankings titles. Although beaten 2-1 by Prout in the last four, Charlton – who is based at Selsey RBL and lives in Camelsdale, Surrey – leads the pack by eight points.

The third leg of seven is at Jesters Snooker Hall, Swindon, on Sunday, January 12.

BREAKS

Martin Wallace: 71.
Daniel Knox: 65.
Billy Castle: 64, 60, 58, 58, 54, 50, 50.
Jon Charlton: 54.
Dale Prout: 61, 50.
Ian Rose: 57.

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP POSITIONS

GROUP A: 1st, Jon Charlton (Selsey RBL); 2nd, Billy Castle (Cue T’s, Marchwood); 3rd, David Beakhouse (Caversham WMC); 4th, Martin Wallace (Colours, Reading); 5th, Ian Rose (Crucible, Newbury); 6th, James Budd (Stoke SC, Gosport); 7th, Trevor Thorn (Basingstoke Conservative Club).

GROUP B: 1st, Daniel Knox (Woking SC); 2nd, Dale Prout (Crucible, Newbury); 3rd, Adam King (New Arches SC, Coventry); 4th, Liam O’Shea (Jesters, Swindon); 5th, Dominic Holmes (Sovereign SC, Farnborough); 6th, Gary Tomkins (Chandler’s Ford SC).

KNOCKOUT RESULTS

SEMI-FINALS (£15): Prout beat Charlton 2-1, Castle beat Knox 2-0.

FINAL (£75/£35): Castle beat Prout 2-0.

Picture by Tim Dunkley