Ryan’s day in Swindon
ALDERSHOT’S snooker hotshot Ryan Mears has picked up his first tournament win on the Cuestars South of England Championship Tour.
The 21-year-old pocketed the £150 top prize and jumped seven places to second in the rankings after beating Southampton’s Alex Dunkley in the event-four final at Jesters Snooker Club, Swindon.
He wrapped up the 3-1 victory with a difficult long blue played left-handed.
And Mears, who beat runaway rankings leader Matt Wilson 3-1 in the last four, earned the praise of the High Wycombe star.
Wilson said: “I was disappointed to lose to Ryan but he played well, and it didn’t surprise me when I heard he won the final.”
Tip problems threatened to disrupt Mears’ build-up to the high-quality tournament.
Following a local league singles knockout match two days before the trip, his old tip fell off and he spent the next afternoon breaking in a new one.
And things were not looking good as Mears lost his first round-robin group match 2-0 to Richard Clark (Swindon). However, he knocked in a 60 in a 2-0 win against Kieran Gell (Gosport) and reversed a 2-0 defeat by Mark Green (Salisbury) in the quarter-finals in Poole last month.
Mears qualified for the knockout in second place with a 2-0 victory and a 75 against Troy Paul (Swindon).
After a 2-1 win over Seb Worrall (Swindon) in the last 16, Mears beat Adam Nash (Southampton) 3-2. It was the fourth time this season he had accounted for Nash from 2-1 down.
Meanwhile, Wilson, 26, on a break of 104, missed a black with one red left in the second frame of a 3-0 quarter-final win over Mike Finn (Eastleigh).
“I wasn’t that fussed about it,” he explained. “I know how good a player Mike can be and keeping him off the table for the majority of the three frames was more satisfying than the 146 would have been.”
A 40-strong field chalked up a season record total of 32 breaks of more than 50.
The Swindon tournament was the fourth in a series of eight across the South of England. Remaining fixtures: February 14, Salisbury SC; March 21, Jesters SC, Swindon; April 18, Salisbury SC; May 16, Jesters SC, Swindon.
The prize pot for the end-of-season play-off now stands at £162 with four events still to play.
BREAKS:
Matt Wilson: 104, 90, 80, 77, 71, 65, 60, 51
Neil Craycraft: 95, 74, 52
Mike Finn: 94, 92, 62, 58
Alex Dunkley: 86, 61, 57, 56
Alex O’Donoghue: 79, 69, 55, 55, 52
Ryan Mears: 75, 60, 58, 57, 56
Christian Chislett: 73
Kevin Ward: 60
Sebastian Worrall: 52
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP POSITIONS:
GROUP A: 1st, Nathan Williams (Salisbury SC); 2nd, Adam Nash (Woolston Cons Club); 3rd, Davis Hui (Churchills, Eastleigh); 4th, James Dew (Sussex); 5th, Drew Farminer (Woolston Cons).
GROUP B: 1st, Alex O’Donoghue (Swindon); 2nd, Craig Hollick (Jesters SC, Swindon); 3rd, Alan Grainger (Liberal Club, High Wycombe); 4th, J Facey; 5th, John Smith (The Academy, Eastleigh).
GROUP C: 1st, Richard Clarke (Swindon); 2nd, Ryan Mears (Rileys, Aldershot); 3rd, Troy Paul (147 SC, Swindon) 4th, Mark Green (Salisbury); 5th, Kieran Gell (Stoke SC, Gosport).
GROUP D: 1st, Sebastian Worrall (Swindon SC); 2nd, Phil Wildman (147 SC, Swindon); 3rd, Zack Richardson (Moulsecoomb Social Club, Brighton); 4th, Kevin Impett (Chandler’s Ford SC); 5th, Michael Collier (Pulborough SC, West Sussex).
GROUP E: 1st, Alex Dunkley (Stubbington SC); 2nd, Christian Chislett (Selsey RBL); 3rd, Vernon Li (Aldershot); 4th, Ollie Tydeman (Woolston Cons); 5th, Gavin Cook (147 SC, Swindon).
GROUP F: 1st, Matt Wilson (Liberal Club, High Wycombe); 2nd, Christopher Richards (Roath Labour Club); 3rd, Marc Harman (The Royal Surrey Poker & Snooker Club); 4th, Sam Jefferson (Jesters SC, Swindon); 5th, Alan Childs (Salisbury SC).
GROUP G: 1st, Neil Craycraft (147 SC, Swindon); 2nd, Mike Finn (Woolston Cons); 3rd, Jack Lander (Q Ball, Eastbourne); 4th, Dean Matthews (Rileys, Reading); 5th, Richard Cooper (Jesters SC, Swindon).
GROUP H: 1st, Lewis Miles (Jesters SC, Swindon); 2nd, Mark McLean (Churchills, Eastleigh); 3rd, Liam Tinne (Salisbury SC); 4th, Kevin Ward (Hassocks Mens Club, West Sussex); 5th, Trevor Thorn (Basingstoke Conservative Club).
KNOCKOUT:
LAST-16 (five points, £10): Hollick beat Williams 2-0, Wildman beat Clark 2-1, Dunkley beat Richards 2-0, Craycraft beat McLean 2-0, Nash beat O’Donoghue 2-1, Mears beat Worrall 2-1, Wilson beat Chislett 2-0, Finn beat Miles 2-0.
QUARTER-FINALS (eight points, £20): Hollick beat Wildman 3-1, Dunkley beat Craycraft 3-2, Mears beat Nash 3-2, Wilson beat Finn 3-0.
SEMI-FINALS (12 points, £40): Dunkley beat Hollick 3-2, Mears beat Wilson 3-1.
FINAL (25/18 points, £150/£80): Mears beat Dunkley 3-1.&