Worrall surprised by second tournament win

But the victorious Swindon cueman improved throughout the day and accounted for the 2012 Cuestars champion Jon Charlton 3-0 in the final.

Worrall, who is based at Swindon Snooker Club, popped across town to Jesters Snooker Hall to record his second Cuestars tournament win in seven outings.

“I wasn’t expecting to win at all as I only practise once a week now,” he said.

“The highlight of the day was winning the semi-final and final 3-0. I felt like I was getting better as the day went on.”

Indeed, Worrall lost two of his five round-robin matches and snatched the second qualifying spot by just one frame from the host club’s Lewis Miles.

After edging his clubmate Richard Clark 2-1 in the last-eight, Worrall beat Adam King (New Arches SC, Coventry) 3-0 in the semi-finals.

Worrall – who compiled a maximum 147 break on Stephen Lee’s practice table in April 2010, a feat witnessed by the Trowbridge professional – cruised to a 1-0 lead in the final but was forced to scrap in the next.

Charlton (Aldwick RBL, Bognor Regis), who had also qualified from his group in second place, needed just the last red and a colour in the key second frame.

Taking up the story, Charlton said: “Seb took the last red and colour, potted the yellow but snookered himself on the green. In escaping from the snooker, Seb hit the green and fluked it in the corner and went on to pot a very good long brown followed by a long blue in the corner. He then potted the pink to win the frame.”

Already leading in the third, Worrall reaped the benefit of a good safety shot and wrapped up the victory with a 40-plus break.

“Seb played well and scored consistently through the match,” said Charlton. “The second frame, I feel I should have won. But that is just the way it can go sometimes. Even with a bit of luck at the right time, he still potted three good shots that followed it.”

A 24-strong field at Jesters returned 15 half-century breaks.

The second leg of six is at The Crucible Sports & Social Club in Newbury on Sunday, November 18.

Seb Worrall: 84, 65, 50.

Billy Castle: 83, 71, 59, 54, 52, 52.

Adam King: 70, 61.

Jon Charlton: 63, 62.

Richard Clark: 63, 56.

Thomas Lancastle: 43.

GROUP A: 1st, Adam King (New Arches SC, Coventry); 2nd, Craig Marsh (Crucible, Newbury); 3rd, Daniel Woods (Chandler’s Ford SC); 4th, Jessie Stevens (Sovereign SC, Farnborough); 5th, Neil Carroll (Chandler’s Ford SC); 6th, James Ray (Sovereign SC, Farnborough).

GROUP B: 1st, Richard Clark (Swindon SC); 2nd, Jon Charlton (Aldwick RBL, Bognor Regis); 3rd, Trevor Thorn (Basingstoke Cons); 4th, Oliver Parsons (Jesters, Swindon); 5th, Wasim Khan (Liberal Club, High Wycombe); 6th, Josh Lee (Jesters, Swindon).

GROUP C: 1st, Billy Castle (Cue T’s, Marchwood); 2nd, Seb Worrall (Swindon SC); 3rd, Lewis Miles (Jesters, Swindon); 4th, Mark McLean (Churchills, Eastleigh); 5th, Martin Wallace (Colours, Reading); 6th, Ollie Kendrick (St James SC, Bournemouth).

GROUP D: 1st, Dominic Holmes (Sovereign SC, Farnborough); 2nd, Thomas Lancastle (Eastville SC, Bristol); 3rd, Ben Tanner (The Academy, Eastleigh); 4th, Troy Bodman (Jesters, Swindon); 5th, John Smith (The Academy, Eastleigh); 6th, Peter Chin (Woking SC).

QUARTER-FINALS (£10, 12 points): King beat Lancastle 2-0, Worrall beat Clark 2-1, Charlton beat Castle 2-1, Marsh beat Holmes 2-1.

SEMI-FINALS (£25, 15 points): Worrall beat King 3-0, Charlton beat Marsh 3-0.

FINAL (£100/£50, 25/18 points): Worrall beat Charlton 3-0.