First world championship for Lloyd

MARK Lloyd said that playing in his first world snooker championship was an “amazing feeling”.

The 16-year-old from Gosport (pictured) was knocked out of the IBSF Under-18 World Championship in Belgium by the eventual tournament winner. In the round-robin group stages of the five-day event at Center Park in Mol, Lloyd beat Attila Soltani Hosseini (Iran) 3-0, Daniel Holoyda (Poland) 3-1, Sybren Sokolowski (Belgium) 3-0 and Jere Virtaranta (Finland) 3-0.

But the teenager, who qualified for the event by winning the English Under-18 Championship, lost 4-2 from 2-1 up in the last-32 to Welsh dragon Jackson Page.“I wasn’t up to the standard that I know that I can play,” he said. “Then I was unfortunate that the balls didn’t fall my way.“ I enjoyed the tournament. Just knowing that it’s a world championship really gets you motivated as a player. “It’s a different feeling altogether as it’s the best players from around the world competing against each other. “Also, wearing that England badge really makes you feel as that you have earned the right to be out competing in a world championship. It’s an amazing feeling and hopefully I can qualify for the world championship again next year.”

Lloyd had actually turned over Page – twice – earlier in the summer en route to finishing runner-up in the four-day MIUS Cup for under-18s at the South West Snooker Academy, Gloucester. He won 3-2 in the group stages and 4-3 in the last-16 before going out 4-2 to Tyler Rees, another Welsh lad.

Fellow Cuestars Gold Tour player Connor Benzey was another of the 40 players from seven countries competing on the professional standard tables in Gloucester. The 14-year-old century breaker from Eastleigh, who is sponsored by Pitman Training Winchester, progressed through his group and went down 4-1 to Callum Beresford (South Yorkshire) in the last-24.

Picture by John Hunter

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