Fourth Under-19 title for Oliver Sykes

OLIVER Sykes heads up to Leeds on Monday for the Home Internationals on the back of securing his fourth Eastleigh & District Under-19 Premier League title.

The 13-year-old (pictured) ended the 59th season at Chandlers Ford Snooker Club seven points ahead of O’Shay Scott. Riley Ellis was third.

Sykes, who completed the Cuestars Under-21 Gold Tour double last season, has been selected for the England Under-16 first team along with Aidan Murphy. Jamie Wilson, newly promoted to the Premier Tour, stars in the B side. Mickey Joyce appears for the Under-21 B team. Ryan Mears is in the billiards team.

Meanwhile, Simeon Dore passed Level 1 of the Cuestars Academy during the third EPSB Summer Club introductory session at Chandlers Ford SC. The fourth session is from 11.30am-12.30pm next Saturday.

And the old racing adage about backing the outsider of three could have earned us a fortune the day before.

Week 1 winner William Thomson came up on the rails to take the Week 2 trophy on Day 13 of the Rotary Summer Cup.

There was a massive entry of 16, the second highest of the 383 school holiday competition days since the launch in 2013.

In the final play-off match, William got the snookers required to beat Dylan Beer and take the honours. If he had lost, he and Caden Read would have needed a tiebreaker. Front-runner O’Shay missed out by one victory.

Seven-year-old William earlier made his first line-up score of 50 under the guidance of Connor Benzey, who posted two tons in his matches – 107 against the day’s winner Harry Wyatt and 100 against Riley.

The junior competition with World Snooker coach Tim Dunkley runs from 11am-3pm on every weekday over the school holiday. New U13 and U19 Leagues start next Saturday.

Picture by Tim Dunkley

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Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)