Lucky 13 for Ally

IT HAS been a season of firsts for a Salisbury Snooker Club teenager.

Ally Pollard passed his third major milestone in 2013/14 by winning his first Cuestars Section tournament at the 13th attempt.

Now in his second season playing competitive snooker, Pollard won his first Cuestars Snooker Day last October and qualified for the knockout on the Bronze Tour for the first time in Woking last November – and repeated the feat at Chandler’s Ford in February.

And he was certainly in the pink after completing the hat-trick by landing his home club’s latest monthly under-21 knockout.

“I knew that I was always capable of winning one,” insisted the 17-year-old, who has been runner-up three times.

Pollard accounted for Callum McDonald 2-1 in the quarter-finals and Keegan Reed 2-0 in the last-four to set up a clash with Kaine Petty.

Six-time champion Petty took the first frame on the pink and led by 34 points in the next.

“I seem to play better when I’m behind,” said Pollard. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.

“I didn’t panic. I kept on thinking to myself ‘make him work for the match and don’t just give in’.

Indeed. Pollard clawed back the deficit to win that one on the pink and he doubled the pink in the third for a 2-1 victory.

“The decider was close but I just felt I had a slight edge because of what happened in the previous frame,” he added.

Pollard – who lives in Alderholt, near Fordingbridge – is lying joint seventh on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Bronze Tour with one leg to play at his home club on Sunday.

This season he made his debut in the Cuestars South Wilts Snooker League – and lost all nine matches. Just another challenge to overcome…

Picture by Tim Dunkley