Trio rise to skills challenge
THREE World Snooker qualified coaches put a dozen Cuestars members through their paces at the inaugural Under-21 Skills Challenge at Salisbury Snooker Club today.
Eighteen-year-old James Budd (Stoke SC, Gosport) took the honours in the Gold section, 16-year-old Kaine Petty (Salisbury SC) won the Silver and the enigma that is Steven Hughes (Chandler’s Ford SC) claimed the Bronze trophy.
Hughes remarkably ended the day with more points than any of the Silver Tour players and just one point shy of Budd’s total. One day the 13-year-old will take his undoubted knowledge and ability onto the match table.
All the lads attempted the same exercises with the same scoring system.
Three groups of four rotated around the Wiltshire club, spending 90 minutes with each of a trio of World Snooker coaches.
John Hunter passed on his break-building skills. Tim Dunkley worked on technique. And Duncan Ashman – from Player’s, Westbury – also a qualified Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner, gave what was described as a “fascinating” presentation on sports psychology and hosted a discussion followed by a quiz.
Dunkley, who is based at Chandler’s Ford SC, and Hunter, who lives in Andover but classes Salisbury SC as his home club, worked through five routines from different levels of the Cuestars Coaching Programme.
Cuestars director Hunter told the lads at the presentation how “impressed” he was with their individual performances “under pressure”.
RESULTS
Gold: 1st, James Budd (Stoke SC, Gosport) 76 points; 2nd, Mickey Joyce (Chandler’s Ford SC) 68.
Silver: 1st, Kaine Petty (Salisbury SC) 65; 2nd, Ally Pollard (Salisbury SC) 61. Callum McDonald (Salisbury SC) withdrew.
Bronze: 1st, Steven Hughes (Chandler’s Ford SC) 75; 2nd, David Rice (Salisbury SC) 68; 3rd, Dan Parks (Woking SC) 63; 4th, Adam Cowdroy (Greenbaize, Bournemouth) 58; 5th, Charlie Pringle (Chandler’s Ford SC) 56; joint 6th, Keegan Reed (Salisbury SC) & Albert Warren (Salisbury SC) 54.
Report and picture by Tim Dunkley. The three winners, from left: Steven Hughes (Bronze), James Budd (Gold), Kaine Petty (Silver).