Cuestars has a national champion

The 21-year-old from Southampton triumphed in the English Association of Snooker & Billiards (EASB) Club Players Championship final at the World Snooker Academy in the English Institute of Sport Sheffield.

EASB director of competitions John Hartley described the 5-0 victory over Pontin’s Spring Festival Super 60s champion Mike Faulkner as a “fantastic performance”.

Dunkley is the first Chandler’s Ford SC player to claim an EASB title.

“I may be the first but I certainly won’t be the last,” he declared.

Chandler’s Ford club-boss Jim Everett said he was “pleased” and “proud”.

Faulkner (Willenhall, West Midlands) was left chasing eight snookers in the first frame as Dunkley quickly adapted to the pro-standard tables.

In the fourth, Faulkner, trailing 3-0, took the lead in a frame for the first time after the referee allowed him to remove his bow-tie.

But the revival was short-lived.

Dunkley took a 4-0 lead into the interval and wrapped up an emphatic win with a break of 63 – his opponent’s age.

Frame scores (breaks), Dunkley first: 77-31, 48(35)-40, 66-35, 51-37, 98(63)-8.

The competition was open to players not on the EASB Pro-Ticket Tour.

Dunkley, who earned £135 for the 430-mile round trip, won a first-round match at Stubbington SC and qualified for the final through the group stages in Birmingham.

On April 22, 2001, Dunkley – aged nearly 13 and with a top break of 25 – made his Cuestars debut in an Under-15 event at Woking SC. He lost in the first round and the first round of the Plate.