Double delight for RJT South leader Lancastle

THOMAS Lancastle (pictured left) insists he won’t relax despite extending his lead on the EASB Regional Junior Tour South with a second straight tournament win.

Following his success in Cambridge earlier this month, the 17-year-old from Bristol defeated Lee McArthur (Paignton) 2-0 in the fourth-leg final at the Castle Snooker Club, Brighton.

“I enjoyed the final with Lee McArthur.” he said. That was my best game of the day.

“This result keeps me at the top of the rankings but I’m still not going to relax.”

The top ranked player after all eight legs is guaranteed promotion to the EASB Premier Junior Tour for the country’s top-40 under-21s.

Lancastle, the 2013 Cuestars South of England Under-21 Gold Tour rankings winner, won all four group-stage matches before accounting for Danny Hawkins (Bristol) 2-1 in the last-eight and edging past Sonnie O’Sullivan (Aylesbury) 2-0 in the semi-finals.

“It took me a couple of games to get used to the tables and then once I understood the reaction of the cue-ball I was able to play to a decent standard,” he explained.

“My match with Sonnie O’Sullivan was my toughest and I was lucky not to lose that one as Sonnie was playing very well. However, I dug in and managed a win.

“It was a good day and a good result for me.”

Five of the eight quarter-finalists were Cuestars members. McArthur knocked out Daniel Knox 2-1 in the semi-finals and event-one winner Mark Lloyd 2-0 in the last-eight. Canberk Benning qualified for the knockout for the first time in his debut season but was beaten 2-0 by O’Sullivan.

Mickey Joyce, Dan Sykes, James Budd, Ollie Clark, Sam Storey and Jamie Wilson were all group-stage casualties.

The fifth leg of eight is at the South West Snooker Academy, Gloucester, on Saturday, March 8.

Picture by Bob Lancastle