English Under-18 Championship

LAST year’s English Under-16 champion Mark Lloyd is through to the last-16 of this season’s English Under-18 Championship.

And the 16-year-old from Gosport will be joined in Leeds on April 17 by fellow Cuestars Gold Tour player Dan Sykes (pictured).

Lloyd won all four of his matches to top his group in the southern qualifier at Dunstable Snooker Club, Beds.

Sykes, from Chandler’s Ford, lost 3-2 to Lloyd but produced “the best snooker I’ve ever played” to win his other three matches and book a place in the knockout stage of a national championship for the first time.

The 17-year-old earned the third qualification spot as the best group runner-up.

Callum Browne (Trowbridge) won two of his four matches to finish fourth in his group. And Jonny Mutch (Cambridge) finished third in the same group despite beating qualifier Aaron Cook (Gloucester) 3-1.

Report and picture by Tim Dunkley