Rice on course from promotion

ANTHONY Rice is on course to win promotion from the EASB Regional Junior Tour South after a productive trip to Brighton.

The 18-year-old Cuestars Gold Tour player (pictured) from Fordingbridge followed up his victory in the second leg in Coulsdon with a final appearance at the Castle Snooker Club.

He was beaten 2-0 by Norwich-based rankings leader Reggie Edwards in a match that started at 10.30pm.

“Neither of us played fantastic and he won the first frame on the pink and the second on the black,” said Rice, who is second in the rankings at the halfway point of the season and 195 points ahead of third-placed Mickey Joyce (Basingstoke).

“Promotion is looking promising. I am delighted with this result as I had no real right to make it out of the group stages.”

Beaten 2-1 by Jamie Wilson (Havant) in the round robin, Rice needed Wilson to lose his final match to Archie McKellar (Grays, Essex) – which he did 2-1 by one point on the final black.

In the semi-finals, Rice overcame Joyce 2-1 and sixth-placed Jonny Mutch (Cambridge) lost 2-1 to Edwards.

Bradley Cowdroy (Bournemouth), who beat Edwards 3-0 in the group stages, went out 2-1 to Mutch in the last-eight.

James Beavan (Barnstead), Evan Plummer (Coulsdon) and Callum Browne (Trowbridge) joined Wilson as group-stage casualties.

Promotion would see Rice compete next season on the EASB Premier Junior Tour alongside Mark Lloyd (Gosport), James Budd (Fareham), Ronnie Blake (Carshalton) and Sonnie O’Sullivan (Aylesbury).

Report and picture by Tim Dunkley.