Brabiner flies in for Cuestars debut

Until now, that is.

David Brabiner hopped on a plane from his home in the Channel Islands to make his debut in the second leg of the Cuestars South of England Seniors Tour at Salisbury Snooker Club.

“It wasn’t really that far to come,” he explained. “Forty minutes on a plane to Southampton, then an hour on the train to Salisbury.”

Brabiner, who hails from St Lawrence on Jersey, pocketed £20 after a 2-0 defeat by John Hunter (Andover) in the semi-finals.

He said: “I was unable to capitalise on the chances I was left with and played too many bad shots in the match, which John rightly punished for a reasonably comfortable win.”

Earlier, the 43-year-old, who is based at the First Tower Institute Billiards & Snooker Club in St Helier, finished second in his five-man round-robin group.

He beat Danny O’Driscoll (Copnor SC, Portsmouth) 2-0, Ron Ellis (Burgh Heath Club, Surrey) 2-0, Fred Pearce (Burgh Heath Club, Surrey) 2-0 and lost 2-1 to Nick Birney (High Wycombe Liberal Club).

In the quarter-finals, he accounted for Steve Ashton (Salisbury SC) 2-0.

Brabiner has represented Jersey in the Masters events at the European Championships for the past two years.

He reached the semi-finals in Belgium in 2009 and the last-16 in Romania last year.

And he’s hoping that playing in the Cuestars events will sharpen up his game ready for this year’s event in Malta at the end of March.

“I used to take my snooker very seriously 20 years ago,” said Brabiner. “And enjoyed playing in events around England. But various things changed and I stopped playing the game about 1996.

“When I turned 40, three years ago, a Jersey official asked me if I was interested in playing for Jersey in some over-40 events.

“I started practising again and although I wasn’t as good as I used to be, I did savour the challenge.

“I have found it difficult to adapt to playing in a different place on different tables and also found it hard to keep my concentration.

“I have been working on some of my weaknesses and playing in the Cuestars events will help me know if I am going in the right direction.”

Brabiner added he was pleased with his performance in Salisbury and he is planning another trip to the mainland in March.

“Overall, I think I the weekend went OK for me,” he said. “I played in six matches and whilst I didn’t play the best I’ve ever played, it was steady and quite consistent.

“The tables were slower than I normally play on but the pockets seemed quite big, so it was a good test to see if I could adapt.

“I have still got to improve in order to compete at the sharp end of the tournament.

“I have quite a few matches coming up in Jersey in March, but I hope to play in the next event in Swindon.