Baker’s boy on a roll

DORSET cueman Brad Chappell reckons starting a new job in a supermarket bakery helped him clinch a hat-trick of tournament wins on a regional snooker circuit.

The 19-year-old from Poole (pictured left) used his loaf to quit his previous position because it left no time for practice.

And now with the co-operation of his now employers, he’s on a roll after claiming a third successive winner’s trophy on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Gold Tour.

“I’ve quit my job to play snooker,” said Chappell, the new rankings leader. “Now I’m in a new job working mornings with the rest of the day to practise.

“I’m very, very pleased. It’s going to improve my snooker.”

Indeed. Chappell followed up victories in Chandler’s Ford and Swindon by seeing off first-time finalist James Budd 3-1 to take the seventh leg at Fareham Snooker Club.

But he again struggled to progress from the round-robin group stage, winning just one match out of four and nicking the fourth qualifying spot.

“It was a battle, the same as last time,” he said. “I just scraped through the group stages by the skin of my teeth and then came good in the semi-final and final.”

Chappell, who is based at the Greenbaize Snooker Club, Bournemouth, is seven points clear of Gosport lads Mark Lloyd and Budd in joint second. One of these three will win the rankings title at the eighth and final leg at Salisbury Snooker Club on Sunday, May 4.

Stoke Snooker Club pair Budd and Lloyd had been in Cambridge the previous day competing on the EASB Regional Junior Tour.

Next Sunday, Lloyd has a chance to announce himself on the national stage when he takes on the best young players in the country in the last-16 of the English Under-16 Championship in Leeds.

BREAKS

Mark Lloyd: 58.
James Budd: 42.

GOLD RESULTS

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP: 1st, Mark Lloyd (Stoke SC, Gosport); 2nd, James Budd (Stoke SC, Gosport); 3rd, Stewart Ball (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 4th, Brad Chappell (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 5th, Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe).

SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Chappell beat Lloyd 3-0, Budd beat Ball 3-1.

FINAL (£15/£10, 25/18 points): Chappell beat Budd 3-1.

Picture by Tim Dunkley