Cuestars record breaker
RYAN Hughes has earned himself a place in the Cuestars records book.
The 14-year-old from Chandler’s Ford won the fourth leg of the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Silver Tour at Frames Sports Bar, Coulsdon.
And that was an incredible sixth tournament win in seven outings on the junior circuit.
A trawl through the archives revealed that no player has matched or beaten that run since the Gold, Silver and Bronze Tours replaced the handicapped events in 2009.
Hughes – who, in fact, has now won eight out of 12 – kept his nerve to edge home player Evan Plummer on two black-ball games in the final. And he was 20 points behind with 25 on in the second frame.
Despite competing in such an important match, Hughes maintained his trademark outwardly calm persona and strode around the professional standard Star table, equipped with TV-style high lighting, as if he owned it.
He insisted he was not fazed by the pressure of the occasion or by his friends and family standing in the shadows.
“It’s nice to know that people are watching,” he said.
Although the teenager described Plummer as “a very good player”, he added: “It doesn’t matter who I play. You don’t play the player, you play the table.”
The rankings leader only lost one frame, to Nat Kidner (Ferndown) in the group stages, out of 13 throughout the event.
“I played pretty well all day,” he said. “It’s been good. I enjoyed it.”
Hughes won the final two legs last season to secure the Bronze Tour rankings title, clinched the Bronze championship play-off in May and has now collected three winner’s trophies from the first four Silver legs this season.
In the last-four, Hughes overcame his Chandler’s Ford SC clubmate Bowen Zhu 2-0 while Plummer beat Charlie Pringle, also from Chandlers Ford, by the same scoreline.
For more information about event sponsor Frames Sports Bar, go to www.framessportsbar.co.uk and also visit www.cuesports.club, the new home of snooker.
The fifth leg of ten is at Greenbaize Snooker Club, Bournemouth, on Sunday, January 8.
BREAKS
Evan Plummer: 38.
Bowen Zhu: 34.
SILVER RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Charlie Pringle (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Bowen Zhu (Chandler’s Ford SC); 3rd, Drew Hampshire (147, Swindon); 4th, Kaine Petty (Salisbury SC); 5th, Ally Pollard (Salisbury SC); 6th, Keegan Reed (Salisbury SC).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Ryan Hughes (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Evan Plummer (Frames, Coulsdon); 3rd, David O’Callaghan (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 4th, Harry Jones (Frames, Coulsdon); 5th, Nat Kidner (Greenbaize, Bournemouth).
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Plummer 2 Pringle 0, Hughes 2 Zhu 0.
FINAL (25/18 points): Hughes 2 Plummer 0.
Pictures by Tim Dunkley
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Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)