Hat-trick of first time winners at Salisbury

He beat the highly-rated Thomas Lancastle (Eastville SC, Bristol) 2-0 in the final at Salisbury Snooker Club.

Based at Whitmore Reans Conservative Club, Wolverhampton, Kendrick’s previous best performance was a semi-final appearance at Swindon in May.

The early rankings leader dropped only one frame in five group-stage matches. That was against Troy Bodman, last season’s Silver Tour rankings winner, who recorded the day’s top break of 57.

Remarkably, Lancastle made the final on his Gold Tour debut.

The second of the eight legs is at Woking Snooker Centre on Sunday, November 11.

Troy Bodman: 57.

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP: 1st, Ollie Kendrick (Whitmore Reans Cons, Wolverhampton); 2nd, Troy Bodman (Jesters, Swindon); 3rd, Thomas Lancastle (Eastville SC, Bristol); 4th, Josh Lee (Jesters, Swindon); 5th, Oliver Parsons (Jesters, Swindon); 6th, Sam Storey (Thatcham SC).

SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Kendrick beat Lee 2-0, Lancastle beat Bodman 2-0.

FINAL (25/18 points): Kendrick beat Lancastle 2-0.

A 2-1 victory over Daniel Knox (Woking SC) in the final at Salisbury Snooker Club landed the Gosport youngster a first tournament win on the Cuestars circuit.

Despite his tender age, the 12-year-old, who is based at Stoke Snooker Club, is already in his third season on the Silver Tour.

And prior to that, he was crowned Cuestars Under-12 champion in 2008/09 at the age of nine.

Lloyd actually finished runner-up to Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe) in his round-robin group but then posted 2-0 victories over Group C winner Connor McLean and Group D winner Daniel Carr (both from the Hailsham Memorial Institute, East Sussex) in the knockout.

Meanwhile, Cuestars director John Hunter was “impressed” by how much the only girl in the competition had improved over the summer.

Jasmine Bolsover (Woking Snooker Centre) went out 2-1 to James Budd (Stoke SC, Gosport) in the quarter-finals after topping Group A.

The 12-year-old recorded six breaks of more than 20 including runs of 30 and 33.

Hunter said: “I was impressed by her break-building skills. She was potting the black and screwing into the pack to open the reds. She was punching out angles.”

Bolsover said: “The first Cuestars (event) of the season was a good start for me as I’m feeling more confident with my game.

“So I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and will be trying to do as well as last season or better.”

Budd then lost 2-0 in the semi-finals to Knox, who had beaten Group B winner Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe) 2-1 in the previous round. Carr accounted for Group A runner-up Daniel Hall (Jesters, Swindon) 2-0 in the quarter-finals.

The second of the eight legs is at Woking Snooker Centre on Sunday, November 11.

Mark Lloyd: 37.

Daniel Carr: 37.

James Budd: 34.

Jasmine Bolsover: 33, 30, 27, 22, 22, 22.

Oliver Clark: 31.

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Jasmine Bolsover (Woking SC); 2nd, Daniel Hall (Jesters, Swindon); 3rd, Callum Browne (Player’s, Westbury); 4th, Matthew Bellinger (Jesters, Swindon); 5th, Mike Trigg (Chandler’s Ford SC).

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

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Connor McLean (Hailsham Memorial Institute, East Sussex); 2nd, Daniel Knox (Woking SC); 3rd, Bradley Cowdroy (Greenbaize SC, Bournemouth); 4th, Karl Eggar (Stoke SC, Gosport).

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP D: 1st, Daniel Carr (Hailsham Memorial Institute, East Sussex); 2nd, James Budd (Stoke SC, Gosport); 3rd, Olly Clark (Chandler’s Ford SC); 4th, Nathan Farmer (Stoke SC, Gosport).

QUARTER-FINALS (12 points): Budd beat Bolsover 2-1, Knox beat Holt 2-1, Lloyd beat McLean 2-0, Carr beat Hall 2-0.

SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Knox beat Budd 2-0, Lloyd beat Carr 2-0.

FINAL (25/18 points): Lloyd beat Knox 2-1.

Pascal Richard, head of the Cuestars Section at Copnor Snooker Club, reckons working on tactics rather than technique with his 12-year-old protégé paved the way to victory at Salisbury Snooker Club.

Compton, who had failed to progress from the group stages in his three previous tour outings, defeated Cuestars debutante Connor Flanagan 2-1 in the final.

Flanagan (Jesters, Swindon) had actually beaten Compton en route to claiming top spot in Group A.

“I’m dead proud of him and pleased that within a few weeks of starting doing some one-on-one coaching with me, he has improved enough to win a title,” Richard told cuestars.uk.com.

“We’ve been focusing heavily on in-game tactics, shot selection and mental approach – more than worrying too much about technical stuff – as Daniel cues straight pretty much all the time anyhow.

“It seems this focus has paid off, as indeed it would for many other youngsters who have textbook techniques but who don’t know how to actually PLAY the game in a ‘winning’ fashion or who don’t have a plan B to their game.

“He will hopefully now have the confidence to go on and win many, many more as he has the basic skills to do so, as do several others at our section. Really, Daniel and the others at Copnor now just need to add a bit of experience to their games, along with a knowledge of when is and isn’t the right time to go for certain attacking shots, and they will start to go places.”

Richard added that the Copnor youngsters are “benefiting enormously” from competing against adults in the Portsmouth District Billiards & Snooker Association league.

Urging others to do likewise, he said: “I can only suggest one or two other Sections throw their youngsters into the fray and I would hope that their local leagues are as supportive as the Portsmouth league have been with us. A great deal of thanks goes to them for their backing.”

Earlier, Compton had accounted for his clubmate Bradley Lane 2-0 and Mickey Joyce (The Crucible Sports & Social Club, Newbury) 2-1 to reach his first final.

Flanagan had dispatched Callum McDonald (Salisbury SC) and Edward James (Woking SC) both 2-0.

Eight-year-old Group B winner Jamie Wilson (Copnor SC, Portsmouth), who qualified for the last-16 of the English Under-14 Championship last weekend, was knocked out in the quarter-finals 2-1 by James.

At the same stage, Karan Chadda (Chandler’s Ford SC), unbeaten in Group C on his Bronze Tour debut, went down 2-1 to Joyce.

The second of the eight legs is at Woking Snooker Centre on Sunday, November 11.

Mickey Joyce: 29.

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Connor Flanagan (Jesters, Swindon); 2nd, Daniel Compton (Copnor SC, Portsmouth); 3rd, Kaine Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 4th, Allistair Pollard (Salisbury SC).

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Jamie Wilson (Copnor SC, Portsmouth); 2nd, Mickey Joyce (Crucible, Newbury); 3rd, Thomas Holton (Woking SC); 4th, Joe Kitchen (Stoke SC, Gosport).

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Karan Chadda (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Edward James (Woking SC); 3rd, Keiran Murray (Chandler’s Ford SC); 4th, Arnie Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth).

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP D: 1st, Bradley Lane (Copnor SC, Portsmouth); 2nd, Callum McDonald (Salisbury SC); 3rd, Luke Beebe (Chandler’s Ford SC); 4th, Ben Tillison (Copnor SC, Portsmouth).

QUARTER-FINALS (12 points): Flanagan beat McDonald 2-0, James beat Wilson 2-1, Joyce beat Chadda 2-1, Compton beat Lane 2-0.

SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Flanagan beat James 2-0, Compton beat Joyce 2-1.

FINAL (25/18 points): Compton beat Flanagan 2-1.

Cowdroy, who is based at the Greenbaize Snooker Club in Bournemouth, won the consolation competition for those players not qualifying for the main knockouts.

Handicaps are applied in the Plate. Gold players are off scratch, Silver off 14 and Bronze off 28.

LAST-16: Kaine Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth) beat Allistair Pollard (Salisbury SC), Bradley Cowdroy (Greenbaize SC, Bournemouth) beat Nathan Farmer (Stoke SC, Gosport), Karl Eggar (Stoke SC, Gosport) beat Sam Storey (Thatcham SC), Matthew Bellinger (Jesters, Swindon) beat Anthony Church (Greenbaize, Bournemouth), Olly Clark (Chandler’s Ford SC) beat Arnie Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth).

QUARTER-FINALS: Cowdroy beat K Petty, Luke Beebe (Chandler’s Ford SC) beat Stewart Ball (Chandler’s Ford SC), Eggar beat Ben Tillison (Copnor SC, Portsmouth), Bellinger beat Clark.

SEMI-FINALS: Cowdroy beat Beebe, Bellinger beat Eggar.

FINAL: Cowdroy beat Bellinger.