Hughes calmly takes pole position
RYAN Hughes (pictured) has hit the front on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Bronze Tour for the first time.
A second tournament win this season took the 13-year-old from Chandler’s Ford two points clear of Ben Tillison.
Hughes warmed up for Sunday’s qualifier for the English Under-14 Championship by defeating his title rival from Portsmouth 2-1 in the final of the fifth leg at Woking Snooker Centre.
The pair shared the first two frames but 15-year-old Tillison was left chasing snookers with two reds remaining in the decider.
Hughes, who also won in Swindon in November, said his success this season was down to keeping his composure.
“I used to get really angry,” he explained. “But now I stay calm because I know it doesn’t help.”
Hughes won four of his five group matches, only losing to fourth-placed Chloe White (Portsmouth), while Tillison was forced to qualify via a three-way play-off.
“In my first game against Shane (Kearns), I played pretty well,” said Hughes, a Year 9 pupil at Thornden School.
“In my next game against Chloe, she slaughtered me. Afterwards, I found what was wrong and started playing well again.”
He then beat first-time semi-finalist Riley Ellis (Swindon) 2-0 to progress to the final as Tillison was accounting for his clubmate White by the same score.
With three legs remaining, the top two have opened up a 22-point gap over third-placed Bowen Zhu (Chandler’s Ford).
Rio Smith had what can only be described as an up-and-down day. The Portsmouth potter missed out on qualifying for the knockout by one point in a three-way, three-reds, aggregate-points play-off.
He then recorded his highest break of 37 against Nat Kidner (Ferndown) in the last-eight of the Plate before picking the balls out in the semi-finals as ten-year-old Oliver Sykes (Chandler’s Ford) went on a run of 41.
The sixth leg of eight is at Fareham Snooker Club on Sunday, March 13.
BREAKS
Bowen Zhu: 25, 22, 20.
Ben Tillison: 25.
Riley Ellis: 25.
Callum White: 23.
BRONZE RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Ryan Hughes (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Chloe White (Copnor SC, Portsmouth); joint 3rd, Arnie Petty (Salisbury SC) & Shane Kearns (Jesters, Swindon); 5th, Bowen Zhu (Chandler’s Ford SC); 6th, Connor Shaw (Greenbaize, Bournemouth).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Ben Tillison (Copnor SC, Portsmouth); 2nd, Riley Ellis (Jesters, Swindon); 3rd, Rio Smith (Copnor SC, Portsmouth); 4th, Callum White (Copnor SC, Portsmouth); 5th, Ben Hatch (Southampton).
SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Hughes 2 Ellis 0, Tillison 2 Chloe White 0.
FINAL (25/18 points): Hughes 2 Tillison 1.
Report and picture by Tim Dunkley