Mickey’s decision justified

A YOUNG cue sports all-rounder from Basingstoke vindicated his decision to enter a regional snooker tournament instead of a pool competition.

Mickey Joyce pocketed £70 prize money and collected his second winner’s trophy of the season on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Gold Tour.

The 13-year-old, who also won in Bournemouth in January, overcame Bradley Cowdroy 3-0 in the final of the ninth leg at Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club.

Bournemouth-based Cowdroy, who turned 15 the previous week, extracted the penalty points from the required snooker in the third frame but Joyce secured victory with a tricky half-ball black into the green pocket.

Joyce said: “I was going to go to a pool tournament instead but I wanted to try to keep second place in the rankings.

“Getting a win was just fantastic. I was so lucky to get through the groups. I scraped through on frame average.”

And he added: “Bradley’s good at getting snookers.”

Beaten by Jamie Wilson (Havant) and Anthony Rice (Fordingbridge) in his four-man round-robin group in the event sponsored by Pitman Training Winchester, Joyce qualified for the knockout in second place by one frame.

And he was 1-0 down in the last-eight to Dan Sykes (Chandler’s Ford), who recorded the highest Gold break of 75 in that frame, and to Londoner Adam Stacey in the semi-finals.

Joyce, who is sponsored by The Academy, Basingstoke, and Surrey-based Falcon Pools, has recently signed for the Hampshire Under-23 pool team because he enjoys the razzmatazz of the game.

“It’s a good atmosphere,” said the teenager, who also competes on the EASB Premier Junior Tour, a national circuit for the country’s best under-21 snooker players. “But I’m definitely not giving up snooker.”

The tenth and final leg is on Sunday, April 30, at Salisbury Snooker Club.

For more information about Pitman Training, go to www.pitman-training.com.

BREAKS

Dan Sykes: 75.
Bradley Cowdroy: 68, 50, 41.
Connor Benzey: 62, 57, 47.
Mickey Joyce: 60.
Steven Hughes: 55.
Adam Stacey: 51, 46.
Jamie Wilson: 43.
Anthony Rice: 40.

GOLD RESULTS

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Bradley Cowdroy (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 2nd, Adam Stacey (Legends, Leytonstone); 3rd, Connor Benzey (Chandler’s Ford SC); 4th, James Budd (Fareham SC); 5th, Mike Trigg (Chandler’s Ford SC).

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Anthony Rice (Salisbury SC); 2nd, Mickey Joyce (Chandler’s Ford SC); 3rd, Oliver Sykes (Chandler’s Ford SC); 4th, Jamie Wilson (Waterlooville Sports Bar).

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Dan Sykes (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Steven Hughes (Chandler’s Ford SC); 3rd, Callum Browne (Player’s, Westbury); 4th, Olly Gibbs (Chandler’s Ford SC).

QUARTER-FINALS (12 points): Stacey 2 Hughes 0, Cowdroy 2 Browne 0, Joyce 2 D Sykes 1, Benzey 2 Rice 1.

SEMI-FINALS (15 points): Cowdroy 2 Benzey 1, Joyce 2 Stacey 1.

FINAL (£70/£30, 25/18 points): Joyce 3 Cowdroy 0.

Pictures by Tim Dunkley

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Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)