Sykes nets another £500 in second Joe Perry Super Series leg

OLIVER Sykes has gone some way towards financing this season’s European adventure by winning the second leg of the Cuestars Joe Perry Under-21 Super Series in south London.

The 18-year-old from Chandler’s Ford pocketed £500 after beating reigning champion Aidan Murphy (Bristol) 3-1 in the final at Frames Sports Bar, Coulsdon.

Rankings leader Sykes, who also triumphed in the first leg in Newbury last month, said: “I just battled it out all day. I wasn’t scoring enough throughout the day but managed to win a lot of the scrappy frames.”

The left-hander has already competed in Sweden, Germany and Bulgaria on the Q Tour and Albania in the World Snooker Federation Championships this season. Next month he flies out to Bosnia and Herzegovina for the European Under-21 Championship.

Sykes, Murphy, Ronnie Sullivan (Chipstead) and Evan Plummer (Coulsdon) all topped their respective round-robin groups without losing a match.

Runner-up positions were not so clear cut but it was John Donovan (Camden Town), Westley Cooper (Leicester), Zain Jeraj (Tooting) and Adam Abbas (Brighton) who prevailed. Abbas secured his spot in the last-eight with a fine 2-1 win over the in-form O’Shay Scott (Eastleigh).

Murphy recorded the day’s highest break of 95 against Dylan Smith (Tunbridge Wells) in the group stages.

Copper played well all day and enjoyed a 3-0 quarter-final win against home player Plummer before losing 3-1 to Sykes.

The much-improved Sullivan made a superb 80 break to take a 2-1 lead over Murphy in an excellent last-four match. After Murphy battled through a scrappy fourth frame to level the score, Sullivan took control of the decider but missed the penultimate red to the yellow pocket on a run of 48 and his opponent pounced on the chance to secure victory.

Sykes got the better start of a tense final by taking the opening frame with the help of a 50 break. Murphy responded a run of 71. Sykes won a scrappy third frame, much like he had been doing all day, and sealed victory with efforts of 47 and 51.

Organisers thanked Frames Sports Bar for being great hosts and sponsors and for providing excellent playing conditions. They added that it was great to see players like Tom McEvoy (Warminster), Lee Clayden (Chingford), Donnie Gola (Islington), Navraj Landa (Southampton) and Jamie Hogg (Stevenage) competing in this event and testing themselves in such a strong field.

Sykes’s 123 in the first leg leads the race for the series high-break prize of a pound a point sponsored by Michael Waring from snookerhub.co.uk.

The overall rankings champion after the third and final leg at Waterlooville Sports Bar on Saturday, March 23, will receive a Q School place provided by Cuestars ambassador Joe Perry.

To become a Cuestars member and be eligible to enter these events that carry extraordinary prizes, go to www.cuestars.co.uk/membership-form, fill in your details and pay £10. It takes a couple of minutes. Each Super Series tournament costs £40 and a guaranteed £960 in prize money is paid out at each event.

For more information about the event sponsor, go to framessportsbar.com.

BREAKS

Oliver Sykes: 86, 60, 57, 51, 50.
Aidan Murphy: 95, 71, 52.
Ronnie Sullivan: 80, 75, 54
Simon Bubb: 79.
Evan Plummer: 70.
John Donovan: 67, 57.
Asten Sahota: 56.
Westley Cooper: 56.
William Thomson: 54.

RESULTS

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Oliver Sykes; 2nd, John Donovan; 3rd, Asten Sahota; 4th, Donnie Gola; 5th, Will Forster.

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Ronnie Sullivan; 2nd, Westley Cooper; 3rd, Simon Bubb; 4th, Harry Wyatt; 5th, Lee Clayden.

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Aidan Murphy; 2nd, Zain Jeraj; 3rd, Dylan Smith; 4th, William Thomson; 5th, Brandon Nguyen; 6th, Ryan Spratt.

ROUND-ROBIN GROUP D: 1st, Evan Plummer; 2nd, Adam Abbas; 3rd, O’Shay Scott; 4th, Jamie Hogg; 5th, Tom McEvoy; 6th, Navraj Landa.

QUARTER-FINALS (£30): Sykes 3-0 Jeraj, Cooper 3-0 Plummer, Sullivan 3-1 Abbas, Murphy 3-1 Donovan.

SEMI-FINALS (£70): Sykes 3-1 Cooper, Murphy 3-2 Sullivan.

FINAL (£500/£200): Sykes 3-1 Murphy.

By Tim Dunkley and Chris Wyatt