UK League Snooker Tournament 2009
Well the tournament was a big success, and our league team, although depleted of arguably our best players, performed quite well, winning 2 matches out of 6. The standard on show at the tournament was very high, with both the winners and runners up in the tournament coming from our team's group.
| LEAMINGTON | 3 | - | 2 | Manchester District League |
| The team's first match was against Manchester District who finished runners-up, with our team winning 3-2, thanks to wins from Ian Wagstaff (41 break), Dean White (31 break) and Kelvin Handley, who won the decider. Mark Quinton and James Gillard were the unlucky ones, but did come up against good players who scored heavily with their chances. | ||||
| Click for frame scores | ||||
| LEAMINGTON | 2 | - | 3 | Ormskirk League |
| The team's second match saw us take on Ormskirk League. Steve Williams (31 break) got the team off to a good start, although Neal Stribbling came up against a very good player in Gareth Hibbott. Ian Wagstaff restored the team's lead, but the match went into the decider when Richard Thornton lost his frame. It was left to Kelvin Handley once again to try and win the tie, but a 48 break from his opponent meant the team lost 3-2. | ||||
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| LEAMINGTON | 0 | - | 5 | Garston League |
| The team then took on a very good Garston team, who were in inspired form, with the team losing 5-0, although at least two of the frames could have gone our way. Kelvin Handley compiling a 31 break in his frame, only to see his opponent hit back with a 38 break. | ||||
| Click for frame scores | ||||
| LEAMINGTON | 1 | - | 4 | West Midlands League |
| On the Sunday the team took on West Midlands first, the tournament favourites. Kelvin Handley opened things up against Geoff Williams, who the day before had hit the tournaments highest break at the time of 110. Kelvin got one chance but run out of position and breaks of 61 and 42 from Geoff saw him defeated. James Gillard was also soundly beaten by Daniel Ward to put the team 2-0 down. Steve Williams was then unlucky against Alan Hooper, getting a bad contact on a safety and seeing his opponent clear the colours to win. A loss by Richard Thornton meant the team were facing a second whitewash in a row, but a superb performace by Dean White against Ryan Evans, brother of women's world champion Reanne, saw Dean knock in a 33 break early on and pulled off a superb 35 clearance, including a brilliant yellow to win the frame. | ||||
| Click for frame scores | ||||
| LEAMINGTON | 1 | - | 4 | Reading League |
| The team's next match was against Reading. Things didn't start too well, with Mark Quinton and Richard Thornton beaten by good players. Next up was Dean White and James Gillard. Dean never got going but James recorded his first win of the weekend over Reading's captain. Steve Williams was last up against an in-form Neil Winkworth, who had earlier knocked in breaks of 73 and 64. An opening break of 24 saw Steve pull clear but a reply of 21 brought the scores level with a few reds left. Both picked of 8s and 9s before a fluke on the penultimate red let Steve in. Steve made a 19 break before attempting a difficult positional shot off the green to brown, leaving a long brown. Steve jawed the brown but it seemed to go safe, but Neil potted a very thin brown, added blue, before a superb pink to middle, sending the cue ball around the table for perfect position to pinch the frame. | ||||
| Click for frame scores | ||||
| LEAMINGTON | 4 | - | 1 | Hazel Grove |
| The team's last match was against Hazel Grove, who were fresh from their first win of the tournament just before, a 4-1 win over Reading. The team started really well with Steve Williams and Dean White winning comfortably to make it 2-0. James Gillard then made it 3-0. The last two frames were shared, with Kelvin Handley beaten and Richard Thornton winning his first frame of the weekend. So the team signed off from the tournament with a 4-1 win. | ||||
| Click for frame scores | ||||
Team Averages
Most Wins:
Dean White - 3 wins
Steve Williams, Ian Wagstaff, James Gillard - 2 wins
Breaks:
Ian Wagstaff - 41
Dean White - 35, 33 & 31
Steve Williams - 31
Kelvin Handley - 31
Everyone did their best for the team and no doubt we'll enter again next year.
The West Midlands team won the title, with the highest break going to Vinny Calabrese with his 132 break. Mike Wasley won the averages and most wins prize. Full details of the competition are available on the official competition homepage (click link for tournament when on the main page).
