2016-17 ROLL OF HONOUR

2016-17 SEASON

KCBSA PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2016-17

Andy Soper

Andy did just enough to see off all the competitors to take the crown of Kent County Billiards and Snooker Player of the Year. A tremendous result and a fine reward for one of our most enthusiastic players.

KENT UNDER 16s ‘Summers Cup’ - 23.4.17

Welling Snooker Club

Winner: Brandon Nguyen (£20)

Runner-up: Jimmy Matthews (£10)

KENT COUNTY CUP - 20.3.17

Northdown Snooker Club, Margate

Winner: Dean Galbally

Runner-up: Mark Cackett

Maximum attendance (58) once more for our Open Pro-Am event hosted once again by Tom and his team at Northdown Snooker Club in Margate.

Very nice to see a few new faces and some familar ones too such as the return of former winner Steve Crowley. Reigning Champion Mark Cackett was ready to defend his title in his inimitably charismatic style. He was in the top half of the draw where he managed to see off Mike Quinnell who had beaten Matt Howard in the second round.

Meanwhile in the bottom half Rob Molinari was playing the tournament of his life when he triumphed over the current Kent Amateur Champion, Luke Bowry. His gallant run was thwarted by Southend's own Dean Galbally, one of six competitors from outside of Kent. Dean played solidly all day defeating Dan Devlin (who had made an 83 break, the highest of the day) then conquered Messers Crowley and Molinari to set up a final showdown with Mark Cackett.

A close fought final with one of the frames going to a respotted black which put Dean 2-1 in front. The two players have quite contrasting styles but both were trading points to the same degree and it looked for all the world that Mark was going to level the scores as he dished up the colours in lightning speed only to overstretch whilst using the rest to play the final black. This gave Dean an opportunity to have another bite of the cherry and finish the match off which he eventually did to win the match three one.

Dean took £300 for his day's work over the brige back to Essex whilst Mark collected £140 for his efforts.

Plate Winner: Dan Brazier

Plate Runner-up: Malcolm Smith

Whilst the main event was underway we had the obligatory Plate competiton and now with a new trophy for this season. A good proportion of first game losers took part for a second go at some silverware. The final was contested by seasoned campaigner, Malcolm Smith and Dan Brazier who played tremendously well to see off Matt Howard in the semi-final.

Dan was able to carry his momentum through the final and beat Malcolm two nil and collect forty quid for his victory.

KENT AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP - 5.2.17

Northdown Snooker Club, Margate

Winner: Luke Bowry

Runner-up: Phil O'Kane

Another full house for Kent's premier event in the snooker calendar, it's so satisfying for us organisers and we know how much more you enjoy it when we have such a fantastic turnout every year.

The entry field was marked by two notable returns, the first being long time Kent snooker professional, Gerard Greene who has reverted back to amateur status until he gets back on the tour, and KCBSA Chairman, David Jenner, who came out of retirement (momentarily) for one more hurrah after a lay off from competitive play for nearly a dozen years! Whilst Gerard might have been considered hot favourite for the title which he last won in 1993 his quest was thwarted by form player Lee Martin in a terrific quarter-final match. The less said about David's glorious return, the better!

Unfortunately Lee's form was to evade him in the semis when 2015 winner, Phil O'Kane was his undoing in a close deciding frame match which saw Phil move in to his second final in two years.

Meanwhile in the top half of the table, two time Kent Amateur Champion, Matt Howard was cruising through rounds knocking a wonderful 97 in the first round against Clive Short and he still had two reds left! After dismissing Tim Cosens and Mick Quinnell, Matt's run came to an end when he lost 3-2 to Luke Bowry from being two up. This was the first time we had seen Luke since he won our Under 16s in 2010. His touch and cue ball control had certainly improved in the past seven years and his composure was to be marvelled as the pressure of getting to the latter stages of our big event didn't appear to phase him at all.

Whilst the youngsters seemed to be making the headlines, snooker stalwart Andy Soper was waving the banner for the ever-so-slightly more senior campaigners as his tactical nouse on the green baize saw him breeze through to his first Kent semi-final. Luke however saw off Andy's gallant efforts to set up a final against Mr O'Kane. One small bonus is that Andy's efforts have seen him move topside of the KCBSA Player of the Year table by a solitary point over Alan Bailey. With one more event to come in our calendar a whole host of players are still competing for the most consistent player of the season.

A close fought final ensued with some confident play from both exponents but the run of the balls didn't always go Phil's way, it was Luke that made the best of his chances and write the fairytale ending of his triumphant return with a tremendous 3-1 victory.

After the match, posing for photographs and counting his £300 winnings, Luke goes on to tell us that snooker isn't really his number one game as he's more of a pool player! For anyone who understands both sports this is quite staggering and makes his achievement all the more impressive.

Plate Winner: Sean Halligan

Plate Runner-up: James Addison-May

As you know we always offer our first game losers another go in our Plate competition and the semi-finals saw last year's Kent Amateur Champion, Sean Halligan defeat Jamie Gilfillan 2-0 and James Addison-May overcome Ron Goodwin in the other semi by the same scoreline.

In the final, Sean always had the upper hand and despite James' best efforts Mr Halligan saw off the young upstart two nil, despite James conceding the second frame with more than enough points left on the table to win!

Sean who had been under the weather all day took home £40 for his efforts.

KENT SNOOKER TEAMS - 8.1.17

Welling Snooker Club

Winners: Stephen Hartley & Amrik Cheema & Keth Matthews
Runners-up: Lee Martin, Mark Cackett & Matt Morgan

Another good turn out for one of our competitions as 12 teams entered at Welling Snooker Club. We split into 4 groups of 3 teams in each to give each team at least 2 matches. Ightham 'A' topped Group A after a draw with Jordans and a 5-1 victory over The Odds. In the semi-final they faced Hartley who had beaten both Bexley and Sidcup in Group 'B'. Hartley breezed through to the final with a 6-0 victory.

Group 'C' was won by Fine Fettle after a 3-3 draw with Guru Nanak and a 6-0 thrashing of The Committee. Meanwhile in Group 'D' it was Stone Street that came out on top with 5-1 victories over Welling and then Ightham 'B'. However, Fine Fettle were too strong for Stone Street in the semi-final winning 4-2.

So it was Hartley versus Fine Fettle in the final. The Hartley team came out 5-1 winners with Steve Hartley beating Mark Cackett, Amrik Cheema beating Lee Martin and Keith Matthews finishing 1-1 with Matthew Morgan. Hartley picked up £150 for their win whilst Fine Fettle had to settle for the £60 runners up prize.

KENT SNOOKER PAIRS - 4.12.16

Victoria Snooker Centre, Tunbridge Wells

Winners: Lee Martin & Mark Cackett
Runners-up: Andy Soper & Andy Bartram

Plate Winners: Vinny Patel & Mark Field

Plate Runners-up: Alex Swatton & Jamie Dunlop

We had 16 pairs take part this year. In the top half of the draw Finlay Palmer and Dan Brazier pulled off a final black ball win against their Ightham club rivals Wayne fuller and Tony Holdstock to earn a semi-final spot. There they faced Andy Soper and Andy Bartram but it was the two Andy's this time who came back from a frame down to win 2-1 and a place in the final.

In the bottom half Lee Martin and Mark Cackett breezed through their first two matches in record time. Scott Bell and Phil O'Kane just scrapped through to the semi beating Matt Morgan and James Challis on the final black after Scott had made a magnificent 120 break in the first frame.

Lee and Mark continued their impressive form in the semi and won 2-0. They then followed that up with another 2-0 victory in the final to take the title and the £140 first prize without dropping a frame all day.

To give everyone a little more snooker we also had a plate competition and this was won by Vinny Patel and Mark Field.

The Veterans champion Alan Bailey still tops the POTY table closely followed by James Addison-May, Tony Holdstock and Paul West.

KENT BILLIARDS ‘Archie Wood Trophy’ - 13.11.16

Victoria Snooker Centre, Tunbridge Wells

Winner: Andy Phillips
Runner-up: Neil Jefferis

We had 12 entries for the Billiards competition. These included 3 newbies to the game, James Addison-May, Andy Soper and Alan Bailey, all playing in their first competitions and googling the rules just before arriving.

We split into two groups of six and played each match over 30 minutes. In Group 1 we had Stephen Hills, James Addison-May, Neil Jefferis, Tony Holdstock, Leo Hare and Paul Murphy. The group was won by Neil who won all of his matches. The surprise package was James who in his first Billiards competition managed victories over Stephen, Paul and Tony and secured second place in the group and the second semi-final spot.

Group 2 was very close. In it were Paul West, Andy Soper, Alan Bailey, David Smith, Ivan Stevenage and Andy Phillips. In the last round Paul West pulled off an impressive 1 point victory over Andy Phillips who had beaten everyone else in the group and that put Paul in a three way tie with Andy Soper and David Smith for second spot in the group. On points countback it was David that took the semi-final spot with Paul missing out by just 28 points over the 5 matches.

The semi-finals saw Neil beat David 201 to 98 with a 65 break on the way and Andy Phillips beat James in another close one, 128 to 113.

The final was a repeat of last years but with a different result. Neil started well but Andy then got into his stride and with a string of consistent scoring including a 58 break he pulled off the victory by 190 to 151 to become Kent Billiards champion for the eighth time.

KENT SNOOKER UNDER 21s - 23.10.16

Welling Snooker Club

Winner: Ben Sizer
Runner-up: James Addison-May

Only four players were in attendance for the Under 21s this year and whilst that isn't a huge turn out it is two more than last. Ben Sizer was there to defend his trophy he has won for the past three years. So too was James Addison-May who was looking to give Ben a god run for his money. The other two players were siblings Brandon and Katie Nguyen who were right at home as Welling Snooker Club is owned by their parents.

It was obvious that the format would be a round-robin to give them all plenty of table time. In the Group Stages, the more experienced players, Ben and James exerted their talent both beating their younger exponents 3-0. The decisive matches were Brandon beating Katie 3-2 and James beat Ben 3-2.

The Groups Stages results would culminate in a rematch between Ben and James in the Final. In a best of five, Ben won the first before James knocked in a superb 58 break (the highest of the day) to level the match. Despite being near exhaustion, Ben managed to call on all his experience and guile to muster enough concentration to take frames three and four and claim the title for a record fourth consecutive time.

Ben took home £30 (+20 POTY points) and James £10 (+15 POTY) for their results.

KENT SNOOKER VETERANS - 23.10.16

Welling Snooker Club

Winner: Alan Bailey
Runner-up: Pat Casserly

Another terrific turn out of 21 players Over 55 showed up at Welling Snooker Club to show us you're never too old to enjoy a bit of action on the green baize!

Ten players took part in the first round including the defending champion and current Player of the Year, Tony Holdstock. The remaining 11 had a bye through to round two. We had two octogenarian 'Super Vets' in attendance in Ivan Stevenage and Derek Reynolds but unfortunately they couldn't make their experience pay off and both lost in their first match.

In the top half of the draw, Tony won two rounds before coming up against a very solid performance in the Quarter Final from Sidcup's, Alan Bailey. Whilst in the bottom half, former winner Paul West won through to the Semis to play Pat Casserly. It wasn't to be Paul's day as he lost two nil and Casserly to set up the Final against Alan Bailey who had beaten Malcolm Smith in the other Semi FInal.

The Final was a one sided affair with Alan dominating from the start and raced home to comfortable victory in record time and take £100 for his efforts. Both finalists collected 30 Player of the Year Points as Pat had played one more round than Alan.

Maybe next year we might even reach 32 runners in this ever popular event?