Havant pro Jamie Wilson makes successful return to scene of his first Cuestars tournament victory

The 17-year-old from Havant was delighted to meet up with his old sparring partners during the third leg of the Under-21 Gold Tour at Frames Sports Bar, Coulsdon, writes TIM DUNKLEY.

Despite conceding a 14-point start to all of his amateur opponents, Wilson demonstrated the improvement in his game since earning his place on the World Snooker Tour a year ago.

He pocketed £100 in prize money after beating rankings leader Oliver Sykes (Chandler’s Ford) 2-1 in the final on one of the club’s professional standard Star tables.

Wilson – who collected his first Cuestars winner’s trophy in December 2019 – was pleased to be back among old friends.

He said: ‘I played OK all day and I was happy to scrape a win against Oliver.

‘It was nice to catch up with everyone. I hadn’t seen a lot of them in ages. It was just a nice enjoyable day.’

The event, sponsored by Frames Sports Bar, attracted a high-quality field of 16. Wilson returned the day’s highest break of 88.

Meanwhile, Silver Tour player Samuel Laxton (Portsmouth), despite struggling with a foot injury and not having played for a while, chalked up his first half-century break.

He made a 60 to recover from 1-0 down to first-time semi-finalist Harry Wyatt (Ferndown) before losing two black-ball games to joint rankings leader Riley Ellis (Swindon) in the final.

And Rhys Pearce (Waterlooville) beat leg-one winner Harry Goddard (Yorks) 2-0 in the last-eight to reach his first semi-final in only his second outing on the junior circuit.

Pearce then lost 2-0, both on the final black, to Zach Moritz (London).

Salisbury Snooker Club hosts the fourth legs of six on Sunday, September 12.