Portsmouth snooker starlet Samuel Laxton reaches last 16 of English Under-16 Championship

SAMUEL Laxton has booked a place in the last16 of the English Under-16 Championship.
By Tim Dunkley
Published 24th Oct 2019, 09:47 BST
Monday Junior Snooker League award winners and their families at the presentation.Monday Junior Snooker League award winners and their families at the presentation.
Monday Junior Snooker League award winners and their families at the presentation.

The 14-year-old from Portsmouth didn’t drop a frame in the group stages of the southern qualifier at Chandlers Ford Snooker Club.

He overcame Kent-based Brandon Nguyen 2-0, O’Shay Scott, from Eastleigh, 2-0 and Dorset nine-year-old Harry Wyatt 2-0.

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And he then beat Riley Ellis, from north Wiltshire, 2-0 in the last-four and lost 2-0 to home club player Oliver Sykes in the final.

It’s the second year running that Laxton has reached the last-16 of a national junior tournament.

Last season he went down 4-1 in the first knockout round of the English Under-14 Championship in Leeds to eventual winner Stanley Moody.

The following day, Laxton made it a double celebration.

A record 21 players signed in for the Monday Junior Snooker League at Waterlooville Sports Bar, where Laxton beat Harry Wilson in the final of the traditional trophy-day handicapped knockout tournament.

Finn Kirby defeated Elodie Hall in the Plate final.

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Following the knockout, joint club-owner Steve Wilson presented the trophies and medals for the fifth season.

A new league starts next Monday.

Players from the Portsmouth region who will be aged under-14 at the end of the year are urged to enter the qualifier for the English Under-14 Championship at the club on Sunday, November 17.

Entry via the EPSB website costs just £2. 

Keira Jackson and Rhys Pearce both dropped just one frame and won their respective round-robin groups in the Junior Pool League.

Division 1 leader Pearce was denied a perfect session by second-placed Keira Hiscock.

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And Jackson’s defeat was at the hands of seven-year-old Division 2 front-runner Jake Daffin. 

World Snooker coach Tim Dunkley runs snooker sessions for under-19s from 4.30-6.30pm every Monday and Wednesday and junior pool sessions from 4.30-6.30pm every Thursday.

 

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