Hat-trick and monster high break for Callender

VINCENT Callender claimed a third successive winner’s trophy and knocked in a massive new high break to set up an intriguing final event of the season in Bournemouth.

The 13-year-old from Frimley Green, Surrey, is now favourite to clinch the Cuestars Under-21 Bronze Tour title.

Callender moved to the top of the rankings after beating Harry Rice 2-1 in the final of the ninth and penultimate leg at Chandlers Ford Snooker Club which was sponsored by Pitman Training.

And he recorded a personal best break of 69 in the opening frame before Rice forced a decider.

“My head was gone,” admitted Callender. “Every time I get a good break, the next frame I play I can’t pot two balls in a row.

“But in the third frame I got a 25 break and managed to keep my lead through the whole frame.”

Talking about his phenomenal run over the last three events, Callender said: “It was such a nice feeling, winning three in a row.

“But then getting a 69 break in the first frame was the cherry on the top. I’m very happy.

“It’s all going to happen in Bournemouth!”

And he added that he was “very happy” that 17-year-old Harry Rice from Newbury had reached his first final.

A factor in Callender’s success in Chandler’s Ford was actually a defeat by Jack Allen in the round-robin group stages.

This meant he finished runner-up in the group and had to play former rankings leader Lewis Harris in the last-eight, in which he prevailed 2-0, rather than later in the tournament if the seedings had worked out.

Tallulah Cousins made the quarter-finals in only her second event on the junior circuit. Bristol-based Allen, who is fourth in the rankings, has qualified for the knockout in six of the eight legs he has entered this season.

Harris drops to second place, four points adrift of Callender. Just 24 days after breaking his right wrist in two places, third-placed Jack Miller kept his title hopes alive by reaching the semis. He trails Harris by two points.

It will be a three-horse race in the final leg at Greenbaize Snooker Club, Bournemouth, on Sunday, April 26.

All results are on snookerscores.net.

For more information about Pitman Training, go to www.pitman-training.com.