Castle takes Championship Tour lead
BILLY Castle has replaced Wayne Townsend at the top of the Cuestars Championship Tour rankings.
The 31-year-old former professional from Reading beat his title-rival in the final of the seventh leg in Bournemouth.
Castle pocketed £200 in prize money after rattling off three quick-fire half-century breaks in a 3-0 victory at Greenbaize Snooker Club.
There were a couple of other high-scoring encounters in the latter part of the tournament.
Jason Pusser (Bournemouth) cleared the table for a 132 to force a fifth-frame decider against Bradley Cowdroy (Bournemouth) in the quarter-finals. Cowdroy had breaks of 61 and 60 but the second effort didn’t win him the frame as Pusser extracted the penalty points from a snooker and cleared up.
Townsend (Northolt) also had a 132 clearance plus a 61 in his semi-final tie with Mark Lloyd (Gosport) who replied with runs of 83 and 50.
Two other centuries were recorded. Townsend made a 108 in the first round and Lloyd a 109 in the last-eight.
Castle has a eight-point lead over Townsend with two legs remaining. Lloyd and Londoner Peter Devlin are 16 points further back in joint third place.
Alex Greenham (Poole) overcame Riley Ellis (north Wilts) 2-0 in the Plate final.
The event was sponsored by snookerdad, qualified referee and highly-regarded tournament director Chris Wyatt, whom we are not seeing so much of lately.
Woking Snooker Centre hosts the eighth leg of nine on Sunday, April 14.
RESULTS (BREAKS)
PRELIMS: Aristos Pampouris 1-3 Mike Trigg, Wayne Townsend (108) 3-0 Mark Hubbard, Carl Davies 3-0 Sean Reeves, Peter Ebbins 0-3 Will Forster, Ryan Spratt 2-3 Sean Hayman, Steve Nevett 3-1 Alex Greenham, Mark Lloyd 3-0 Riley Ellis, Connor Benzey 3-0 Ray Grall, Shane Hatfield 2-3 Jake Baker, Dan Hall 1-3 Jason Pusser, Navraj Landa 0-3 (58, 57) Bradley Cowdroy, Stuart Chapman 0-3 (85) Paul Davis, Billy Castle (53, 52) 3-0 Harry Wyatt.
LAST-16: Mike Trigg 0-3 (71, 68) Wayne Townsend, Carl Davies 3-0 Will Forster, Sean Hayman 3-0 Steve Nevett, Mark Lloyd (56) 3-2 Connor Benzey, Jake Baker 2-3 (65) Jason Pusser, Bradley Cowdroy 3-1 (69) Paul Davis, Billy Castle (63) 3-1 William Thomson, Mark Prescott 3-1 Gary Coulson.
QUARTER-FINALS: Wayne Townsend (83) 3-0 Carl Davies, Sean Hayman 0-3 (109) Mark Lloyd, Jason Pusser (132c) 2-3 (61, 60) Bradley Cowdroy, Billy Castle (73, 50) 3-0 Mark Prescott.
SEMI-FINALS (£50): Wayne Townsend (132c, 61) 3-1 (83, 50) Mark Lloyd, Bradley Cowdroy 1-3 (99, 94, 70) Billy Castle.
FINAL (£200/£100): Billy Castle (62, 58, 52) 3-0 Wayne Townsend.
PLATE RESULTS (BREAKS)
PRELIMS: Harry Wyatt 2-0 Ray Grall, Dan Hall 2-0 Navraj Landa, Stuart Chapman 2-0 Sean Reeves, William Thomson 0-2 Riley Ellis, Mark Hubbard 0-2 Alex Greenham, Peter Ebbins 0-2 Ryan Spratt.
QUARTER-FINALS: Harry Wyatt 1-2 Dan Hall, Stuart Chapman 0-2 Riley Ellis, Alex Greenham 2-0 Ryan Spratt, Shane Hatfield 0-2 Aristos Pampouris.
SEMI-FINALS: Dan Hall 1-2 Riley Ellis, Alex Greenham 2-1 Aristos Pampouris.
FINAL (£25/£10): Riley Ellis 0-2 Alex Greenham.
Picture: Wayne Townsend (left) and Billy Castle
By Tim Dunkley and Steven Hughes