Castle wins on return to his roots with a new cue

BILLY Castle made a winning return to his old stomping ground despite using a brand-new cue.

The 34-year-old from Reading pocketed £200 in prize money after edging Dharminder Lilly 3-2 in a close final of the opening leg of the Cuestars Championship Tour at Chandlers Ford Snooker Club.

Castle, who heads to Bulgaria next weekend for the second leg of the Q Tour, dropped only three frames in his five best-of-five-frame matches.

Remarkably, he started playing with a new cue from Cuestars sponsor Ian Whiting from The SnookerStore four days before the tournament.

A professional for four years, Castle was coached as a youngster by the late ex-Saints fullback Ken Jones and was a regular and fondly-remembered member of the Saturday morning junior leagues at Chandlers Ford SC.

Lilly, who beat Wayne Townsend in the last-four, recorded a 101 break in his quarter-final victory over Paul Davis. Home player Shane Hellyer’s excellent run ended in a semi-final defeat by Castle.

Defending rankings champion Mark Lloyd went on a rampage in the Plate after losing 3-0 to Castle in his opening match in the main event.

Lloyd didn’t drop a frame in his three matches, made the day’s highest break of 125 in the quarter-finals against Daniel Hall and beat home player Lennon Savage 2-0 in the final.

Results and rankings list are on snookerscores.net: https://snookerscores.net/tournament-manager/cuestars-championship-tour-event-1

Prize money: winner £200 Billy Castle, runner-up £100 Dharminder Lilly, semi-finalists £40 each Wayne Townsend & Shane Hellyer, Plate winner £25 Mark Lloyd.

The Crucible Sports & Social Club, Newbury, hosts the second leg of eight on Sunday, November 15.

By Tim Dunkley and Steven Hughes