O’Shay scoops £1,250 jackpot in Scotland

CUESTARS Under-21 Gold Tour player O’Shay Scott pocketed a whopping £1,250 for winning the 21 & Under UK Open Championship in Scotland last night.

The 16-year-old from Eastleigh beat 17-year-old Northern Ireland international Joel Connolly 4-1 in the live-streamed final at the Red Triangle Snooker Club in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow.

O’Shay recorded a break of 100 in his 3-1 quarter-final victory over Aidan Murphy and defeated Edward Jones 3-2 in the semis.

His Chandlers Ford clubmate Oliver Sykes, who made three centuries over the four days, collected £300 after losing 3-0 to Joel in the last-four.

Kaylan Patel beat the 2023 European Under-16 champion Jack Borwick 3-1 before losing by the same score to Edward in the quarter-finals. Zac Cosker went down 3-2 to Joel in the last-16 after knocking out the 2024 European Under-16 champion Vladislav Gradinari 3-2.

In the last-32, Asten Sahota went down 3-1 to former Ukrainian professional Anton Kazakov; William Thomson lost 3-0 to the 2022 WSF Junior Championship runner-up Jake Crofts; Adam Abbas went out 3-1 to Christian Richter, the 2024 IBSF World Under-17 champion; and Ollie Briffett-Payne was beaten 3-1 by Scotland international Sam McKay.

The high-quality event attracted 42 entries from many different countries. Players were split into round-robin groups of 22 and 20. Final positions in the groups determined the seedings for the knockout, which all players qualified for. The total prize pot was £4,200.

Picture supplied by the tournament organiser Raymond Wardropper.