Double kiss helps Tallentire avenge Bournemouth defeat
DANNY Tallentire admitted he “did it the hard way” as he clinched the fourth leg of the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Gold Tour at Salisbury Snooker Club.
In a reversal of his results in Bournemouth last month, Tallentire (Player’s Westbury) beat rankings leader Ben Tanner (The Academy, Eastleigh) in the group stages AND in the final.
Speaking after he “managed to nick” the fifth-frame decider following an awful slice of bad luck by his 19-year-old opponent, Tallentire said: “I knew with the form Ben had been in so far this season that the only way I was going to beat him was to try to keep it tight and play the way that suits me.
“I knew he would score better than me so I knew I had to try to stick in there and grind out a result. But I made it a lot harder than it should’ve been.”
Tallentire levelled the match at 1-1 with a 46 break. Tanner regained his advantage after Tallentire missed frame-ball pink in the third.
“I was very disappointed because I had done exactly the same in the last tournament in the final to go 2-1 up so I was thinking history could be repeating itself,” said the 19-year-old.
However, a 30 clearance to the black forced a decider.
Tanner, leading by four points with 18 on in the fifth, double kissed the cue-ball into the middle pocket and Tallentire pounced on blue and pink which were near the middle pockets for a 3-2 victory.
“I managed to nick the decider,” conceded second-placed Tallentire, who closed the gap at the top to ten points. “It was a relief to win but I definitely did it the hard way.
“I was glad to have made a good start to the year but was disappointed that I wasn’t scoring when I was in. I’m going to need to work hard on my break-building if I want to win more titles.”
Tanner said: “I couldn’t believe I got to the final. I didn’t really play well all day. My best frame was against Lee Bell, which was my first one.”
Earlier, Tallentire topped his group despite a 2-1 defeat by Tanner’s clubmate Bell. He accounted for Kevin Impett (Chandler’s Ford SC) 3-0 in the last-four.
Tanner dispatched Dean Matthews (Ivy Leaf Club, Maidenhead) by the same score in the second semi.
The fifth of the eight legs is at Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club on Sunday, February 12.
BREAKS
Ben Tanner: 69, 51.
GOLD RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Danny Tallentire (Player’s, Westbury); 2nd, Ben Tanner (The Academy, Eastleigh); 3rd, Dean Matthews (Ivy Leaf Club, Maidenhead); 4th, Kevin Impett (Chandler’s Ford SC); 5th, Lee Bell (The Academy, Eastleigh); 6th, Oliver Parsons (Jesters, Swindon).
SEMI-FINALS (12 points): Tallentire beat Impett 3-0, Tanner beat Matthews 3-0.
FINAL (25/18 points): Tallentire beat Tanner 3-2.
Hat-trick for Silver favourite
SWINDON star Troy Bodman already has one hand on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Silver Tour ranking title – and it’s only halfway through the season.
A remarkable third successive tournament win has taken the red-hot favourite from Jesters Snooker Hall a massive 32 points clear of second-placed Joshua Lee.
Bodman defeated Mark Lloyd (Stoke SC, Gosport) 2-0 in the fourth-leg final at Salisbury Snooker Club.
Virtually unbeatable this season, Bodman has lost only two of his 24 matches in four tournaments.
Pitched together in the same round-robin group, the finalists drew their two-frame match. And that frame proved priceless as three players picked up two wins apiece. Lloyd (six frames) qualified for the knockout ahead of Sam Storey and Callum Brown (five frames each).
Bodman dropped just two frames out of 15 all day. He beat clubmate Joshua Lee 2-1 in the semi-finals.
Lloyd saw off Group A winner Thomas Lancastle (Eastville SC, Bristol) 2-0 in his last-four match to climb to fifth place. It was the youngster’s best ever performance on the Silver Tour since his debut in October, 2010.
The fifth of the eight legs is at Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club on Sunday, February 12.
BREAKS
Sonnie O’Sullivan: 37.
Mark Lloyd: 33.
Sam Storey: 32.
Troy Bodman: 31.
SILVER RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Thomas Lancastle (Eastville SC, Bristol); 2nd, Joshua Lee (Jesters, Swindon); 3rd, Connor McLean (Hailsham Memorial Institute, East Sussex); 4th, Sonnie O’Sullivan (Liberal Club, High Wycombe); 5th, Joshua Hughes (Rileys, Worcester); 6th, Anthony Church (Greenbaize, Bournemouth).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Troy Bodman (Jesters, Swindon); 2nd, Mark Lloyd (Stoke SC, Gosport); 3rd, Callum Browne (Player’s, Westbury); 4th, Sam Storey (Thatcham SC); 5th, Daniel Knox (Woking SC); 6th, Cameron Holt (Liberal Club High Wycombe).
SEMI-FINALS (12 points): Lloyd beat Lancastle 2-0, Bodman beat Lee 2-1.
FINAL (25/18 points): Bodman beat Lloyd 2-0.
Farmer has Bellinger in his sights
A SECOND tournament win of the season has seen Gosport teenager Nathan Farmer home in on Matthew Bellinger at the top of the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Bronze Tour rankings.
Farmer is now just two points adrift of Bellinger after claiming victory in the fourth leg at Salisbury Snooker Club.
A 2-1 win from 1-0 down against Mike Trigg (Chandler’s Ford SC) in the final gave the Stoke Snooker Club youngster maximum points.
Farmer, who also won in Swindon in November, finished second in Group A after a defeat by Trigg’s clubmate Olly Clark.
He saw off the phenomenal 12-year-old Woking schoolgirl Jasmine Bolsover 2-0 in the quarter-finals and his Stoke clubmate Karl Eggar by the same score in the last-four.
Bellinger (Jesters, Swindon) was knocked out 2-0 in the quarter-finals by Austen Petty (Chandler’s Ford SC).
Petty didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after losing in the semi-finals for the fourth successive Cuestars event.
The 13-year-old, who was beaten 2-0 in the last-four by Trigg, said: “I played OK until I got to the semi-final.”
Trigg’s appearance in the final was the furthest the 15-year-old has ever been in a Cuestars tournament. He reached the quarter-finals twice in his debut season in 2010/11 but had not qualified for the knockout in this campaign.
He had progressed as runner-up in Group D, courtesy of a three-way play-off, and beaten Group A winner Clark, 12, 2-1 in the last-eight.
Group C winner Spike Hull, the fourth Chandler’s Ford SC player to make the quarter-finals, lost 2-1 to Karl Eggar (Stoke SC, Gosport) after taking the first frame on the pink.
The fifth of the eight legs is at Chandler’s Ford Snooker Club on Sunday, February 12.
BREAKS
Austen Petty: 27.
Michael Trigg: 25.
Matthew Bellinger: 20.
BRONZE RESULTS
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP A: 1st, Olly Clark (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Nathan Farmer (Stoke SC, Gosport); 3rd, Bradley Cowdroy (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 4th, Thomas Holton (Woking SC); 5th, Kaine Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP B: 1st, Austen Petty (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Karl Eggar (Stoke SC, Gosport); 3rd, Stewart Ball (Greenbaize, Bournemouth); 4th, Matthew Boudier (Stoke SC, Gosport).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP C: 1st, Spike Hull (Chandler’s Ford SC); 2nd, Matthew Bellinger (Jesters, Swindon); 3rd, Mickey Joyce (Crucible, Newbury); 4th, Arnie Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth).
ROUND-ROBIN GROUP D: 1st, Jasmine Bolsover (Woking SC); 2nd, Mike Trigg (Chandler’s Ford SC); 3rd, Corey Tallentire (Player’s, Westbury); 4th, Callum McDonald (Salisbury SC).
QUARTER-FINALS (8 points): Trigg beat Clark 2-1, Austen Petty beat Bellinger 2-0, Eggar beat Hull 2-1, Farmer beat Bolsover 2-0.
SEMI-FINALS (12 points): Farmer beat Eggar 2-0, Trigg beat Austen Petty 2-0.
FINAL (25/18 points): Farmer beat Trigg 2-1.
Ball bounces back
STEWART Ball, who won the first 2011/12 Bronze Tour event in Salisbury in October, told cuestars.uk.com in December: “There are so many good players in Bronze.”
Ball, who is based at Greenbaize Snooker Club in Bournemouth, realised early in this campaign that the Bronze Tour would be extremely close.
Such is the tough competition that he failed to progress from the round-robin group stages in the last two events.
But Ball hasn’t lost his talent. He defeated Silver Tour player Callum Browne (Player’s, Westbury) 1-0 in the Plate final at Salisbury Snooker Club and is now ranked fifth.
PLATE RESULTS (ONE-FRAME MATCHES)
LAST-16: Cameron Holt (Liberal Club, High Wycombe) beat Matthew Boudier (Stoke SC, Gosport), Lee Bell (Academy, Eastleigh) beat Arnie Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth), Sonnie O’Sullivan (Liberal Club, High Wycombe) beat Oliver Parsons (Jesters, Swindon), Stewart Ball (Greenbaize, Bournemouth), beat Connor McLean (Hailsham Memorial Institute, East Sussex), Callum Browne (Player’s, Westbury) beat Kaine Petty (Greenbaize, Bournemouth), Anthony Church (Greenbaize, Bournemouth) beat Daniel Knox (Woking SC).
QUARTER-FINALS: Holt beat Bell, Ball beat O’Sullivan, Browne beat Church, Bradley Cowdroy (Greenbaize, Bournemouth) beat Joshua Hughes (Rileys, Worcester).
SEMI-FINALS: Ball beat Holt, Browne beat Cowdroy.
FINAL: Ball beat Browne.
Have you got any snooker news?
E-mail me straight after a tournament and your news will appear in the report. And it doesn’t have to be from a Cuestars tournament. E-mail me details or contact me via Facebook and you could be on the Cuestars website and in your local newspaper. E-mail: [email protected]