Woodward secures first Silver success

CHRISTOPHER Woodward admitted it wasn’t a “vintage” performance but it was still “fantastic” to collect his first winner’s trophy on the Cuestars Under-21 Silver Tour.

In a reverse of the final of the opening event of the season in Newbury last month, the 17-year-old from Chandler’s Ford defeated Caden Read in the second leg at Salisbury Snooker Club.

Woodward, appearing in his fourth Silver final, slid the last black into a middle pocket to wrap up a 2-0 victory. The clubmates now jointly lead the rankings.

“It’s fantastic to get the win,” he said. “I really wanted to win one. But I didn’t think today was going to be the day.

“It wasn’t vintage Christopher Woodward for most of the day. I had moments – but generally I just crawled over the line.”

Extra practice, which has produced personal bests on break-building routines recently, is paying dividends.

Woodward said: “There were moments today when that really shone through and I played beautifully. I had a 55 in my first match where the pink and back were mainly unavailable.

“I’m playing fairly well and it’s on the up. My game is improving, especially my break building.”

Woodward also competes on the English Junior Tour and has travelled to Belgium and Ireland as well as to venues in England while playing in Group 6B on the World Disability Billiards & Snooker tour.

Last week, he attended the WPBSA Class 3 refereeing course at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.

His only previous Cuestars winner’s trophy came in a Bronze event on home tables at Chandlers Ford Snooker Club in November, 2022

Rayan El Qmache put together a personal best 59 break against Jack Miller in the round-robin group stage.

Dylan Denieffe and Ben Scammell made the last-four.

The event was sponsored by Salisbury Snooker Club (salisburysnookerclub.co.uk).

Results and ranking lists are on snookerscores.net.

Chandlers Ford Snooker Club hosts the third leg of nine on Sunday, November 8. Gold will be at Waterlooville Sports Bar