Under 16
Champion
BEN MACKIE

November 2nd & 3rd 2007 was the weekend of the National Junior Championships which took place at Miscues Pool & Snooker club in Barnsley South Yorkshire. For the early birds who arrived on Friday evening 2 flyers gave the players chance to loosen up their arms. 30 players entered the 1st flyer and 17 entered the 2nd. To make sure the players had a fairly early night the finals were held over until the following day. Event favourite Steven Petty (Surrey) started the weekend well winning both flyers, beating George Reeves in Flyer 1 and the up and coming 12 year old pool and snooker starlet Jack Smithers (Surrey) in Flyer 2.

Saturday morning saw the start of the serious stuff, players had travelled from all four corners of England including 22 counties from all 7 EPA regions.

The Ivor Powell Memorial Trophy Under 18s Championships began at 10.00am with 84 of the 91 entries registered on the day competing for the most prestigious title for youth players in England.
The first round stages were played to the Swiss System which gives a player 3 lives, each match the best of 5. From this stage 9 players qualified for the last 16 knock-out automatically based upon their number of wins. 3 players qualified without losing a match; Ashley Radford (Notts), Joe Prince (Gtr London) & Jack Pople (Gtr London), who only lost 4 frames in 5 matches.
20 players then went into a round robin stage with 4 groups of 5 competing for the remaining 7 places. A shock entry into the round robin stage was Steven Petty, having only won 4 from 6 in the Swiss System stage; losing to fellow England Internationals Scott Smith (W Mids) & Joe Prince. The round robin matches were 5 frames, all played. The qualifiers were those with firstly the most wins and then the highest number of frames. Harry Irwin (Leics) was the most successful with 4 wins and 17 frames. The last 16 was played the following day alongside the U16s event.

Time to relax with another flyer. Juniors just can't get enough of playing pool! 16 entries with success going again to Steven Petty. By early evening Miscues was starting to buzz with the arrival of the U16 players for their championship on Sunday.

The Ivor Powell Memorial Trophy U18s last 16 started Sunday morning at 10am, as you would expect with such a high profile event out stepped the 'Big Guns' of English Youth Pool including 9 England Internationals! Quality all round with some close matches to get to the quarter finals.
In the top half of the quarter finals draw Joe Prince swiftly brushed aside Kyle Pickett (Surrey) 5-0 and Paul McGuire (Lancs) beat Dan Moore (W Mids) 5-1. The bottom half saw last years winner Richard Twomey (Suffolk) up against Surreys Steven Petty. It was anticipated this would be a close match and it attracted quite an audience, Steven eventually winning in the deciding frame. The last quarter final was unlucky for Englands Jack Pople who was beaten in the final frame by Surreys George Reeves.
The 1st semi was between England pair Paul McGuire & Joe Prince, another close match with Joe winning in the deciding frame. The 2nd semi between Steven and George was a much quicker tie with Steven winning 6-1.
The eagerly awaited final was played alongside the U16s final, Joe getting off to a good start with a 2-0 lead, Steven then drew level. The next few frames were equally shared before Steven nudged ahead and then took the title 7-4.

The under 16s event also started at 10.00am with 60 entries. This was a straight knock-out competition with matches starting best of 7. All eyes were on the youngest player of the weekend and possibly the youngest to ever compete in this event, 5 year old Ryan Davies from Gtr Manchester. How dapper did he look in his waistcoat and dickie bow? His debut was enchanting to watch with the little man losing 4-1 to James Hallett (Suffolk). Ryans older brother Aaron was also in the event at a ripe old age of 10! Aaron had more success winning through 2 rounds before coming up against one of the favourites; England International Phil Parkin (Warks). Last years youngest entry Richard Haney did himself proud by losing only 2 frames to reach the quarter finals before losing to Phil Parkin.
The first semi final was between Theo Morgan (W Mids) who had only lost 2 frames all day and Ben Mackie (Dorset) the defending champion. Ben showed he was gunning for the title again by beating Theo 5-0. The second semi final was between Phil Parkin & Nigel Clarke (Gtr London). Due to Phils success in the U18s last year he missed out on the U16s event. It was a close match with Phil winning the deciding frame.
The final started with Phil slow to get off the mark. Ben went into a 5-0 lead before Phil chalked up a frame, he then won the next 2 but couldn't stop Ben taking the title with a 6-3 win. Both players made few mistakes in the match.

Following the finals the presentation of trophies and prizes was done by Judi Collins (England Youth Manager).

I would like to express my personal thanks to Hazel and Terry Parkin along with Judi who all helped me with the running of the weekend. I hope every one had a good time at Miscues - win or lose.

Amanda Speight
Tournament Director