Phyllis Bell Trophy – the story so far

Inception

Following the sad loss of Steve Burrows’ Grandma, Phyllis Bell, on the 9th June 2013, Steve and his family donated a trophy to the Nottingham Snooker Academy in her memory. The Trophy was fittingly named after Phyllis, who was a big fan of snooker. Her favourite player was the late great Alex Higgins. She was a keen supporter of Steve in his early years of playing snooker, helping him to purchase his first cue and case.

PBT1

The first Phyllis Bell Trophy snooker tournament (“PBT”) commenced in July 2013. Twenty players entered and matches were best of 5 or 7 frames. It was very fitting that Steve made it all the way to the final, where he was eventually beaten 5-1 by an in-form Chris Winter.

PBT2

In 2014 the tournament moved away from the Academy and was run by the Nottinghamshire Billiards & Snooker Association. The tournament was held on one day, namely 21 December 2014 and attracted an impressive 31 entries. The winner of PBT2 was Tom Goldstein, a player who had travelled all the way from Grantham to compete.

The PBT2 finalists, Steve Butler and Tom Goldstein, pictured either side of Steve Burrows

PBT3

PBT3 was held on 21 February 2016 and the tournament attracted 20 entries.

Sean Bowers defeated Dave Jobling 2-0 in the final. Sean played very well throughout and was undefeated during the group matches.

Losing semi-finalists were Sean Croft, who was narrowly defeated by Jobling, and Wayne Martin who also lost in a very tight contest with Bowers.

PBT4

I do not have much information about PBT4, other than it was held in 2017 and was won by Bash Maqsood.

PBT5

PBT5 was won by Andy Teale in 2018.

PBT6

PBT6 was held in early 2019 and was won by Joe Reynolds, the sixth running of the tournament and the sixth different name on the fabulous trophy.

PBT7

PBT7 will be held on 24 November 2019 at Phoenix Cue Sports, Eastwood. Steve Burrows will be competing once again and his family are very kindly donating some gift vouchers for the winner and runner-up, in addition to the cash prizes that will be awarded. We can’t expect 31 entries for this one, but it still promises to be a great day and the memory of Phyllis Bell lives on with these tournaments.