EASB Premier Junior Tour - Event 2

[NS Admin]

ENGLISH PREMIER JUNIOR TOUR EVENT 2
STEPHEN CRAIGIE WINS AGAIN

Stephen Craigie, Newcastle posted another strong performance to win his 2nd successive Premier Junior Tour this time at Northern SC, Leeds defeating Event 1 semi finalist, Jack Lisowski, Gloucester, 4-1 in a one sided final.

Lisowski won the close first frame but could only muster 23 points in total over the next four frames as Craigie made breaks of 61,79 and 57.

The winner recorded four century's in the previous days group stage with back to back efforts again of 125 and 120 then 105 and 122 to register the best frame score of 15-3, unbeaten again to extend his run to 16 matches in the series.

On Sunday Craigie bounced back from 2-0 down against Ben Harrison to win 4-2 with breaks of 58 and 96, Daniel Hildyard 4-1 and Shahrukh Nasir promoted from the Regional Tour also 4-1.

Lisowski who lost a match in the his group to Nathan Jones struggled to subdue Syd Wilson 4-3 after the Essex teenager fought back from 3-0 down with two 55 breaks and also trailed George Marter 50,65, 2-1 winning 4-2 with runs of 104 and 75 finally crushing free scoring Ryan Causton 4-0 in the last four with a 52.

Group winner Causton had made twelve breaks over fifty up until the semi finals impressive in the quarter finals beating Mitchell Mann, 86, 4-3 from 3-1 down, a 52 break then 54,53 and 68 to finish.

Martin Ball made ten breaks over fifty in Lisowski's group but could only finish in 3rd place one frame adrift of Nathan Jones.

127 breaks over fifty hit the pockets at Leeds including 12 hundreds.

Event 1 runner up Joel Walker also failed to qualify from his group finishing in 3rd place after Luke McEvoy withdrew through illness costing Walker points in a reduced uncompleted group which saw Walker drop to 5th in the rankings.

Causton, Darren Cook and Tom Maxfield also all qualified undefeated, Mitchell Mann, Billy Castle and Andrew Smith also topped their groups but lost a match.

Semi finalist's in Event 1 Nick Jennings and Sam Craigie slumped to 4th place in their groups as 7 players reached the knockout stage for the first time this season to shake up the rankings behind Craigie, Lisowski, Mann, Causton and Walker.

Next PJT Event 21-22 November, Hazelgrove SC, Stockport.

See www.englishsnooker.com for all results/rankings/news.

Malcolm Thorne
English Snooker