Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Member Achievement

Vincent’s England Call-Up

Fundraising Kris Vincent England Team 2005
Kris Vincent England Team 2005

Kris Vincent the 16yrs old rising snooker star from Plymouth who plays at Rileys Snooker Club will be the first junior snooker player from the city to represent England in the European Team and the Mediterranean Snooker Cup in Qawra-Malta on the 5th – 12th March 2005.

Kris who is a prodigy of the West of England Billiards and Snooker Foundation which is based at the Victoria Snooker Centre, who’s Patron is six times former World Professional Snooker Champion, Ray Reardon.

Kris is delighted to be representing his Country for the third time in twelve months saying “For me this is another milestone in my career, to have the opportunity to play for my country. I have been very fortunate to have been selected to play, not only once, but this will be the third time I have been selected for England and hope I can continue to emulate my previous matches at the Home Internationals in Wales. My birthday falls on the 7th of March and I don’t think there is a better birthday present than representing your Country”

England is sending five Teams consisting of three Men’s one Senior and one Ladies team. The England selectors decided to have one of their three-man team to consist of three top juniors in the country to compete in the Mens European Team Competition which consist of Kris Vincent (Plymouth) Michael Georgiou (London) and Gyles Behbood (Harrogate) and they all will be entered in the individual Mediterranean Snooker Cup which is to run two days before the European Team Championships.

Roger Cole of the West of England Billiards and Snooker Foundation who is Kris’s coach and Mentor said “The whole management team are delighted with Kris’s selection and as his coach it is a privilege to assist and guide a player of his quality, he is now reaping the rewards from all the endless hours of practice and coaching sessions he has attended, not only from myself but also from Ray Reardon who has realigned his technical ability and improved his knowledge of the game at each session he attends. For Kris the taste of success must be very sweet and we wish him all the very best in Malta, I am sure with the continued support he is receiving from our foundation and his parents it won’t be to long before more success is on the horizon.”

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Bronze Waistcoat Tournaments, Redruth Bronze

Troy Lynes Wins Redruth Bronze

Troy Lynes 2005
Troy Lynes 2005

 

Try Lynes wins fourth Redruth Branoze Waistcoat event. For more details go to Redruth Bronze Waistcoat Tour

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Silver Waistcoat, Silver Waistcoat Events

Pike Nets Silver Win

Ben Pike 2005
Ben Pike 2005

Ben Pike nets his first Silver Waistcoat win. For full results go to Silver Waistcoat Tour Results.

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Coaching

WEBSF Coaching Team Expands

Steve Brookshaw Coaching 2005
Steve Downing Coaching 2005
Vic Wills Coaching 2005
Paul Broad Coaching 2005

Congratulations to Steve Brookshaw (Plymouth), Steve Downing, Vic Wills & Paul Broad (Redruth) for successfully achieving WEBSF Bronze Coaching status. All four have been involved in coaching leading up to their assessments, giving their time to pass on valuable knowledge and experience.

Steve Brookshaw, one of the top Billiard players in the West Country, is also an English Amateur Billiards Association Coach. He concentrates much of his time in the Plymouth area, working alongside Senior Coach, Roger Cole at the WEBSF Coaching sessions held most Saturday’s at the Victoria Snooker Centre, St. Budeaux

Steve Downing, Vic Wills and Paul Broad operate in the Redruth area. All were put forward and sponsored by the Cornwall Billiards & Snooker Association who intend to promote coaching sessions around the County. Steve Downing, a relatively newcomer to Cornwall, has demonstrated that he is a very good Billiards & Snooker player. At the coaching assessment he demonstrated he has a future as a very good Billiards & Snooker Coach.

Paul Broad (WEBSF Youth Development Officer for Cornwall) works tirelessly to facilitate and promote Snooker in Cornwall, especially with the youth, he too has much to offer, his enthusiasm is a joy to behold. Vic Wills is relatively new to coaching but shows a sound depth of knowledge and experience. Steve, Paul and Vic join existing English Amateur Snooker & Billiards Coach, David Grigg. The Cornwall Billiards & Snooker fraternity are fortunate to have the services of coaches with such commitment, enthusiasm, knowledge and experience.

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Bronze Waistcoat Tournaments

Seldon Wins Exeter Bronze

Bronze Waistcoat Tour Exeter Event 1 Winner Aaron Seldon 2004-05
Aaron Seldon – Exeter Champion 2004-05

Aaron Seldon wins Exeter Bronze Tour. For full report go to Exeter Bronze Waistcoat Tour

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Silver Waistcoat Events

Lock Sets Silver Standard

Darran Lock
Darran Lock

Darran Lock Sets the standard in Silver Waistcoat event 3. For full results go to  Silver Waistcoat Tour Results

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Coaching Material

Archer Shows Support for Snooker

Snooker Coach Frank Archer shows his support to the WEBSF by granting permission for his ‘Billiards & Snooker Coaching Manual for Coaches’ document to be made available to WEBSF Coaches.

This document is the result of many years observations and the study of Billiards & Snooker and will prove invaluable in helping WEBSF coaches further develop their coaching methods and techniques that will in turn benefit players throughout the region. The WEBSF Management Team express grateful thanks for this gesture.

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Bronze Waistcoat Tournaments

Stewart Wins Bronze

jake_stewart

Jake Stewart win Redruth Bronze Tournament. For a full report go to Redruth Bronze Waistcoat Tour. Bronze Waistcoat Tour Results

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, Bronze Waistcoat Tournaments, Redruth Bronze

Jake Stewart Wins Redruth Bronze

 jake_stewart

Jake Stewart wins Redruth Bronze event. Bronze Waistcoat Tour Results

Steve Canniford BLOG-NEWS, EASB

Vincent Reaches EASB Semi Final

Kris Vincent
Kris Vincent

Kris Vincent, Grant Cole and Sam Edmunds all 16yrs old and from Plymouth travelled to Woking Snooker Centre, Woking, Surrey to compete in the EASB English Under 18’s Championship 2004/2005 held on the 4th & 5th December 2004.

Kris, Grant and Sam who all attend the West of England Snooker and Billiards Foundation at the Victoria Snooker Centre, Plymouth, had no doubts of there enormous task to compete over the 2 days against 32 of some of the best under 18 snooker players in the country to reach the southern region qualifier finals.

On the first days play Sam Edmunds in round 1 played against David Lawrence (Portsmouth) but after a nervous start Sam could not overcome his strong opponent and went out losing 4 frames to nil.

Grant Cole who plays for Victoria Snooker Centre met Richard Bailey. The first frame went to Bailey with Cole taking the second frame with a 56 break and at 1-1 it looked as if Cole was the stronger player but with each of the rest of the frames finishing on the last ball Cole was defeated 4-1 frames.

With Cole and Edmunds out of the competition Kris Vincent’s (England International) first opponent was Stephen Kerr (Woking) who had just defeated Darren Bond (Tiverton) the 2003/2004 Silver Waistcoat UK Champion 4-1 frames. After losing the first frame to Kerr the Plymouth player who plays out of Rileys Snooker Club began to show his composure and skillfully outplayed the Woking player to win the match 4-1 frames.

In Round 3 Vincent met with Sam Baird (Tiverton) and with the match at 2-2 Kris needed to step up his game and overcame his opponent to win 4-2 frames to go into the next days qualifying rounds.

Sunday 5th December saw Kris against David Lawrence (Portsmouth) who in his previous rounds did not drop a single frame and on paper the favourite to reach the final. Lawrence started well and playing with confidence had a break of 52 to take the first frame. Kris had to call on all his experience and tactical play in the next 4 frames to compete at a high level making breaks of 64-52-50 and a number of 30’s after a terrific match Kris won 4-1 to go through to the play-off for a place in the EASB final.

Kris’s last opponent for the EASB finals place in May 2005 was Judd Trump the favourite and undoubtedly the number 1 junior player in the world with the accolade of the youngest player to have a 147 in a competition. With the match to be contested over 9 frames Kris knew he needed to keep pace with the Bristol player and with the match at the interval being all square at 2-2 it seemed to be the right tactics to play. The fifth frame Kris made a mistake missing a red ball to the centre pocket on his break and that was all it needed for Trump to take the advantage and win the frame. This was the turning point of the match with Judd taking the next frame and a lead of 4-2. Kris fought back to make it 4-3 but with a pressure shot in the 8th frame missed, Judd made no mistakes to clear the table with a 94 clearance and win the match 5-3.

Report by Jeff Vincent