Lincoln snooker player Steven Hallworth has won the sport’s oldest event, the English Amateur Championship.
Hallworth won the 103rd instalment of the event over the weekend at the Landywood Snooker Club in Walsall, beating Callum Downing 6-4 in the final.
He said: “It gives me a lot of confidence, not just that I’ve won it, but that I’ve got a trophy as well. There’s a lot more downs than ups in snooker. It’s not often you get a trophy, it’s usually just cash prizes.”
Skellingthorpe-based Hallworth has joined the likes of snooker legend ‘Whirlwind’ Jimmy White, former world champion Stuart Bingham and the sport’s first world number-one Ray Reardon.
“Of course it’s an amateur tournament, but because of the prestige and history it’s great,” he said.
Hallworth has gone one better than seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, and fellow winners of the Crucible’s showpiece event John Parrott and Joe Johnson, who all finished as runners-up in the event over the years.
He beat 15-year-old Moldovan Vladislav Gradinari in the last 16, edging past him 4-3. However, Hallworth was complimentary of his young opponent.
“The first match 3-0 up, then Vlad put me back under it. He’s some player if he can tighten up his game and not take on as many daft shots,” he said.
The 28-year-old then faced Craig Steadman, winning 5-4 despite being 4-2 down to the fellow Englishman.
He said: “I said to my missus before the semi-final that I stressed myself out because I couldn’t find my A game. But, as long as I got that trophy nothing else mattered.”
The message clearly worked as Lincoln’s only professional snooker player swept past Nathan Jones 5-0 to reach the final, where he beat Downing.
The tournament win sets Hallworth up well for his trip to Bosnia & Herzegovina next weekend, as he looks to regain his pro-tour card at the Q Tour. He said “no one wants to face me”, as he readies for a crunch event that could lift him back into the promised land of the pro-tour.
Hallworth thanked his sponsors, Lincoln based steel fabrication business T.R Weston and Son Ltd., who were there to see him lift the trophy.
He added: “It means everything to me that they were there, I’ve shared good and bad times with them. I wouldn’t be here without Glynn and Claire Weston.”
Three players will win a tour card from the up-coming WPBSA Q Tour Global Playoff in Bosnia & Herzegovina, each needing to beat three opponents to secure the spot.