The Women’s European Billiards Open Championship took place at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds UK over the past weekend with Jamie Hunter representing England taking the title against the current World Champion and World number 1, Anna Lynch representing Australia.

During the round robin stage of the event, session 1 of Group A saw Jamie Hunter (Eng) take the win on the alarm against Stephanie Foley (Ire) 156-60 while Anna Lynch (Aus) had a comfortable win over Joanna Ward (Ire) 185-38 on the clock.  Jamie and Anna had a number of 20+ breaks in their matches

Group B Rochy Woods (Eng) had a good win over Annette Newman (Ire) in their match 120-80 while Tina Keogh (Ire) won her match against Christine Carr (Ire) in a close finish on the alarm 67-57

In the second session of Group A, Jamie steamed ahead with strong scoring against Joanna who struggled to get a hold on the match, Jamie had breaks of 66, 33 and a number of 20+ breaks to finish comfortably 269-22.  Anna played solid billiards against Stephanie in their match to take the win on the clock 145-40

Group B saw Rochy play good billiards against Tina finishing with the win 177-45 while Annette upped her game against Christine to win 134-78 on the alarm

The final round robin session in Group A would see a close encounter between Anna and Jamie with Anna in the lead for most of the match but towards the final few minutes Jamie made a few small breaks and a 34 to take the win 149-128  In Group B  Annette took her second win in her group against Tine on the alarm 99-38 to see her qualify out of the group along with Rochy.

Anna and Jamie qualified out of their group to complete the semi final line up.

Jamie continued her strong scoring against Annette in their semi final match with breaks of 35 and 63 along with a number of small breaks kept Annette away from the table for most of the match and she couldn’t get going.  Jamie finished on the alarm 276-59 to see her through to the final.  On the other table Anna kept to form with a number of small breaks towards the final minutes to seal the win against Rochy 188-116 to meet Jamie in the final

The final was close all the way to the final 15 minutes when Jamie began to score a number of 20+ breaks against Anna and a 38 break would see her over the line taking the win 189-143 and claim the Women’s European Billiards Open title.

Congratulations to Jamie on her win and well done to Anna on a fine performance.  Well done to Rochy and Annette on reaching the semis and thanks to all the ladies for their participation and support.  The final of the Challenge Cup was won by Christine Carr in a very close match against Stephanie Foley 47-41.

Thanks to Donovan and his staff of the Northern Snooker Centre for providing excellent playing conditions for this event and the welcome extended to all of our players and supporters during our stay at the club, it’s a fantastic facility and a place we will return to in the near future.

A special thanks to Harry Grimmett our referee who was on hand all day and refereed the semi and final.  Thanks to David Richardson who came along to support and helped referee a semi final and presented the prizes.  Thanks to Rochy and Brittany for their help.

Thanks to Chris Coumbe for his support and great help in publishing the results on the website and last but not least a big thank you to the WBL for their support towards female billiards

We look forward to seeing everyone at the World Championship in August at the RILSA Academy Sharkx Newbridge