European titles for pool duo Seaman and Suraj

Two star players with the Mansfield-based Nottinghamshire blackball pool county team have been crowned European Champions.
Newly-crowned European pool champions Suraj Rai and Kev Seaman with their trophies.Newly-crowned European pool champions Suraj Rai and Kev Seaman with their trophies.
Newly-crowned European pool champions Suraj Rai and Kev Seaman with their trophies.

Kev Seaman, who hails from Worksop, won the senior singles title at the European Championships for the second time, having also picked up the trophy in 2013.

More than 100 of the best senior players in Europe travelled to Bridlington for the event, but Seaman swept through the opening rounds before beating teammate and last year’s champion, Steve Webster, in the quarter-finals, fighting back from 3-1 down to win a thriller, 5-4.

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In the semis, he defeated his best friend of 30 years, Graham Cliffe, 6-2 in another terrific match. The final pitted Seaman against Scotland’s Martin Jones and again he displayed his never-say-die battling qualities, retrieving deficits of 3-1 and 5-3 to triumph 6-5.

The other Notts player to lift a title at Bridlington was 14-year-old Suraj Rai, of Littleover in Derbyshire, who won the U15s’ championship. Suraj knocked out Alfie Lee, son of snooker star Stephen Lee, on his way to the final, where he beat highly-rated Scot, Kieran Quadir, 6-2. He also reached the doubles final and was part of the England U15s’ A squad that won the team event.