Jacob belies his age to storm to pool title

After beating 22-year-old England U23 player Haydn Hickling 3-2 in the semis-finals, Jacob then comprehensively saw off 23-year-old & ex-England U23 player Liam Crayon 3-0 in the final.

Jacob didn’t stop there and went on also win the Nottinghamshire Blackball U14 singles title, beating up and coming Leah Ellis 3-0 in the final, and he also finished runner-up in the U16 singles, losing to top youth player Danny Zikic 3-1 in the final.

On a roll, Jacob also reached the Divison Two singles final, losing to Division Two top player Danny Gwynn 3-1 in final, while Jacob and Leah Ellis finished U18 pairs runners-up, losing to Greg Davis & Luke Wrigglesworth, who won the U18 pairs for the second time on the trot.

The finals day topped a great season for Jacob.

England U18 player Luke Wrigglesworth showed why he one of the best U18 players in the country, beating Danny Zikic 3-0 in the final of U18 singles.

In the men’s Notts Blackball main singles, Sutton’s Ash Walker beat Brett Parsley 4-1, seeing off veteran Graham Cliffe in the semi-final and beating Jamie Thornton as well on the way to the title.

Brett Parsley reached two singles finals, losing 4-3 to Mansfield pool legend Nick Jones in the capped singles final.

Ash Walker and Jimmy Hallam won the Notts pairs for the second season in a row, beating top pairing Gaz McLeod & Ryan Hewitt 3-2 in a great final.

The world blackball senior singles champion Kev Seaman landed the Notts seniors singles title for the second season on the trot, beating DaveEley 3-0 in the final,

In the Notts League, held at the Towers every Monday night, Harvey Elmhirst (Towers EMC) won Divison One for the third season on the trot and Jimmy Hallam’s team, The Storm, just pipped Andy Bingham’s MLC to Division One runners-up spot.

In Division Two, Wayne Winnals’ Revolution Dogs easily claimed the Division Two title with Jaks team runners-up.

There was a shock in the semis-finals of the cup as Notts Juniors knocked out league champions Towers EMC 8-7 with Luke Wrigglesworth beating county A team player Chris Winter in the last leg and in the other semi MLC beat The Storm 8-5 .

In the Divison Two cup final, Revolution Dogs will play Jaks on Saturday, 26th July (8pm) at The Towers, where it will be cup finals and presentation night.

Nottinghamshire Blackball Pool League starts again in September (Mondays at The Towers, 8pm) and anyone wanting to put in a team needs five players. Cost is £35 and you get free pool from 5pm every Monday – call Harvey Elmhirst on 07854 442985.

At the Europeans at Bridlington, Notts’ Clint Ianson was in the England men’s A team that won the men’s European title, beating Scotland 13-12 in final.

Notts’ Neil Jones managed 84 per cent in the England B1 team that reached the semi-finals, the highest percentage for any England player, while Nottinghamshire county C team captain Dean Croft played for England B2, who got to semis as well, losing to Scotland B1.

England seniors captain Kev Seaman saw his team reach the final before losing to Scotland, Gaz McLeod also in the team.,

Notts U18 player Greg Davis, who plays for England U18 A team won the U18 Europeans with Greg being star man.

Luke Wrigglesworth played for U18 B2 and managed 81 per cent for the competition, while England U23 manager Harvey Elmhirst’s A team won the U23 A team event, ending the competition unbeaten. Harvey’s England U23 B1 & B2 played each other in final with B1 winning, with Notts’ Ryan Baker in the B1 team and Chris Croft & Hayden Hickling in the B2 team.