No small feat for Petty

SURBITON-based professional Steve Petty justified his pre-tournament favourite tag to claim the EPA national 8-ball under-18 singles Ivor Powell Memorial Trophy.

Steve Petty with sister Maxine

The former European junior champion beat Joe Prince 7-4 in the final at Miscues in Barnsley to avenge an earlier defeat by his England teammate in the Swiss System first-round stage.

A second loss forced Petty, 17, to qualify for the last-16 through a round-robin group stage.

Mum Yvonne, the Surrey youth-team manager, said: “Steve first showed an interest in a pool table when we was 11-years-old, and would accompany his father Brian to football on a Sunday. Brian soon realised that it wasn’t the football that Steve had come to watch, but the chance to get on the pool table in the clubhouse when the game had finished.

“That summer, we bought him a pool table of his own. It was on the patio and he would play out there whatever the weather, sometimes trying to hold the cue with gloves on.”

Petty won the under-16 National Junior Championship, aged 13. He qualified for the England team the following year and at 16 was elected captain.

RESULTS: LAST 16: Joe Prince (London) bt Scott Smith (W Mids) 5-4, Kyle Pickett (Surrey) bt Ashley Radford (Notts) 5-3, Dan Moore (W Mids) bt Danny Collinge (Lancs) 5-3, Paul McGuire (Lancs) bt Harry Irwin 5-4 (Leics), Richard Twomey (Suffolk) bt Grant Massey (Lancs) 5-2, Steve Petty (Surrey) bt Michael Beeston (Cheshire) 5-1, Jack Pople (London) bt Jack Dady (Lancs) 5-3, George Reeves (Surrey) bt Temujin Dixon (Leics) 5-3. 

QUARTER-FINALS: Prince bt Pickett 5-0, McGuire bt Moore 5-1, Petty bt Twomey 5-4, Reeves bt Pople 5-4.

SEMI-FINALS: Prince bt McGuire 6-5, Petty bt Reeves 6-1.

FINAL: Petty bt Prince 7-4.