Carty is Champion in Preston

Ashley Carty claimed his first EPSB English Amateur Snooker Tour title with victory at this season’s third event at the Elite Snooker Club in Preston. 

• Event 3 Results

Former Crucible Theatre qualifier Carty has enjoyed a solid start to the amateur campaign, reaching the last eight and four respectively in the previous two EAST events, as well as making a Q Tour event semi-final. 

Carty made it through to Sunday’s quarter-finals stage after 4-2 wins over Adam Brown and Patrick Whelan. He returned to eliminate fellow former professional Peter Devlin 4-2 – with the help of a 78 break in the last frame – and then ended the run of in-form 17-year-old Liam Pullen 4-0, registering efforts of 59 and 60 in the process.

Earlier in the tournament, Pullen stopped the 13-match winning streak on the Tour of Events 1 and 2 winner George Pragnell and also dispatched professional ranking event winner Michael Holt in successive matches.

Image – Ashley Carty (left) with Josh Thomond (right). Julian Bell was the referee.

On the other side of the draw, 26-year-old Thomond defeated Jordan Shepherd and Adam Goff both 4-2 before needing to win the final two frames (aided by breaks of 51 and 78) to oust Hamim Hussain 4-3 in the last 16. 

Multiple-time EPSB Open Series event winner Thomond came back the next day and ended the challenges of Harvey Chandler (4-0) and Lee Shanker (4-2) to reach the title match. 

The opening four frames of the final were shared, but 27-year-old Carty chalked up the fifth to move one away, and then finished in style with a break of 131 – the highest of the event – to triumph. 

English Amateur Snooker Tour Event 4 takes place on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th December at the Woking Snooker Centre. You can enter the event here. Entries close on Friday 25th November at 12:00 midday. 

The EPSB would like to thank all the officials and the host venue – the Elite Snooker Club in Preston – for their help with the event.