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Womersley Wins Thriller in Leeds to Lift The Jake Nicholson Trophy
Daniel Womersley overturned a 4-1 deficit to defeat Craig Steadman 7-6 in the final of the English 6-Red Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.
The 32-year old secured the title for the first time in his career and becomes the eleventh different winner of the trophy, which is named in honour of the former back-to-back champion Jake Nicholson who sadly passed away in 2021.
Forty-six players competed in the two-day event, which began with a group stage on the Saturday to narrow the field down to 22, before reaching a conclusion on Sunday.
Both eventual finalists topped from their groups with a clean sweep of victories – 2011 champion Steadman notably being one of only three players, along with Ryan Davies and Vladislav Gradinari, to qualify while dropping just a single frame on the opening day’s play.
Womersley comfortably swept aside Jon Wibberley 4-1 to set up a quarter-final meeting with the in-form 21-year-old Davies, who took the first two frames of the contest with breaks of 44 and 69. The more experienced Womersley then changed gear, however, to keep his opponent from potting a ball for the next three frames and eventually wrap up a 4-2 victory to reach the last four.
In the semi-final Womersley met Mark Ball, who had impressively defeated former professional and recent Q Tour event winner Peter Lines in the previous round.
The two players shared the first four frames but ultimately it was Womersley who proved too strong, winning four of the next five to complete a 6-3 victory and book his place in the title match.
His opponent in the final would be Steadman, who had stormed to the semi-final stage by dropping just a single frame in victories over last year’s two English Under-14 Championship finalists, Shaun Liu and Nicholas Ayers, before facing a much sterner challenge against Lewis Ullah that saw the former winner eventually get over the line in a final frame decider.
The final was a hard-fought affair that saw the momentum swing back and forth between the two finalists.
Womersley took the first with a break of 33 but Steadman, aiming to become only the second player to win the 6-Red Championship twice, then reeled off four consecutive frames featuring five breaks over 30 to move into a 4-1 lead.
A break of 34 in the sixth frame saw Womersley stop the rot and he then went on a run of his own to take five frames in succession and move just one away from the title at 6-4.
Steadman wasn’t ready to give up yet, however, as he rallied by winning the next frame and then a high-quality twelfth which saw the players each fire in a break of 35 to force a decider.
Despite being pushed all the way by his opponent, Womersley finally managed to get over the line in the decider by a score of 34-10 to put his name on the Jake Nicholson Trophy.
In what was clearly a proud moment for both men, Jake’s father Jake was in attendance to hand over the trophy named in his son’s honour to the 2024 champion.
