Aidan Murphy Wins English Junior Tour Title

Aidan Murphy defeated Kaylan Patel 3-2 in the final of the fifth English Junior Tour event at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.

• Results

Murphy had reached at least the quarter-final stage in each of the four previous English Junior Tour events of the season before securing the title in West Yorkshire to round off the campaign in style.

A total of 58 cueists aged under-21 took part in the event, with 50 of these competing on the opening day with the goal of securing one of 12 places alongside the eight top seeds on the Sunday.

Event four champion O’Shay Scott was the in-form player on the Saturday as he stormed through his group without dropping a frame across four matches, while eventual finalist Patel also made it through with a clean sweep of victories.

Both Patel and the seeded Murphy were drawn together in the second group stage, with Patel securing a 2-0 victory in their first meeting of the day, as the two players advanced to the quarter-finals.

Murphy whitewashed former English Under-14 champion Shaun Liu before impressively coming from 2-0 behind against Ethan Llewellyn to win 3-2 with breaks of 121, 56 and 71 to reach the title match.

Meanwhile, Patel had continued his strong form to defeat Scott 3-1 and then overcome Jake Crofts 3-0 to reach his first final of the campaign.

The final was closely contested with Murphy twice leading in the best-of-five frame contest. A break of 75 from Patel, however, forced a decider but it was Murphy who was able to hold his nerve with a contribution of 48 to get over the line and take home the title.