0 items
The EPSB Weekly | Bedford, Kendrick and Moody Win Tour Titles
Simon Bedford, Jenson Kendrick and Stan Moody all won EPSB national tour event snooker titles this past weekend.
At the Tradewell Snooker Centre in Hull – where 50 players took part – former Crucible qualifier Bedford was in brilliant form as he completed an impressive back-to-back double, claiming both Seniors Tour events on Saturday and Sunday.
Bedford began his 10-match winning streak across the weekend by defeating Ian Spawton 3-0 in round one, allowing his opponent to score just 15 points in total as he racked up breaks of 67, 64 and 74.
The Yorkshireman then eliminated David Brown 3-2, Gary Milne 3-1 and Wayne Brown 4-0 to reach the final where he faced recent national over-55 championship finalist John Welsh. In the title match Bedford went behind early on before later top scoring with a 90 whilst recording a 4-1 success.
Despite the late finish the night before, Bedford returned the next morning and picked up where he left off. In the opening round he dispatched former English over-55 champion John Rees 3-1 before denying Welsh once again – this time 3-2 in the last 16.
Bedford once more saw off David Brown 3-1 in the quarter-finals and then Darren Presgrave 4-0 in the last four. In Sunday’s title match he met reigning English seniors champion Wayne Brown and the two would share a memorable final.
In an entertaining tie where there was some fantastic counter-attacking snooker and seven breaks of 40 or over, Bedford ousted it 4-3 to duly keep his 100% record across the two days and collect £600 in prize money.
Under-21 Premier Development Tour
Kendrick and Moody were the opening event winners on this season’s Under-21 Premier Development Tour.
The 32-player circuit is the EPSB’s top tier for junior players and there was plenty of top-quality snooker on display at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.
Former English under-18 and current 6-reds champion Kendrick added to his career accolades again during Saturday’s event one.
The 20-year-old defeated Michael Roberts 3-1, Liam Pullen 3-1 (with an 84 break), Luke Pinches 3-0 and Moody 4-2 to reach the final.
There, he was up against the in-form Hamim Hussain who was fresh from an EPSB Open Series event triumph in Leicester the previous weekend. However, Kendrick stopped his opponent’s winning streak following a 4-2 victory in which the pair produced five half-century breaks.
Off the back of his last four run on his Under-21 Prem Tour debut, 14-year-old (at the time) Moody instantly proved that he can cut it at this level as he took home the top prizes from Sunday’s event.
The back-to-back English under-14 champion registered a 79 break on his way to defeating Paul Deaville 3-1 in round one. Moody then notched up consecutive 3-0 wins over Ryan Hughes and 2020 European Under-21 Championship runner-up Hayden Staniland. Against Staniland he made breaks of 79 and 55.
In the semi-finals he ended the campaign of Lewis Ullah 4-1 – Ullah had earlier emerged from three successive deciding frame finishes – before clean sweeping the consistent Joe Fenton – a semi-finalist the day before – 4-0 in the final with the aid of two 50 breaks.
Remarkably, Moody dropped just two frames throughout the day on his way to the event two title. He also takes an early lead at the top of the rankings ahead of Fenton and Kendrick.
Evidence of how competitive this circuit can be, Saturday’s finalists – Kendrick and Hamim Hussain – both lost in the opening round on Sunday.
The EPSB would like to thank the Tradewell and Northern Snooker venues for hosting the competitions and all the officials that helped run them.
