Welsh Wins Seniors Tour Title

John Welsh defeated Craig Steadman 4-0 in the final of the fifth English Seniors Tour event of the season at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.

• Results

The 60-year-old came out on top in West Yorkshire to secure his first English Seniors Tour title of the season and impressively whitewashed former ranking event semi-finalist Craig Steadman in the title match.

The two-day event was the last of five events staged during this season’s tour for players aged over 40 years old and saw 52 cueists embark on the Northern Snooker Centre.

Welsh, a former English Over-55’s Championship winner, dropped just a single frame on the opening day of action as he defeated Ian Martin (4-0) and Shaun Wilkes (4-1) to reach Sunday’s quarter-finals.

His fine form continued as he began the final day with an impressive whitewash win over David Brown which featured a top break of 92.

A thrilling and dramatic encounter with Wayne Brown, himself a champion on the English Seniors Tour last season, then followed in the last four.

Brown had compiled the tournament high break of 107 in the previous round and raced into a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven frame semi-final contest.

Welsh refused to go down without a fight, however, and rallied with breaks of 38, 43 and 40 to force a tense decider during which he hit another contribution of 40 to get over the line and set up a final meeting with Steadman.

Reigning European Seniors champion Steadman had dropped just a single frame en route to the final as he swept aside Craig Butler (4-0) and Stuart Watson (4-1) on the final day.

Despite scoring breaks of 32 and 41 in the opening three frames, Steadman found himself trailing 0-3 to Welsh in the title match and Welsh forged on to take frame four by a 76-4 scoreline to take home the title.