Zachary Richardson Wins English Amateur Snooker Championship

Brighton’s Zachary Richardson has won the prestigious Landywood English Amateur Snooker Championship for the first time following a 6-2 victory against Antony Parsons at the Landywood Snooker Club.

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The 38-year-old old joins an elite group of players to have won snooker’s oldest recognised competition since 1916 which includes Ray Reardon, John Spencer, Terry Griffiths, Jimmy White and Stuart Bingham. The success represents the biggest triumph of his career to date.

Staged at its now established home in Landywood, the final stages of the iconic event once again saw 16 players descend upon the venue who had each qualified from three regional qualifying tournaments held last September.

Richardson – who reached the last 16 of the Paul Hunter Classic in 2016 – earned his place at the final weekend following a hat-trick of 4-1 victories against Matthew Atasoy, Jasmine Bolsover and Nigel Clarke.

Victories against Jay Bullen and Jack Harris on the opening day saw him book his place in the last four and a meeting with the defending champion Steven Hallworth, who was looking to become the first player since Terry Griffiths in 1977-1978 to win the title in successive years.

But it was to be Richardson who would get off to a flier with breaks of 52, 50 and 87 enough to secure a 4-0 lead, which despite an attempted comeback from Hallworth who won the two frames following the interval, he was able to convert to victory with a break of 52 in the seventh frame to reach his first final.

In the title match he would await Antony Parsons, who reached the final for the second time in his career, having also done so 11 years prior in 2014.

The 46-year-old from Guisborough defeated Luke Flanagan, Tony Knowles and Aidan Gallagher to reach the last 16 weekend, before he impressively claimed the scalps of former professional players Liam Highfield, Peter Devlin and Craig Steadman to progress.

It was to prove a high-quality final, with the opening four frames shared in just 50 minutes following an early re-rack, with a brace of 58 breaks by Parsons countered by runs of 108 and 75 by Richardson to level the scores at 2-2.

Upon the resumption of play it would prove to be a one-sided affair, however, as Richardson restricted his opponent to just a single point with breaks of 63, 89 and 74 to move to within a frame of victory at 5-2, before he wrapped up the win in the next to become the 104th English Amateur Snooker champion.

“It feels a little bit surreal at the moment,” reflected Richardson following his victory. “I can’t quite put it into words. It definitely hasn’t sunk in. It’s very surreal looking at all of the names [on the trophy]. It’s brilliant, I can’t believe my name is going to be on it, that doesn’t seem right!

“I knew it was going to be tough against Steven [Hallworth] this morning because he has just got his tour card again and he was reigning champion. He started off slow and allowed me to get going pretty quick. I felt quite good even when he was coming back. I just needed a chance and I took it.

“I played well in the final, I missed one ball that I can think of that I shouldn’t have missed on 63 but other than that I didn’t do a lot wrong. It was close to as good as I can play.”

Richardson began his career at the age of 14, winning the English Club Players Championship in 2012, before he entered Q School for the first time in 2013. He continued to compete at Q School alongside the Players Tour Championship competitions for the following four seasons, before he elected to take a break from the game.

“I got my head back in it where I was looking forward to playing again pretty much two years ago and it has been quite a hard two years,” explained Richardson. “I just needed a break because I had become really angry with the game. It can be frustrating, it’s a tough, tough game. I was doing technical changes as well and they are never good so I’ve stopped all that now and I’ve just got something in my game that I am pretty happy with and hopefully I can fine tune it a bit more.

“I haven’t played that well at any events [since his return] so this was a welcome surprise. The last two years I have played probably the best stuff I ever have in practice, but just not producing in Q Tours, not really at Q School, but the back end of yesterday was pretty good, fairly good against Steven and the final was my best match definitely. I know I can do it when the pressure is on, but I must have just been putting way too much pressure on at other events and hopefully this will springboard me now.

With the national title now under his belt, Richardson is aiming to complete a lifelong ambition by earning a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time over the coming years and was quick to point out the support from his partner Rosalia and his family.

“It has been a dream [to turn professional] since 2013 so I’m just trying to relive that dream that I gave up for six years,” continued Richardson. “My family are really supportive, especially my partner now. I have been able to play snooker now full time for about 22 months and I wouldn’t be able to do that if it wasn’t for her and give it a proper go. Hopefully I can do that without feeling guilty and putting loads of pressure on myself now we have got a little baby that has arrived. I will be part-time snooker player, part-time daddy so I think I feel a bit better!

Finally, Richardson was also full of praise for the Landywood Snooker Club, which once again acted as title sponsor and official host of this year’s event.

“I’ve played here a couple of times but I somehow felt it was better than ever this weekend,” concluded Richardson. “Every match I played I thought these tables are playing good, I’ve loved it, really loved it.”

Learn more about the Landywood English Amateur Snooker Championship.