Spot the pros – the 2007 England team
A heads up this weekend for followers of the amateur scene here in the UK as the annual Home Internationals tournament starts this Saturday, again at Pontin’s alongside the Autumn Festival as was the case last year. Click below for the important links and a heads up as to ones to watch…
All of the information for the tournament can be viewed over at the website of the Home Internationals Billiards and Snooker Federation here with the important links being as follows:
Who are the names to watch? As you would expect the English teams are strong at all levels, particularly the senior team which is captained by Martin O’Donnell who you may remember reached the semi-finals of the recent European Championship and only narrowly missed out on a tour card for this season. Former captain Craig Steadman returns once again while Robbie Williams and Michael Wild are also names that jump out to me.
Further down the age ranks both Sean O’Sullivan and Sanderson Lam who you may know from Twitter are present at Under-19 level, as is the talented Sam Harvey while young prospect Shane Castle will be in the under-16 competition. A word also for veteran Steve Judd who captains the Masters team having recently won the European Championship at this level.
Always a threat – Morgan and the Welsh Masters
Moving on to the Welsh team there are again a fair few familiar faces such as Lee Walker and Gareth Allen (who is another who can be followed on Twitter) involved in the senior team while Masters stalwart Darren Morgan will also be back again to try and capture that particular title again. The Welsh Under-19 team also looks to be one to watch with Duane Jones, Jamie Clarke and Kishan Hirani being familiar faces at that level.
Turning to Scotland, to my (admittedly limited knowledge of the Scottish amateurs right now), their strongest team also looks to be their Under-19 squad as Michael Leslie, Rhys Clarke, Eden Sharav and Scott Donaldson in particular are all talented young players, Sharav you may recall having impressed at this season’s PTC1 event in Sheffield.
You can view full squads of those teams as well as those for both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (who generally I am unfortunately not too familiar with), over at the Home Internationals website.
The best of luck to all involved!