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Liu Defends National Under-16 Title
Shaun Liu successfully defended the Landywood English Under-16 Championship title by defeating Nicholas Ayers 4-0 at the Landywood Snooker Club.
The 15-year-old reaffirmed his status as the top cueist in his age group by dominantly winning through the competition with the loss of just seven frames in eight matches.
Sixty-one cueists competed at the two-day event in Great Wyrley, which began with a group stage on Saturday before the knockout rounds took place on Sunday.
The defending champion Liu was in ruthless form on the opening day as he swept aside Archie Buskin, Finley Wilson (son of former world champion Kyren) and Ben Taylor-Jenkins without losing a frame. Liu’s perfect run continued into Sunday morning with a 3-0 win over Rocco Amalou in the last 32.
Next up was 14-year-old Oscar Newton, who provided Liu with his sternest test so far.
Liu led 1-0 and 2-1 in the best-of-five frame contest, but a half-century from Newton in the fourth forced a decider. The defending champion was able to hold his nerve, however, to earn a place in the quarter-final where he met reigning English Under-14 champion Adam Abbas – coming from 2-1 behind to earn a 4-2 victory.
Another tense deciding frame went the way of Liu in the semi-finals as he once again showed his battling qualities for defeat William Thomson 4-3 to set up a title match meeting with Ayers.
Ayers, a former English Under-14 champion, was in impressive form en route to the final as he secured whitewash wins in all but one of his matches – where he came from 3-2 behind to beat Jack Wilding 4-3 in the quarter-finals.
It was the second time that Liu and Ayers had met in a national championship final at the Landywood Snooker Club, having previously done so in the 2023 English Under-14 Championship final – where Liu had been victorious.
There would be a repeat outcome at the same venue three years on as Liu made a dominant start, firing in breaks of 95 and 89, and never looked back as he romped over the line as a 4-0 victor to secure the title for a second successive year.