Carty Wins English Amateur Championship to Cap Outstanding Season

Ashley Carty has won the prestigious Landywood English Amateur Snooker Championship for the first time in his career following a 6-0 victory against Vladislav Gradinari in the title match at the Landywood Snooker Club.

• View all results from the Finals Weekend
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• Watch the final (YouTube)

Success for the 30-year-old crowns an outstanding season at national and international level, which had already seen him lift the English 6-Red Championship, two Amateur Tour titles and two WPBSA Q Tour titles, most notably at the Global Playoff to regain his professional status from next season.

His victory at the English Amateur Championship sees him join a select 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.

Once again held at the Landywood Snooker Club, the final weekend saw 16 players contest the title, having each previously qualified from three regional qualifying tournaments held last September.

Rotherham’s Carty earned his place in the last 16 following victories against Bal Sembi, Ashley Barker, Nicholas Ayers and Alex Millington earlier in what has proven to be a hugely successful campaign.

Drawn in a quarter which included four former professional players, Carty saw off Peter Lines and Oliver Sykes for the loss of just two frames on the opening day, before scoring a 5-1 win against Jeff Cundy to reach the final for the first time.

There he would await Moldova’s Vladislav Gradinari, who was looking to become the youngest winner of English snooker’s most iconic event in 23 years.

The 17-year-old qualified for a third consecutive year with victories against Wayne Brown, Carl Mottershaw and a deciding-frame win against Daniel Boyes.

On the opening day at finals weekend, he came through another final frame to edge out Nathan Jones in his first match, before he recorded more comprehensive victories against Luke Simmonds and Sean Maddocks to progress to the title match.

It was Carty who opened with a break of 102 to seize the early initiative, before the pair would contest a succession of close frames during the best of 11 frames encounter.

Carty, however, was not to be denied as he claimed them all, adding further breaks of 72 and a ultimately 59 in frame six to clinch victory and become the winner of the 105^th English Amateur Snooker Championship.

The highest break of the final weekend was compiled by Sean Maddocks, who scored 137 during his quarter-final victory against last year’s runner-up Antony Parsons.

Abbas Defends Under-14 Crown

There was also victory for Hove’s Adam Abbas in Landywood as the final of the PowerGlide English Under-14 Championship was played alongside the main competition.

A 4-3 success against Preston’s Jack Wilding saw 13-year-old Abbas become only the third player to defend the crown, following in the footsteps of Stan Moody (2019-2020) and Hamim Hussain (2014-2015).

Learn more about the Landywood English Amateur Snooker Championship.