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Carty Regains 6-Red Crown in Leeds
Ashley Carty defeated Ryan Davies 7-5 at the Northern Snooker Centre to win the English 6-Red Championship for the second time in his career.
Success in Leeds for 2023 winner Carty saw him become only the third player in history to lift the English 6-Red Championship crown on multiple occasions, following last year’s winner Craig Steadman and back-to-back champion Jake Nicholson – who the trophy is named in honour of after he sadly passed away in 2021.
This national championship victory saw the 30-year-old former professional continue his fine recent form, having earlier finished top of the English Amateur Tour ranking list with two titles to his name.
The two eventual finalists found themselves competing in the same group on Saturday as 41 competitors were reduced to 20 on the opening day.
Davies, who had reached the final of the event last year, finished top of the group with a clean sweep of victories – including a deciding frame success over Carty.
Carty was the beneficiary of a bye against Luke Drennan in the opening knockout round on Sunday, before downing Edward Jones (4-1) and Richard Binns (4-2) to reach the semi-final stage.
There he faced Lewis Ullah, who had made the tournament high break of 71 earlier in the competition, but he was unable to deny Carty in the last four as the former professional ran out a comfortable 6-2 victor.
Davies had reached the title match in dramatic fashion by coming from 5-3 down to defeat former English 6-Red champion Daniel Womersley 6-5 in the semi-finals.
The 23-year-oldhad arrived in Leeds on the back of a heartbreaking deciding frame semi-final defeat at the previous weekend’s World Snooker Federation (WSF) Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria and was aiming to lift the Jake Nicholson Trophy for the first time having fallen at the final hurdle twelve months ago.
In a race to seven, it was Carty who started strongest with three breaks over 30 to open up a 3-0 lead. His opponent rallied, however, to win three on the bounce himself and restore parity after six frames.
The next two were shared before Carty once again took back-to-back frames to move within one of glory at 6-4 and, despite losing the next, a contribution of 31 in frame 12 was enough to get him over the line.
Jake Nicholson’s mother and sister were in attendance at the Northern Snooker Centre to present Carty with the prestigious trophy, which he lifted for the second time in his career.
