Rob Hall Completes English Billiards Championship Hat-Trick

Rob Hall defeated Chris Taylor 952-443 at the Northern Snooker Centre to win the English Billiards Championship for the third consecutive year.

• Results

Hall compiled twelve breaks over 100, including the tournament high break of 360 in the quarter-finals, as he stormed to the title in impressive fashion in Leeds.

A total of 21 cueists embarked on the West Yorkshire venue for the EPSB’s premier billiards event and it was the World Billiards number three who was aiming to defend his crown after claiming the title in both 2022 and 2023.

Hall, who is a former runner-up in the World Billiards Championship, began his campaign with a dominant group stage performance as a clean sweep of victories over Nathan Mann, Sam Walker, Craig Fitzpatrick and Paul Holt saw him secure his place in Sunday’s knockout stages.

A superb contribution of 360 helped the defending champion to a comfortable quarter-final victory over Mark Hirst by a 769 point winning margin to set up a semi-final meeting with Jonathan Marwood, who was the runner-up at last year’s English Billiards Championship at the same venue.

Marwood was unable to deny the rampant Hall a return to the final, as he took the victory by a scoreline of 803-292 with a top break of 214 to reach the title match once again.

Chris Taylor was his opponent in the final after a two close victories in the knockout stages.

In the quarter-finals, a high break of 69 in a scrappy contest was enough to overcome Fitzpatrick by just 19 points, before Taylor then dramatically defeated Gary Norman by just a single point in the last four to reach the final.

Hall remained too strong, however, and claimed the victory in the 180-minute final with a trio of centuries, which included a 218 and concluded with an unfinished 154, to secure the national crown for the third year in a row.