Snooker Success for Southampton Students

Our very own resident Ronnie O’Sullivans have succeeded in winning the Midlands Cup in Snooker, firmly establishing our student snooker team as one of the best in the country.

The competition took place from the 24th to the 25th of January in Nuneaton. In the opening group stages of the competition, the team, consisting of Mike Andrews, Micky Olding, Simon Alderton, Martin Cordeiro, and their captain Kurtis Haberstraw destroyed the competition. They beat Imperial College London 9-1 and Coventry 8-2, confirming their place in the next round.

They then went on to beat Nottingham in the quarter finals after an impressive comeback from 3-0 down to draw 5-5. Haberstraw stylishly won a final frame decider to send Southampton to the semis.

The semi-finals proved little bother for these potting machines as they sailed past York with a six frames to two victory.

The final, which was against Kent University, proved slightly more difficult. However, our boys once again proved their worth on the baize with a comfortable 6-4 victory to win the Midlands Cup.

When we spoke to the Captain, Kurtis Haberstraw, he told us:

It feels great to captain such a talented group of individuals. We have all been buzzing since we won.

However, for our talented snooker team, winning the Midlands cup wasn’t quite enough. They decided to go on and win the South West Pool championship the following week.

Following these two great victories, they have also got another tournament coming up shortly. Kurtis said:

We’re feeling extremely confident going into them as we’ve entered three competitions this academic year winning two and coming runners up in the other. So fingers crossed that we can bring home everything!

All this winning can’t come easily, but we’re assured that practice makes perfect for these guys:

We practice as much as we can when a competition is coming up. It can get in the way of University studies but we find a way around it.

If you would like to get involved with Snooker or Pool at the University of Southampton go to their website, or visit their Facebook page.