It’s a well-worn cliche, but I really am over the moon at the moment. After plenty of talks and negotiations, to have finally signed a five-year deal to play Chinese 8-Ball is a weight off my mind and, more importantly, an exciting new chapter in my life.

I thought it wasn’t going to happen at one stage, and that the negotiations would collapse. Having won the International 8-Ball Masters in China in January, I did not want that to happen because it’s where I see my future in the sport.

So I am delighted to have signed with CWH Promotions, a big sports management company, and now I cannot wait for my first visit to China.

I’m very pleased with the deal, and it will mean at least three trips per year over there although, realistically, it will be nearer five to 10. They will include exhibitions and promotional events with the likes of Stephen Hendry and Ralf Souquet.

It’s a great opportunity to get my foot in the door with these top players and impress over there. And, in all honesty, this could not have come at a better time for me. English 8-Ball is not in a great state at the moment, with too much in-fighting and politics going on, so the chance to build a career over in China is one I’m relishing.

Part of the deal will be my own Chinese 8-Ball table, which will be set up in my club in Stoke. The whole concept is a cross between pool and snooker, with all the equipment somewhere in between too (as mentioned in my previous blog), so the chance to put in as many hours of practice as I can will be extremely beneficial.

I will still play in the IPA Tour events over here – I’ve signed to it for this year – and fulfil my exhibition commitments, but China will have priority over everything else from now on. It is, quite simply, massive for my career.

Being involved with a superstar like Hendry will help raise my profile, and having Joy Billiards behind everything is very encouraging. They have huge resources in China and have an exclusive deal with CCTV5, one of the biggest channels over there, to screen our matches. They want me to be as famous as possible and will do all they can to make that happen.

It’s a lucrative deal for me, and there is potential for spin-offs too. I’ve had a cue especially made, and the Chinese had never seen anything like it before – it is somewhere between a snooker cue and a 9-ball cue, and hopefully there could be some endorsement deals to come from that.

Chinese 8-Ball suits me more than any other sport I’ve ever played, and the rules suit my game perfectly. I definitely think it’s the way forward, and for 8-Ball in this country to go forward, they have to implement the Chinese way.

I’ll do my best to promote it over here, too, and I’m sure having the table in club will arouse a lot of interest. And I have no doubt pool players over here would love the game.

The reason Hendry retired from snooker was to focus on Chinese 8-Ball, and I’m delighted to be a part of that. I’m just itching to get started.

Welcome to my first blog of 2013, Happy New Year to you. I think the next 12 months are going to be very exciting for me, and for a very good reason.

My year got off to a fantastic start by winning the International 8-Ball Masters in China. It was a brand new event, organised by Joy Billiards, with a world-class field of players, fantastic prize money and millions watching on TV.

I’ve won three world eight-ball titles and plenty of Tour events, but nothing has compared to what I happened in China, it was 50 times bigger than anything I’ve ever experienced before.

It is, without doubt, the biggest win of my career, and Chinese 8-Ball is definitely where my future lies. I’m currently in talks with Joy Billiards to sign a contract that will see me regularly go to China to promote the game, play in exhibitions and take part in more events like the Masters.

Joy are committed to Chinese 8-Ball. They have a 10-year plan, they’ve signed Stephen Hendry as an ambassador for the duration of that spell, and they want to build on the success of the Masters and go on to bigger and better things. And I want to be a part of that.

Having been there on that stage, in front of those huge crowds and with massive TV audiences, it will be hard to go back to what I know. All the players, who included Darren Appleton, Chris Melling, Mick Hill, Hendry, Ken Doherty, Ralf Souquet and Karen Corr, were treated like stars.

I felt like David Beckham over there! We had police escorts to the venues, were mobbed by hundreds of fans wanting pictures and autographs, had to give press conferences – it was surreal. Winning that title has raised my profile by a huge margin, and I want that to continue.

As I mentioned, negotiations are under way about my move to Chinese 8-Ball. At the moment, I would envisage me going over there once a month for a couple of weeks at a time.

That doesn’t mean I’m turning my back on the IPA Tour. I grew up playing English eight-ball and I wouldn’t be where I was today if it wasn’t for them. I will still support them and will enter every event this year but, whether I will be able to play them all or not, will depend on what’s happening, because Chinese 8-Ball is now my priority.

The fundamentals and concept of Chinese 8-Ball is perfect for me, and the rules are the best I’ve ever played. Any element of luck is completely eliminated, you have to call all your shots so you can’t get away with flukes. The better player will, 95 per cent of the time, win through. I loved it.

It’s played on a 9x5ft snooker table, with the same template and pockets as a snooker table, but with nine-ball American pool balls. It is very difficult to play, the balls are especially tight down the rails, and you need a good skill level at both snooker and pool. You need a good technique but also a good eight-ball brain, and you need to know the eight-ball patterns and how to break.

You need the right equipment, too, a combination of a snooker and a nine-ball cue. I had one especially made, by Tony Wilshaw Cues, which has an 11.7 millimetre tip and a black, carbon-fibre ferrule.

I’m a decent snooker player so, with my pool background too, I was confident of doing well. I played some very good Chinese players, had some very big results, one big defeat too, but managed to get to the final, where I played Melling.

He’s a great player but I played really, really well. I made only three mistakes and dominated the match to beat him 17-9 and get my hands on the US $50,000 first prize. To play almost faultless pool and beat a player like Chris, in front of a crowd of a 1,000 and live on TV, was a massive moment for me.

There are more than 60 million fans of Chinese 8-Ball and it is played in 85 per cent of clubs over there. Although I don’t think it’s ready to take on over here yet, it’s definitely the way forward, and I hope to get a deal sorted out very, very soon.

To a different kind of Masters now, the one at Alexandra Palace. I went down last night to support Mark Selby against Stuart Bingham. At 5-1 down I thought Mark was out, as did probably most people. But the one thing you never do is write off Mark, and he duly fought back to win 6-5. What price he goes on and wins the title now…

Everything is moving in the right direction for the IPA Tour at the moment, it’s definitely a case of onwards and upwards. And as a pool professional trying to make a living from the game, it’s very encouraging.

The recent decision to play Blackball rules next season was the right one. In fact, it was the only decision to make if we were to move forwards and save the Tour from folding. I’ve never played Blackball rules before, but I fully supported the switch from World rules. It means we can attract new players to the Tour, it’s enabled us to get TV coverage for the main five events, and that means new sponsors are more likely to be encouraged to get behind us. And, of course, we’ve still got all the best players in the world staying with us.

We had to make a stand a few months ago about where the Tour was going. Fortunately, that stand prevailed and we got the result we wanted. Morray Dolan is no longer involved with the IPA, in any capacity, and Kevin Barton and Andy Macdonald have picked up the pieces to positive effect.

The first Tour event takes place on the first weekend of March and, as I said, there will be TV coverage on a Freeview channel. We’ve also retained the deal to play at Hilton hotels, although now we will play on Supreme tables rather than DPT. I liked the DPT tables, they were tighter to play but, again, moving to Supreme made sense because that’s what the majority of pros play on.

There are a huge amount of top players out there who play Blackball, and we wanted to tap into that. Players in France, Ireland, South Africa and a host of other countries all play Blackball, and we want to encourage them to join us and help create a huge Tour with the cream of pool players involved.

There will be those for and against Blackball rules. What I like about them is that attacking pool is encouraged. There’s a skill shot, so that can help stop a frame getting bogged down in slow play, and two shots don’t carry, so that means players will have to go for their finish. It will add pressure, and I like that. But at the end of the day, whatever rules you play, you’ve still got to pot the balls.

In a previous blog, I mentioned that I had been invited to the International 8-Ball Masters in China. It was due to be held this November but it had to be put back due to the elections being held over there – apparently no sporting events are allowed to take place at the same time. It will now be played from January 3 to 6, and I’ll be flying out on December 28 to start putting in the practice. What a way to start the New Year!

A final word on my fellow Stokie, Liam Highfield. He was unlucky in the qualifying rounds of the UK Championship, which starts in York this weekend. He played well in his second qualifier against Cao Yupeng to go 3-3, but then he never saw another ball and ended up on the wrong end of a 6-3 scoreline.

It was very disappointing, but I really feel a breakthrough is just around the corner for Liam. He puts in the hours on the practice table, he looks after himself, I know he is very highly rated by a lot of snooker pros. His game is much better than his ranking suggests, and I’m a bit baffled why it hasn’t happened yet, but I’m confident it will do very soon. He deserves it and, when it does happen, he will only kick on from there. You can also follow Liam’s progress on his own blog at http://www.livingsnooker.com/

As it stands, I face the very real, and quite unbelievable, prospect of not playing in a World Championship this year. Ever since I was a junior, I have always played in World Championships, every year. It is a situation that borders on the ridiculous, but it is a situation that I, and many of my fellow pros, unhappily find ourselves in.

In my blog in April, I spoke about how times were changing, for the better, on the IPA Tour, and that a World Championship had been planned for October at the Southwest Snooker Academy in Gloucester, in conjunction with On Q Promotions.

Now that has all changed, and for the worst. Morray Dolan, as IPA vice-chairman, had promised us many things, not least a World Championship with professional-only cue-sport players, large prize funds and a decent format. Now Morray has left his role at the IPA and gone to work for On Q, which the IPA, quite completely right in my opinion, saw as a conflict of interest. Morray made it clear for so long that he wanted to take over the IPA, and that he had all these big plans and sponsors lined up, and then he leaves for another job because he got a better offer. I’m fed up of dealing with people like that.

What has now been offered is not a World Championship at all, but something that has been billed as a ‘King of the World’ tournament, which has been changed because they are struggling for entries and because they want to attract the EPA players who are worried about getting banned from the EPA for playing in a so-called rival World Championship.

This ‘King of the World’ is an event that amounts to little more than a pool festival. The whole thing is a joke, and one that has left me and lots of other players very annoyed indeed. And I, for one, will not be playing in it, unless they revert back to what they promised us. Some may accuse me of cutting my nose off to spite my face, but I am taking a stance. As long as we professionals allow people to keep on lying to us and making idiots of us, then nothing will ever change in the sport.

The ‘King of the World’ will be open to both pros and amateurs, basically anyone who wishes to enter, with a prize fund of £24,000 that will come almost entirely from entry fees alone. We were promised that amount in sponsorship to start with. The format is based on first-to-seven-frame matches for each round, while there will also be a 14-1 tournament running alongside. The 14-1 will be first to 100 balls, played over five sets. That would mean around five hour matches, while the World Championship matches, which should be the absolute pinnacle of our sport, are reduced to a race to seven. As I said, it is a joke.

IPA chairman Kevin Barton and his colleague Andy Macdonald are still working hard for the IPA, as are the others who help run it, doing a great job trying to put on tournaments, raise sponsorship and give us pros the chance to do what we love doing the most, playing pool.

But without a World Championship to play for leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth, especially after agreeing to support something which is then completely change. The situation has become consumed by politics and divides, but I can’t see there being a satisfactory resolution to it all. I sincerely hope they do look at the format of the tournament and change things back to what we were promised, but when you’re dealing with people like that . . . well, I won’t hold my breath.

The decision not to play in the EPA World Championships in Blackpool a couple of months ago was one that me and a lot of the top players took to show our support for the IPA and the On Q World Championship, and for the changes that we were being told would happen.

The EPA World Championships are a complete farce at the moment and completely ruins the history of previous world champions who have won the tournament, when it was once seen has a proper event with the world’s elite competing. Now it is just an amateur tournament that certain people call a World Championship. Anyone who knows anything about pool knows this, and it is laughable what is happening. I would never have played in the EPA event because of the way we have been treated by them, but you can’t account for how some people behave.
I believed in what was put on the table with regard to the World Championship in October, so for it to change it is completely wrong. I’m fed up of being lied to by promoters and organisers, and this is something that I feel very strongly about.

But what is going to happen? As I said, unless they revert back to what they promised, I and many others, will not be playing in October. And the world of pool is poorer for that. So many thousands of people play and love the sport, but unfortunately there are far too many politics and in-fighting going on, and I doubt if we’ll ever have a set-up that pleases everyone. And that is a great shame, not just for me, the other pros and amateurs, but for the fans too.

Fantastic news as I can confirm that I have been invited to play in the International 8-Ball Masters in China later this year. It has got a star-studded field with some of the very best players ever to pick up a cue – in pool or snooker – it has an amazing prize fund and will be shown live in front of potentially millions of TV viewers. It is, by far and away, the biggest tournament I will ever have been involved in, and I feel very honoured and privileged to have been asked to take part.

As well as myself, the 16-man field will include Mick Hill, Darren Appleton, Chris Melling, Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White, with Efren Reyes and Earl Strickland also due to be confirmed. The rest of the players will come from qualifying rounds involving Chinese players, and we’ll all be battling for a £30,000 first prize. Talk about the trip of a lifetime!

I’ve never been to China but, from what Mark Selby has told me, they absolutely love their cue sports over there. They roll out the red carpet for you and treat players like movie stars. I really can’t wait, I wish it was this week. I thrive on playing the best players in front of huge crowds for big prize money, it’s why I play pool, and to be able to compete against those players is absolutely massive.

I’m really good friends with Mick, and of course I’ve played against Chris and Darren many times. Between us, we’ve won a host of world eight-ball titles, so the organisers were obviously very keen to get the biggest eight-ball names involved.

I’ve never played the other four, but I know they won’t be going there just to make up the numbers. Reyes and Strickland are legends in nine-ball, and Henry and White, well, their records in snooker speak for themselves. Hendry is hugely involved in promoting eight-ball in China, it’s one of the main reasons why he retired from snooker at the end of last season, so he will be taking this tournament very seriously.

It takes place in Qinghuangdong from November 7-11 and is sponsored by JOY Billiards. The co-organisers are 1sportsinternational.com, a company run by Andy Lee, a former snooker pro who used to live in Leicester. I’ve been told the tables will be seven foot, the same design as snooker tables, with tight pockets and balls between the size of pool and snooker balls. I’ve never played pool like that before, so it will be an experience. And to make sure we’re properly prepared, myself and Mick are going to go over a week or so before the event starts to get used to the conditions and tables.

I think Mick and myself stand a very good chance of doing well, as the tables and balls are going to be more familiar to us than the others because we play eight-ball all the time. The nine-ball lads have adapted their cue actions and style to suit their own game, and Hendry and White are more used to snooker, even though I believe they are quite capable around a pool table! The Chinese will be a huge danger, too, because it’s their game over there. You just can’t discount anyone though, because they’re all immensely talented players.

I hope this will be the first of many events like this in China, I certainly think that’s where it’s heading. And Hendry is obviously in it for the long run, in terms of his involvement in the promotion of the game over there, so it can only be a good thing. Who knows, in a couple of years there could be a Tour over there, with anything up to 10 tournaments. I’d better start brushing up on my Chinese!

I’m taking a well-earned two-week holiday in Jamaica – and it’s just what I need. Myself and Angie are going with Mark Selby and his wife Vikki, and I doubt we’ll stray too far from our sun loungers! I’ll have a few cocktails and maybe the odd session in the gym, but it’s a chance to get away from it at all and enjoy total relaxation.

I’ve always said it’s really important to have a break, it gives you a new lease of life away from the table and means that, when you return, you’re raring to go again. Life on the tour can be hectic, travelling from one place to the next, match after match, then back to the club and practising all week. You’re living and breathing it, so it’s crucial that you allow yourself some time to switch off.

My last tournament was the second tour event, in Birmingham. I lost 7-5 to Adam Davis in the semi-finals and, although I had a decent run, I was disappointed to lose because I felt like I was playing well enough to win the title. I had some comfortable wins on the way to the semis, but I seemed to save all my misses for the match against Adam because I let two or three go that I really should have potted.

I didn’t have the ideal day schedule-wise because they held my first match back an hour and 45 minutes so they could put me on the TV table. So when I started it was pretty much roll on, roll off. But I’m not making excuses because that’s part and parcel of being a pro.

My next tour event is on June 8 with a couple of exhibitions beforehand. I’m really looking forward to getting back into action and gearing up for the pro world championship in October, but for now I’m looking forward to my holiday and spending some time with Angie. When I get back I’ll be refreshed and ready to kick on the second half of the season. And I could have some very exciting pool news to share with you…

The snooker World Championship is in full flow up in Sheffield, but there’s also some important pool business to take care of this weekend. It’s the second Pro Tour event which takes place in Birmingham from Friday to Sunday, and I’m going there with high expectations of doing very well.

The first event was new to us all, the format, the tables and the balls, but I’ve been practising with a set of the balls and putting the hours in, so I’ll go into this one with a better idea of what’s in store. I reached the quarter-finals in the first one in Gloucester, which hopefully will be shown on Sky some time soon, so I’m really confident and looking forward to this weekend.

I practise about four hours a day in the run-up to a tournament. I don’t want to overdo it because it can be a long weekend, so you have to be mentally just right going into it.

I’m going up to the Crucible on Wednesday night to watch Mark Selby in his second session against Barry Hawkins. I know I’m biased because we’re close friends, but I think Mark can go on and win the title this year. I would love it if he does, and I wish him good luck. He’s the world No.1 and he deserves it, he’s proven he is the most consistent player in the world and I don’t think there’s anyone out there now more equipped than him to do it. Myself and Angie go on holiday to Jamaicawith Mark and his wife Vicki in May, it would be fantastic if we go there with him as world champion.

I play quite a lot of snooker with Mark. It’s serious stuff, too, and I can play to a decent level – I’ve nicked the odd set off him over a best-of-nine and I can hit five or six centuries during a session. My highest break is stuck on 144 though. I’ve hit it a few times but, hopefully, that maximum is only around the corner! I really enjoy playing snooker, and it actually helps with my pool because we play on 8ft tables so it’s useful to play on the 12ft snooker tables.

I also play a lot with Jamie Cope and Liam Highfield – they’re both from Stoke and I’ve know them for years.It helps them to have a decent partner for regular practice and, like I said, it helps my pool game, too. It’s important not to over-play the snooker or under-play the pool though, but I think I find the right balance.

I probably play about two or three sessions of snooker a week, and I have thought about doing it full-time. Mark says I should go in for the qualifying school and try to get on the tour, but to become a pro you’ve got to give it 100 per cent. My pool gives me a good income and the expenses of being on the snooker tour are high, especially for lower-ranked players who are not regularly getting to the latter stages of tournaments.

It would clash with my pool commitments too and I just don’t have the time to devote six days a week to playing snooker. If I do something I don’t like to do it half-hearted, so I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. It’s too much of a risk and I don’t want to jeopardise my snooker career, so I think I’m better off sticking to the smaller tables!

It’s been all-change in the world of eight-ball pool lately and, in my opinion, a change for the better. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes, and that has resulted in a rival breakawaytour to the IPA, formed by the EPA. You’ll be pleased to hear that I’m still with the IPA, and I believe this is the way forward and that we’re in for some very exciting times in the next couple of years.

Under chairman Kevin Barton and vice-chairman Morray Dolan, things are looking very different on the IPA. They’ve done a fantastic job to keep the tour going, and they want to give it a new identity and stamp their mark on it. That has seen us play on different tables, with different-coloured cloths and with a new, premium set of balls. The balls are the same weight, but a different colour. I really like the changes and I know most of my fellow pros are happy with them, too.

We’ve also got Paul Mount involved. He runs the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester and he is heavily involved with the IPA. He has a lot of good ideas and is striving to attract new sponsors to our sport, and that can only be good. There are also firm plans to hold a World Championship in Gloucester in October.

With new people running the IPA set-up, and with new ideas and lots of positive changes, plus some very high hopes of increasing our TV coverage, the future looks brighter than it has ever been, and certainly since I’ve been involved.

Of course, it is a massive shame that it’s come to this. The breakaway tour has put a massive divide in pool. With more than 300 professionals, wouldn’t it be great to have one tour? It would be huge, with big prize money and lots of TV coverage. But while that’s not to be, the way forward is definitely with the IPA. We have the best players, we have TV covering our events, like at the Professional Eight-ball Masters in Gloucester in March, and a great new arena down there in the south-west. The World Championships in Blackpool last year was, in my opinion, not the best. I think it’s been going downhill for a number of years now. The IPA is definitely the premium tour out there.

The Masters in Gloucester was an unbelievable event, very well run and, of course, it was great to be back on TV. As for my own display, well, that’s a bit of a sore subject! Against Lee Clough in the last 16, I was 7-6 up and feeling good. But Lee then produced one of the best clearances I have ever seen to make it 7-7, and then he went and cleared up off the break in the next. What happened in the next frame was truly ridiculous! He’d cleared up his balls, went for the black but missed – only for him to fluke it into the corner pocket! From being 7-6 up and thinking about victory, I never had another shot. Fair play to Lee, he went on to lift the title – keep an eye on Sky because it should be on TV soon.

Finally, a word of thanks to my sponsors Home Leisure Direct, who I continue to enjoy working with and who offer me fantastic support. These really are exciting times indeed.

Speak to you all soon.

Hi everyone, and welcome to my first blog entry. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for some time and, now that my website has been revamped and relaunched, it seemed the perfect opportunity. I think it’s important to keep you up to date with my progress so you can see how I’m getting on, not only at tournaments but away from the table too. I hope you enjoy reading it, and I look forward to any feedback you’ve got

Pool fans won’t need telling that the World Championship is under way in Blackpool this week. I love this tournament, it’s like no other out there, and I always seem to take my A game there. I thrive on it and I feel that I can go there and win my fourth world title.

My first match is on Thursday, but I don’t know yet who I’m playing. But whoever it is, they will know that I’m feeling really confident about my chances this year. I’ve been practising well, playing against some top partners. I always put the hard work in, but especially so for the World Championship. I’m a firm believer that you’ve got to work hard to be in a position to give it your very best chance.

The World Masters is also taking place and, although it is the second biggest tournament in terms of prize money, it can get brushed aside a bit. Mick Hill won both the World and Masters titles last year, which was a fantastic achievement and shows it can be done. I would love to win both in same year but, really, the Masters would be just be a bonus – I’m going there for one thing and one thing only, to win the World Championship.

The Master can be a bit of a hindrance because it’s played right in the middle of the Worlds. It piles on the matches and you can play too much and risk getting burned out. Two years ago, in 2009, I suffered from burn-out. I was defending my title and going for my third in a row. But what with playing matches in both singles tournaments, plus for England in the team event, it was too much. I lost to Adam Davis in the quarter-finals of the Worlds and lost in the semis of the Masters. Playing four or five matches a day, I was sick of the sight of the table.

I don’t want a repeat of that this year, I want to focus all my energy on the World Championship and concentrate on the singles, and make sure I feel fresh. That’s why I’m not playing for England in the team event. I know some people cannot understand my decision to do that but, for me, it’s the best thing for me to do pool-wise.

I’ve been playing really well lately and I’m happy with my game. I won the first two Pro Tour events and finished runner-up in the third, so I’m really pleased with that. I practise at my club, Players, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and I try to play against someone with a similar ability because it’s a better gauge of where I’m at. So the likes of Adam Davis, Jimmy Croxton and Neil Raybone have all been popping in to help.

Practice usually starts at 12noon, playing sets of eight, until about 5pm. I also have a few sessions on my own when I try out different routines, like shots down the rails and long balls, just to get myself tuned in. We also play with the spotted cue ball at the Worlds, which is heavier, so it’s crucial to be as familiar with it as possible.

I also play bit of snooker as I find it helps sharpen my game. Stoke pro Jamie Cope has just started playing at my club so I have few sessions with him, as well as with Liam Highfield, who is definitely one to watch in the future.

Away from the table I go to the gym a lot. Keeping fit helps my game massively and it makes huge difference. There are lots of matches at the World Championship, you can play up to five in one day, so you need plenty of stamina. You need to be mentally strong as well, so it helps with that too.

During the run-up to the Worlds I go to the gym four or five times a week, doing mostly cardio sessions. I usually do weights, but not in run-up to the Worlds because I want to avoid any danger of pulling a muscle in my arm, and because it can feel a bit dead afterwards, which is no good when you pick up a cue. So I’m just doing plenty of running, 5k on treadmill, plus 5k on bike. A typical day can be practice at the club, go to the gym and do a 5k bike, then back to club for more practice. It’s hard graft, but the rewards can be more than worth it.

Needless to say, it’s all been about the pool lately. I did have a holiday in Mexico for Mark Selby’s wedding to Vikki, although I did have to cut it short to be back for the Pro Tour event in Daventry. After lying on a beach and not picking up a cue for 10 days, to reach the final there was really pleasing (I only just missed out, losing 8-7 to Ben Davies). I’ve had a few weekends off, but it’s really all about the practice and putting the hours in ahead of my first match on Thursday. I’ll be giving it my best shot and I feel in great shape.

Check back soon for my next blog entry. But until then, you can always follow my progress during the World Championship on Facebook and Twitter, links to which can be found on my website. Thanks for reading!

Having won the first tour event of 2011, Gareth managed to break Keith Brewers’ record of 11 UK Tour wins.  Gareth sits currently on 12 wins.  Perhaps Gareth’s next target is to break 20 and set an unprecedented level which may never been beaten.