Powell On Top in Oberhausen with Maiden Q Tour Win
Riley Powell defeated Mark Lloyd 4-1 to win the third WPBSA Q Tour Europe event of the season at Snooker Arena Germany in Oberhausen.
The 18-year-old Welshman won through a field of 153 players from 33 countries to come away victorious from the biggest ever Q Tour event staged in mainland Europe and become the third different champion of the campaign – following Sanderson Lam and Aaron Busuttil.
Victory in Oberhausen represents the biggest title of the teenager’s career to date and sees him rise to the top of the Q Tour Europe ranking list after three events in the race for a World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card.
Two half-centuries earned Powell an opening round whitewash win over Simon Dent before a top break of 101 saw the Welshman defeat former World Snooker Federation (WSF) Junior champion Bulscu Revesz 4-2 on the penultimate day of action.
Compatriot Alfie Davies twice levelled from behind against Powell but was unable to deny him a 4-2 victory in the last 32 and the teenager then earned his place in the final day by whitewashing Umut Dikme on his home soil.
Powell kicked off the Sunday at Snooker Arena Germany with a 4-2 win over Luke Pinches to set up a semi-final meeting with Peter Lines, who had come through a dramatic deciding frame victory over home favourite Lukas Kleckers in the last eight.
Contributions of 61, 50 and 50 saw a rampant Powell defeated former professional Lines 4-0 to join England’s Lloyd in the final after he had beaten Mark Joyce by the same scoreline in the other semi-final.
After taking the opener on the last black the Welsh teenager fired in a break of exactly 100. He then took the third frame to move one away from victory.
Lloyd briefly rallied with a break of 79 in frame four, but it was Powell’s day and a decisive visit of 71 was enough to wrap up victory and the first Q Tour title of his career.
Following the presentation with Deutsche Billiard-Union (DBU) President Enrico Wahle and WPBSA Tournament Director James Chambers, Powell said: “I feel amazing, I came close in the last event by losing in the quarter-final so to win this one and move to the top of the rankings puts me in good stead to achieve my goal of turning professional.”
“I have been working very hard in practice with my coach Kevin Johnstone which has been a massive help to me – I can’t thank him enough. He’s helped my all-round game and myself as a person, on and off the table – he’s helped me to improve leaps and bounds” he added.
Q Tour victory marks a career highlight for the 18-year-old, who is aiming to join the WST and has earned his place in the upcoming UK Championship as part of the WPBSA nominations.
“This is definitely the biggest win of my career so far – it means more than any other. I can’t wait for the UK Championship; I’ve played in a few WST events and it’s always good to see how you can compete against the professionals.”
WPBSA Q Tour Europe continues with event four in Vienna, Austria on 12-15 November. Enter now via WPBSA SnookerScores.
