The Future’s Bright for 10-year-old Talent William Thomson…

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CUESTARS Press Officer and snooker coach Tim Dunkley said the future is bright for 10-year-old talent William Thomson, who reached the final of last weekend’s Taylors of Boston Regional Junior Billiards Southern Tour in Eastleigh.

Dunkley, who has also coached Oliver Sykes, 16, first met William Thomson at the age of 5 when he joined the Under-13 league at Chandlers Ford Snooker Club in Hampshire, UK.

The comments come as Thomson, who SnookerZone saw the weekend previously at Woking Snooker Centre in Surrey, compete in his debut on the English Amateur Billiards Association tour, reached the final in Eastleigh but lost out to a player eight years older than him in Riley Ellis (pictured right), a friend, another talented player coming through.

Thomson has been playing snooker since the age of 4 – and absolutely loves competing in the Cuestars Under-21 events at snooker, but is also now becoming a dab hand at billiards.

SnookerZone caught up with William’s mother Zoe Chen Thomson, who gave us a brief insight into William and his cuesports journey.

Zoe said that William is being mentored closely by older talent Oliver Sykes, who is a regular winner of the Cuestars Under-21 Tour and has also competed in professional events.

Said Zoe: “William wants to be a professional player. He’s been playing in Chandlers Ford snooker club since he was 4 years old and is still very keen. He is very lucky to have Tim as his coach.

Zoe and her family moved from Guildford to Eastleigh and praised the work going on at the Cuestars under John Hunter and Tim Dunkley.

We think he (John Hunter) is doing a fantastic job. We are very lucky to have them doing all these events.”

As with most young kids, you would have thought that Ronnie O’Sullivan would be on the lips, but William, who came through EXCLUSIVELY on a video link, told SnookerZone, when asked who his favourite player was, confidently said…

“Mark Selby is my favourite snooker player.”

A very good choice for emulating tactical and safety in the game!

Tim Dunkley commented: “William has a bright future ahead of him in snooker and billiards if he keeps his head, works hard, and develops a solid and repeatable technique.”

He added: “His natural talent, even at the tender age of six, was awesome.”

William will be playing in the 2022/23 Powerglide English Under-14 event in Chandlers Ford next Sunday.

Finally, Zoe also commented on how impressed they were with Woking Snooker Centre when they attended to watch William prior to last weekend compete in his debut on the EABA.

“It’s a shame we didn’t know Woking Snooker Centre before we moved, otherwise we probably can spend more time there!”

SnookerZone thinks it’s great to see talented youngsters like William enjoy the games of snooker and billiards and to want to compete in tournaments and strive to become one of the best.

SnookerZone joked to Zoe, “at least it gets them off the video games.”

She added: “We are a very sporty family, apart from cuesports, we do a lot of golf, swimming, badminton, tennis and table tennis.”

We wish William well in the pursuit of his snooker and billiards and we hope to see them soon again at Woking Snooker Centre!

Keep practising!

(Thanks to Tim Dunkley for the photo)

COMING UP NEXT ON SNOOKERZONE…

We”ll be interviewing a billiard player, somewhat older, sometime this week. So stay tuned…