Wells is King of Europe

Top amateur from last year's PTC events; Daniel Wells was already guarenteed a spot on the professional main tour by coming top of the Welsh rankings this year, but it didn't hold him back in the European Championships and he beat Ireland's Vincent Muldoon 7-4 to take this years men's title.

Welshman Daniel Wells beat Ireland’s Vincent Muldoon 7-4 to win the 2011 European Men’s Snooker Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria.

There was a Main Tour nomination up for grabs but Wells had already secured his place as Welsh Number One, so there was more pressure on Muldoon as he tried to achieve his ambition too. Victory for the Neath man came in frame eleven with a run of 48.

Wells opened the final in style with runs of 69 and 43 to take the opener comfortably. Muldoon broke down on 40 in the next allowing Wells back in to clear up to lead 2-0. The Irishman got his name on the board with a run of 59 in the third and he took the fourth to level at 2-2.

A classy run of 92, his highest of the match, gave Muldoon the fifth but that spurred Wells into action and he ran in 58 and 38 to lead 4-3. Another run of 38 proved pivotal, as Muldoon opened frame eight with a 60 break but let the Welshman back to the table for the clearance and a two frame lead.

Wells then knocked in 112, the highest break of the match to stand on the brink of victory. A close tenth frame was resolved in Muldoon’s favour with a 39 clearance to the pink. The next was nip and tuck too, until Wells stepped in mid frame with a run of 48 that was to prove enough to see him over the winning line.

“I’m absolutely thrilled”, said the new Champion.

“Before I came out here I was determined to round off my amateur career by winning and I’ve managed to do it.”

“It is such a prestigious event with so many good players that this will always stand as one of my best achievements.”

Wendy Jans successfully defended her Ladies title with a 5-1 win over Latvia’s Tatjana Vasiljeva. And England’s Steve Judd beat Ukraine’s Alan Trigg 6-4 to lift the European Masters Snooker title, it was 43-year-old Steve's first ever attempt at the title.

Original article source - European Biliards & Snooker Association.

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Image courtesy - Janie Watkins

I was impressed last year when Daniel Wells as an amateur beat the likes of Neil Robertson, Jimmy White and Jamie Cope in the PTC events and even reached the semi-finals of EPTC1 in Germany. He narrowly missed out in a spot at the televised PTC Grand Finals earlier in the year and now he has a chance to show us what he is made of on the main tour. Having been on the tour a few seasons ago and reaching the penultimate round of qualifying for the world championship I belive he will be ready now to push on to the top 64 this season and possibly qualify for a few venues.

Image courtesy - EBSA

It is also a great result for Ireland's Vincent Muldoon who in reaching the final of the event recieved the nomination by the EBSA on to the main tour as Daniel Wells had already gotten his place by reaching the top of the Welsh amateur rankings. Ireland has struggled to find any new, high quality talent for the main tour in the past few years and Ken Doherty and Fergal O'Brien are still it's best players. Lets hope Vinnie can change all that next season! He hasn't got long to prepare though as the first event of the season; PTC1 starts next week.