Top snooker award for Top Breaks (From Stroud News and Journal)

Top snooker award for Top Breaks

TOP Breaks snooker club in Stroud has been awarded one of the top honours that a club can get after being made a World Snooker accredited centre.

The club, which is owned and managed by Ray Curtis, is one of only 25 snooker clubs in the country that has been chosen as a centre of excellence for World Snooker.

An accredited centre is a snooker club or centre recognised by World Snooker for its top class facilities and outstanding commitment to the development of snooker at all levels.

Top Breaks, in King Street, achieved a certificate after the World Snooker officials visited the club on several occasions.

One of the officials from World Snooker was Neil Tomkins and he is the head of youth development within the organisation.

To be considered for the award, the club had to meet the criteria within the thorough accreditation checklist.

The criteria included points such as youth development, child safety and facilities.

After the award of the certificate the club can now offer a number of high quality incentives.

They use high quality tables, can loan equipment, arrange tournaments for juniors and seniors, arrange pro-ams and run a proficiency award scheme.

Junior players at the club can chart their progress of coaching by taking Red - Black ball awards.

The red ball is the first award then the black award is last. And these awards monitor techniques such as potting, cuing and safety.

One area that Top Breaks excel in, is the training of youth players from the ages of 10-16 year-olds, under the guidance of professional and Gloucestershire coach Keith Hogg.

Many of the under-16s are now making century breaks and if a player is showing considerable talent then the club will give the player support.

One way that they do this is explained by Ray Curtis. He said: "If a player is good enough then the club can give them free time on the table.

"This will then encourage the player to play more and it will also improve his standard."

There are a number of talented children playing at the centre including Ashley Wire, Matt Wilkins and Jack Smith. And last year Jack performed superbly in competition to reach the semi-final of the under-13s English championships.

The club, which boasts 600 members, runs many teams and a league. And the Top Breaks under-23s team has recently won the Stroud title at that age group.

This tournament was started in 1963 but this is the first ever that Top Breaks have won the title.

Top Breaks has been established since 1990. It has been a snooker club since 1926 and before Top Breaks it was called Stroud Billiards Saloon.