Michael Leslie clinches 2012 European U-21 Snooker Championship beating Shane Castle in final
Scotland’s Michael Leslie showed tremendous performance in the final encounter of 2012 European Under-21 Snooker Championship against Shane Castle. The Scotsman had a brilliant run in the ultimate encounter and was able to triumph over Castle by an easy
score line of 6-2.
The match up seemed one-sided when Leslie dominated the game in the very first session but Castle moved up two frames after the second session started. However, Leslie maintained his lead until the end of the match and took back-to-back frames in Session
2 to claim the title 6-2.
Both Leslie and Castle enjoyed a convincing run in the tournament with some classy victories in the early stages of the European tournament. The Scotsman, Leslie, faced Poland’s Grzegorz Biernadski in the Last-16 and beat him with a sensational whitewash
win at 4-0. In the quarters, Leslie earned another impressive victory over the Polish potter, Mateusz Baranowski, by 5-1.
The 19-year-old Leslie outplayed Sam Harvey in the semi-final by 5-0 to set up Shane Castle final contest at the Dedeman Hotel in Sofia, Bulgaria. Castle, on the other hand, had to defeat Ross Muir 4-0 in Last 16, Jamie Clarke 5-0 in the quarters and Scott
Donaldson 5-3 in the semi-final to meet Leslie in his last clash.
Leslie grabbed a quick lead in the match after hitting the first scrappy frame victory by 94-33 with a terrific clearance of 46. The second frame was a piece of cake for Leslie as he took charge of the proceedings when he was trailing 0-6. He pocketed a
marvellous break of 76 to finish the second frame by 76-6.
At the end of Session 1, Leslie extended his lead to 4-0 firing two classy knocks of 42 and 121. The second session began with Castle’s back-to-back frame victories to move within two frame wins at 4-2. After that Castle could not add more to his side of
the score board and slipped down against Leslie when the Scot fired two outstanding breaks of 100 and 91 to win the final two frames 100-12 and 118-12.
The overall score line of the match was; 94(46)-33, 76(76)-6, 53(42)-41, 122(121)-0, 25-62, 0-84(84), 100(100)-12 and 118(91)-12.
Tags: