The 21-year-old pocketed the £150 top prize and jumped seven places to second in the rankings after beating Southampton’s Alex Dunkley in the event-four final at Jesters Snooker Club, Swindon.

 

He wrapped up the 3-1 victory with a difficult long blue played left-handed.

 

And Mears, who beat runaway rankings leader Matt Wilson 3-1 in the last four, earned the praise of the High Wycombe star.

 

Wilson said: “I was disappointed to lose to Ryan but he played well, and it didn’t surprise me when I heard he won the final.”

 

Tip problems threatened to disrupt Mears’ build-up to the high-quality tournament.

 

Following a local league singles knockout match two days before the trip, his old tip fell off and he spent the next afternoon breaking in a new one.

 

And things were not looking good as Mears lost his first round-robin group match 2-0 to Richard Clark (Swindon). However, he knocked in a 60 in a 2-0 win against Kieran Gell (Gosport) and reversed a 2-0 defeat by Mark Green (Salisbury) in the quarter-finals in Poole last month.

 

Mears qualified for the knockout in second place with a 2-0 victory and a 75 against Troy Paul (Swindon).

 

After a 2-1 win over Seb Worrall (Swindon) in the last 16, Mears beat Adam Nash (Southampton) 3-2. It was the fourth time this season he had accounted for Nash from 2-1 down.

 

Meanwhile, Wilson, 26, on a break of 104, missed a black with one red left in the second frame of a 3-0 quarter-final win over Mike Finn (Eastleigh).

 

“I wasn’t that fussed about it,” he explained. “I know how good a player Mike can be and keeping him off the table for the majority of the three frames was more satisfying than the 146 would have been.”

 

A 40-strong field chalked up a season record total of 32 breaks of more than 50.

 

The Swindon tournament was the fourth in a series of eight across the South of England. Remaining fixtures: February 14, Salisbury SC; March 21, Jesters SC, Swindon; April 18, Salisbury SC; May 16, Jesters SC, Swindon.

 

The prize pot for the end-of-season play-off now stands at £162 with four events still to play.

Matt Wilson: 104, 90, 80, 77, 71, 65, 60, 51

Neil Craycraft: 95, 74, 52

Mike Finn: 94, 92, 62, 58

Alex Dunkley: 86, 61, 57, 56

Alex O’Donoghue: 79, 69, 55, 55, 52

Ryan Mears: 75, 60, 58, 57, 56

Christian Chislett: 73

Kevin Ward: 60

Sebastian Worrall: 52

 

 

LAST-16 (five points, £10): Hollick beat Williams 2-0, Wildman beat Clark 2-1, Dunkley beat Richards 2-0, Craycraft beat McLean 2-0, Nash beat O’Donoghue 2-1, Mears beat Worrall 2-1, Wilson beat Chislett 2-0, Finn beat Miles 2-0.

 

QUARTER-FINALS (eight points, £20): Hollick beat Wildman 3-1, Dunkley beat Craycraft 3-2, Mears beat Nash 3-2, Wilson beat Finn 3-0.

 

SEMI-FINALS (12 points, £40): Dunkley beat Hollick 3-2, Mears beat Wilson 3-1.

 

FINAL (25/18 points, £150/£80): Mears beat Dunkley 3-1.

 

Did you do something notable in the last Cuestars tournament? Or any other tournament? Have you just beaten your highest break? Have you got anything to say? E-mail me details at timdunkleysnookerdad@hotmail.com and you could be on the Cuestars website.