Richard Prosser Jr turned back the clock on Saturday night to become the new Andover men’s pool champion, exactly 29 years after he last held the title as the youngest-ever winner at the age of 18.

Now 47, the Grateley cue-man has been among the leading players in a thriving Andover pool scene for more than three decades but had not again matched the heights of 1995, when he took his first title as a fresh-faced teenager.

No-one had ever previously won the town’s blue-ribband title after such a long gap but, in front of a packed house at the Wolversdene club, Prosser Jr rolled back the years with a stunning display of attacking pool.

The Andover pool league is currently packed with county and international-standard players and so winning the coveted title comes with considerable regional prestige. 

Prosser Jr, though, was in imperious form to prevail in the final against the Southampton Arms’ Andy Bannan, who is himself a former champion and leading snooker snooker player who last win the title three years ago. 

With Prosser seizing on every mistake and half chance with a flurry of long pots and pressure clearances, he eventually ran out a 6-2 winner.

It had followed his near exit in the quarter finals, where he found himself out of form and 3-1 down to Wolversdene’s Gaz Turner, before holding his nerve to prevail 4-3. Prosser then ran into peak form with an outstanding semi-final win against Wolversdene’s Craig Rees.

Elsewhere on a finals day that was brilliantly hosted at the Wolversdene club, which has become a Crucible-esque haven for pool, Kara Rees-Webbe took the women’s title with a brilliant 5-4 win against Sam Tyler. Rees-Webbe had last reached the final some 13 years ago while Tyler was playing in her first final.

Richard Clarke and Ryan Houston took the doubles crown and David Ringrose and Helen Turner were the winners in mixed doubles, while Southampton Arms B confirmed their status as the dominant club team by winning both cup competitions for an outstanding ‘treble’ to add to their league title.

Earlier winners also included Gaz Turner in the Captain’s Cup, Chris Gray in the Singles Trophy, Simon Grove and Rob Minall in the Scotch Doubles, and Jason Dixon in the Veteran’s Cup.