A YOUNG snooker player is hoping 2012 will be the year he makes his big break into the professional ranks.
Long regarded as one of the top amateurs in Wales, Chester & District League star Gareth Allen continues to work around the clock in a bid to pocket a place on the World Snooker tour.
The 23-year-old, who plays for Broughton Wings, works three days a week for Flintshire County Council and spends the rest of his free time practising on his full-size table at his home in Ewloe.
Allen, a big Chester FC fan, said: “I treat it like my job. I get up at eight or nine in the morning, have my breakfast and then go and do a couple of hours. I’ll then have my dinner and then do a few more hours. It’s hard work concentrating six-eight hours a day on my days off but I’ve got to as my big aim is to go professional.”
Having reached the last 16 of the 2010 World Amateur Championship in Damascus, Syria, Allen enjoyed a successful 2011.
He was named Sportsman of the Year at the Flintshire Sports Personality of the Year Awards before winning the Home Internationals title with Wales for the first time.
He also made his debut on the Players Tour Championship (PTC) – the series which gives amateurs the chance to go up against the best players on the planet.
Allen rates world number nine Stephen Maguire as the toughest opponent he faced in the championship. He also lost to Chester potter Ricky Walden in a match in which the world number 18 hit the first 147 break of his professional career.
Allen, whose biggest competitive break is 136, said: “The PTCs are a very good standard. Even before the professionals come in, the amateurs are very tough because we’re all desperate to get through.”
With his involvement in the PTC over for this season, Allen’s aim of joining the likes of Walden on the ever expanding World Snooker tour rest on his performances in the Welsh men’s amateur series.
