Sports Telegraph | Snooker | Grimsby's snooker history
FOR many years, Grimsby has had a reputation of being a hotbed of snooker.
The sport used to be dominated in the town by the deadly trio of Ray Edmonds, Sid Hood and Ron Barnes, who came to prominence in the Sixties and Seventies.
And it was Ray and Sid who put Grimsby on the international map as they represented England several times in amateur international matches.
This led to the Grimsby league staging one such clash in 1975 at the town’s leisure centre.
Their pedigree stood them in good stead in the All England Snooker Championship, as between them they won the All England title three times and North of England championships eight times.
Both Ray and Sid later turned professional and enjoyed many successful years.
Grimsby snooker progressed even further with the emergence of Mike Hallett.
As a teenager, Mike won all major Grimsby and Lincolnshire snooker championships, as well as winning the British Isles Under-16 title in 1975.
After turning professional, Mike won an overseas tournament and partnered Stephen Hendry to win the professional pairs championship.
He became known across the world as a top player and even reached number six in the world rankings.
Another fine talent to emerge from the town was Dean Reynolds, who before turning professional, won the televised Junior Pot Black in 1980.
In 1981, he went on to claim the Great Britain Under-19s Championship.
After joining the paid ranks, Dean won the English Professional title and climbed to number seven in the rankings.
The Nineties saw the emergence of Sean Storey.
He made his debut in the World Championship at the Crucible in 2001 when he narrowly lost 10-9 to Joe Swail.
He made it to the Crucible again the following year, but lost to John Higgins in the second round.
Sean has won three top titles – two amateur snooker and one professional billiards honour – and was all England Amateur Champion twice, North of England Champion four times and CIU individual champion twice.
The last few years have seen a new breed of exciting young players show promise of continuing the fine tradition of Grimsby-area snooker success.
Among the most likely to make the grade are teenagers Stuart Carrington and Ashley Wright.
