BUDE’S billiards star, Dave White, was crowned the West of England Open Billiards champion at the Galaxy Centre, Torquay recently.

In a star-studded field which attracted entries from all over the South West, Wales and Hampshire, players competed over five qualifying rounds to get through to the main event.

White produced breaks of 73, 69 and 62 in the round-robin stage as he qualified for the last eight.

In the first knockout tie he beat Welshman Royn Jenkins before defeating Aldershot’s Ryan Mears 247-189, helped by an excellent 76 break.

The final was a much more one-sided affair as White showed his class to run riot, stringing together four breaks of over 50 (81,65, 58 and 52) to see off Plymouth’s Chris Coumbe by 363 points to 95.

White, who plays at Bude Social Club, also recently won the Cornwall Individual Billiards title for the 11th time with an 800 points to 603 points victory against Chris Mitchell (Dobwalls) in this year’s final.

White had breaks of 46, 32, 37, 75, 39, 41, 51 and 39 while Mitchell had breaks of 53, 41, 48, 51, 54 and 36.

Mitchell did pick up the high break trophy for a fantastic 124 that he made in the round-robin stages.