Not even some top professional pool players could halt the winning form of local ace
It’s a new year, but local pool ace Mark ‘Granite’ Gray remains unstoppable.
The Bourne Snooker Centre professional enjoyed a stellar 2025 with multiple titles and several end-of-season tour number one rankings.
And he's started 2026 in style with two wins from his first two tournaments, the latest an Over 40s event at the Court Club in Peterborough.
It was a 64-man field with seven Ultimate Pool (UP) – the biggest tour of them all – professionals involved including the city’s former world champion John Roe who bowed out to Gray 6-5 after a high calibre clash in the quarter-finals.
Gray had to dodge some bullets throughout the day particularly in the first round when he won 6-5 after UP pro Andy Williams from Wales messed up a simple clearance in the deciding frame.
In the last 32 Gray was 2-0 down, but fought back to win 6-3 against Norfolk’s Kevin Grix and in the last 16 he eased to a 6-1 win over Andy Barker from Hatfield.
After sneaking past Roe, Gray took part in what he described as ‘the highest standard match he’d ever played in’ against Rob Donkin from Essex as from 2-2 the players broke and cleared up in every frame until Gray clinched a 6-5 win.
Multiple world champion Phil Harrison from Ely was Gray’s final opponent and it turned into a 7-1 rout. Gray won £550 for his efforts and fellow Bourne man Jason Bates won the plate competition for first and second round losers to earn £350.
Bates claimed the scalp of UP Pro Dylan Leary 4-0 in his semi-final.
SNOOKER
The first ranking event of the year on the Legends Tour takes place at the Court Club, Bretton on Sunday.
Sixteen players from across the region will compete for the £275 top prize and the Mark Housden Trophy in the Snooker Shootout.
The exciting one frame knock-out competition will welcome back Louth's defending champion Gary Skipworth, alongside a host of local stars that include the in-form Steve Martin, who has recently captured amateur titles in Chatteris and Boston, last year's runner-up Vaughan Lutkin, as well as Graham Bradford, Gareth Mears, Graham Tilley, Martyn Witton and Italian Camillo Boschetto.
Spalding trio Jason Green, Dan Burt and Nigel Brasier are also contenders as is former professional Tony Brown from Cambridge. The random draw is made on the day with play commencing at 9.45am.