Coates is the Billiards Master!

The delayed 2026 Billiards Masters was played in the Jersey Mechanics Institute on Thursday 13th November between Howard Smith and Island Champion Clayton Coates.

The format is to score 10 x your official handicap therefore Howard’s target was 340 whilst Clayton’s was 540.

Clayton got off to a fast start and with an early break of 40 gave him an early 75-19 lead. He followed that up with a 45 break and an immediate 38 break to increase his lead to 181 – 40.

There was then a little lull in the game as each player missed chances until Clayton scored a well-constructed 52 break to increase his lead at 286-47.

The game moved on without any player making any decent breaks. However Clayton continued to increase his lead making the score 400 – 103, meaning Clayton needed a further 140 points to win the tile while Howard needed 237.

Then came the break of the night when Clayton made a 90 break to almost take him to the title. It was a lovely break but unfortunately had to pot Howards yellow ball and therefore only had 14 hazards left. He managed 9 more pots on the red but fell out of position just as he looked to make the century break.

With that 90 break taking the scores to 514-115, it was just a matter of time before Clayton scored the remaining 26 points and claim the Masters title for 2026.

The match was reffed by Karl Le Fevre.

Once again, many thanks to the Jersey Mechanics for hosting the final and to Aaron Canavan for brushing and ironing the table which was in immaculate condition!