BILLY Castle issued a warning to his opponents after making a winning return to the Cuestars South of England Snooker Championship Tour at his new home club.

The 22-year-old took just 64 minutes to slug out a 3-2 victory over Matt Ford in the final of the fourth leg at The Crucible Sports & Social Club, Newbury.

“I’m getting back to my best now,” he insisted. “So a few more tournaments under my belt and people should be worried again.”

Southampton’s 2013 Town Champion – who still turns out for Eastleigh-based Super League outfit Churchills A, despite recently moving to Reading – led 2-1 but missed a red with the rest on a break of 40 in the fourth frame. Ford immediately replied with a 61 and leveled the match on a re-spotted black.

On a run of 62 in the decider, Castle missed a red with the spider but there was to be no further twist as his opponent from Ascot eventually needed snookers with four reds left.

Clutching the £110 prize money, Castle, whose wife Betsie is expecting a baby boy on May 10, said: “In the last frame, I had a good break and left myself a little bit hampered with a tricky spider shot and rattled it. I thought ‘here we go again’. But I managed to get over the line.”

And he added: “I’ve earnt a nice bit of money in just a few hours doing what I love doing.”

Earlier, his last-16 match ended with 14 reds left on the table. As both players had agreed to adopt the ‘miss’ rule, the home club’s Ian Rose was warned in the third-frame decider after twice attempting a safety shot and failing to hit an object-ball when direct full-ball contact was possible. Rose missed again to lose frame and, subsequently, match.

After a 3-0 victory over Ryan Mears, winner of the second leg in Woking, Castle compiled his highest break of the day in the semi-finals. He responded to Lewis Frampton’s 86 in the first frame with an 88 clearance in the next and ran out a 3-1 winner.

The former England international took time out to chat about 13-year-old Charlie Pringle who, with Mickey Joyce, 11, represented Chandler’s Ford SC.

“He’s a bit similar to me and (cousin) Shane (Castle) when we first started out,” he said. “He’s attacking and his long pots are really good. It just takes practice and time.”

Tomorrow, it’s the fourth leg of the Cuestars Seniors (40+) Tour at Fareham Snooker Club.