SOUTHAMPTON students picked up two bronze medals and two England places at the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) snooker championships.

The University of Southampton’s first team made the semi-finals and Matt Burton reached the last-four of the Individual Trophy.

Club captain Kurtis Haberstraw, 22, said: “It’s a solid end to an incredible year for the team.”

Welshman Haberstraw - who, along with Micky Olding, has been selected for the England universities side for the Home Internationals - had led the lads to victory in the Midlands Cup in January and, switching codes a week later, in the South West Universities Pool Championships.

They joined 39 other teams from across the UK for the BUCS event at the Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds.

Burton, skipper of the second string, came through a field of 96 in the singles knockout for members of second and third sides but was beaten 2-1 by Ish Hossen (Exeter) in the semi-finals.

The 24-year-old chemistry PhD student said: “I kept it tight and played some good snooker. And it paid off.”

Meanwhile, the first team progressed through the group stages and gained revenge for last year’s defeat at the same stage by seeing off Exeter in the quarter-finals on a tie-break frame won by Haberstraw.

Summing up the three-day event after losing 6-3 to Warwick in the last-four, Haberstraw, from Swansea, said: “Winning the decider against Exeter was a massive achievement for us.

“It was another great weekend for the guys and Micky Olding was a star.”

The second team was knocked out by the eventual champions, Leeds, in the last-eight of the Team Shield and the third team lost in the first round of the Team Plate to Keele.

TEAM LINE-UPS Soton 1: Kurtis Haberstraw (capt), Simon Alderton, Michael Andrews, Martin Cordeiro, Micky Olding.

Soton 2: Matthew Burton (capt), Jasper Dunning, Weronika Nowicka, Ashley Rogers, David Spring.

Soton 3: Asheesh Gogna (capt), Thomas Dickson, Lewis Liu, Lawrence Mann, Norman Ong.