SHEER will to win propelled Steven Hughes over the line to claim his first winner’s trophy on the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Silver Tour.

The 14-year-old from Chandler’s Ford was forced to dig deep on the challenging pro-standard tight tables in south London.

Hughes, sponsored by Vankru Cycling, fought back from 1-0 down in both the last four and the final of the third leg in Coulsdon.

After defeating Aidan Murphy (Bristol) 2-1 on a Star table, he repeated the feat against David Rice (Fordingbridge).

Hughes said: “I dug deep again and turned it around and won, which was amazing. It shows that I can compete well, especially on the tougher tables.

“They are very tough to play on. You have to be spot on all the time. There’s no room for error.”

Rice, who was chasing snookers with two reds left in the decider, said: “Steven is a credible winner.”

And the 20-year-old had also been forced to battle back himself to record an excellent 2-1 semi-final victory over Evan Plummer (Coulsdon).

He replied to Plummer’s 38 break in the first frame with a 37 in the next and secured the decider on the final blue.

It has taken Hughes – last season’s Bronze Tour rankings champion, who now jointly leads the Silver rankings with leg-two winner Murphy – just three events to put himself in contention for promotion to next year’s Gold Tour.

Charlie Pringle (C/Ford) took a frame off Plummer in the quarter-finals. Oliver Sykes (C/Ford) was a group-stage casualty but did record a 42 break.

Hughes and Murphy may be in pole position but the race for the Silver title promises to be extremely close this season. Rice is one point adrift in third. Last season’s Bronze play-off champion Connor Benzey (Eastleigh) is only nine points off top spot; 10-year-old Sykes is another four points further back.

In the Bronze Tour event, Bowen Zhu (C/Ford) lost in the last-eight for the third successive tournament – 2-1 to the eventual tournament winner Ben Tillison (Portsmouth) – and leg two winner Ryan Hughes (C/Ford) went out 2-0 to Shane Kearns (Swindon) in the semis. Second-placed Hughes is 18 points behind Tillison.

Jamie Wilson (Havant), Mickey Joyce (Basingstoke) and Anthony Rice (Fordingbridge) made last-eight exits in Gold.

Dan Sykes (C/Ford), who failed to qualify for the Gold knockout, collected the runners-up trophy in the Plate competition.

Results on right-hand side of page.