ORGANISERS of a junior snooker tour this week revealed plans to tempt the region's young stars away from scratch tournaments in the Midlands.

South of England Cuestars director John Hunter has put his money where his mouth is and guaranteed a £100 purse for each of next season's seven Under-21 Premier Series events.

Cuestars, which has run handicapped competitions since 1995 in an area from Cardiff to High Wycombe and down to the south coast, restricted last season's scratch series to recognised section clubs.

Hunter admitted: "It was wrong to exclude players from outside of the junior section set-up as it did devalue the competition."

Players like Southampton singles champion Alex Dunkley were forced to travel hundreds of miles to Leicester, Coalville and Rushden for top-quality competition.

"I'll definitely be making an effort to play in this and I expect a lot of other decent players will as well," said Dunkley.

Full story in snooker spotlight today's Daily Echo