Express & Star

Sedgley’s Reanne Evans has re-written the record books in women’s snooker by claiming an unprecedented fourth successive World Championship.

Evans clinched her fourth straight World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association world title with a 5-2 victory over first-time finalist June Banks at Cambridge Snooker Club yesterday.

Mother-of-one Evans shook off a bout of flu to successfully defend her world crown.

“I some ways it’s as good as the first,” said 22-year-old Evans, who is the partner of Northern Ireland’s world number 16 Mark Allen.

“I felt no pressure and just played my game and hoped for the best.

“Coming up to this tournament I hardly picked my cue up because I haven’t been very well.”Evans made it to the final by winning 23 successive frames and chalking up the tournament’s highest break, 102, in the group stages.

But 39-year-old Banks, of Orpington, got on the scoreboard by taking the first frame of the final with a long pink before a break of 52 from Evans helped take the second to level the match.

Banks’ only other frame came when she took the sixth as Evans dominated proceedings.

After the match Evans again ruled out joining former champions Allison Fisher and Kelly Fisher on the lucrative American pool circuit for the time being and insisted her successes were not due to their absence.

She said: “People might say it’s because Kelly or Allison or whoever are not here but it’s their choice to go to America.

“It’s up to them and I am happy with what I have done.”

Evans, who is also a double IBSF World Champion, will now defend her European title in Poland next month.

Coseley’s Maria Catalano saw her dream of a first world title ended less than 24 hours after cousin Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed his third men’s crown at the Crucible in Sheffield as she suffered a 4-2 semi-final defeat at the hands of Banks.