11-year-old Mia is an old hand now at the sport and this was her third year entering State and Australian tournaments. In her first tournament at 9 years of age, she achieved runner up in the Victorian Title and the second year there was no one to contest her so the tournament wasn’t held.
Mia went through the round robin day undefeated and was the favourite to win, but in a one frame decider between the two top players of the day the balls didn’t go her way and 12-year-old Advay Joshi from Melbourne defeated her on the pink ball, taking away her last chance to become Victorian champion in the Under 12s as she will be competing next year in the Under 16s.
For nine-year-old Luca this was his first tournament, and he won his very first tournament game during this event and came close in a couple of others.
Luca played the previous Wednesday at the ClubMulwala Snooker Club and couldn’t pot a ball and then in Melbourne he was making numerous 9 breaks - his highest in the tournament was 14. He loved his first experience of competitive snooker and made a lot of new friends at the tournament.
Mother of the siblings Samantha Ridley said: “This reminded me of when I was an Australian Junior Champion and my brother Adrian started playing. We both ended up representing Australia overseas many times in our snooker careers and I often wonder if my two will do the same.
“As a family we are so proud of their achievements, and we will be supporting them in whatever they wish to achieve.”
The two young players will head to Albury Commercial Club to compete in the Australian Junior Snooker Championships the week of July 2 to July 10.
Luca will be competing in the Under 12 and Under 16 Australian Championships and Mia will be competing in the Under 12 Australian Championships, the Under 18 Girls Snooker Championship and she has also been chosen to represent Victoria as the first female competitor in the Mitchell Junior Team Challenge.
All the round robin games will he held the best of three frames and the finals usually the best of five.
That’s a lot of games for a 9 and 11 year old so it will be a big week of snooker for the pair.
Spectators are welcome to the Commercial Club snooker room for anyone wishing to see them in action.