BRADLEY Cowdroy may be focusing on his back-up plan but it is not doing his snooker any harm.

The 16-year-old from Bournemouth leads the Cuestars South of England Under-21 Gold Tour after claiming his fourth winner’s trophy of the season.

In a battle of the left-handers, Cowdroy beat Oliver Sykes 2-0 to clinch the ninth leg at 147 Snooker Club in Swindon.

Both finalists recently earned promotion to the national under-21 circuit, the EASB Premier Junior Tour.

Cowdroy took the first frame on the black and a 46 break in the second left his 12-year-old opponent from Chandler’s Ford requiring snookers with three reds left.

“Oliver almost did a really good clearance to go 1-0 up and for me to nick that after he missed the black was massive,” said Cowdroy.

The Dorset ace, who had lost 2-0 to Sykes in their round robin match, reckons he is not the quickest out of the blocks.

“It started off not great,” he said. “I always start slowly but somehow managed to get my game together and started to play some decent stuff.”

He added that travelling all over the country on the Premier Tour would be a “nightmare” but that he was “looking forward” to it.

However, with his GCSEs on the horizon, Greenbaize Snooker Club will be seeing less of the talented teenager for a couple of months.

“After I get my exams out of the way, I’m going to fully focus on snooker over the summer,” said Cowdroy.

“I’m going to knuckle down and try to keep my place next season and try to build from there.

“Snooker’s always been number one for me and I still believe that can happen but you always need a back-up.”

Cowdroy takes a 15-point lead over Aidan Murphy (Bristol) into the 10th and final leg at Chandler's Ford Snooker Club on Sunday, May 6.

“It’s always nice to have the lead going into the last event because whatever happens is totally within my hands,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cowdroy's Greenbaize club-mate Nat Kidner was beaten 2-1 from 1-0 up by Ally Pollard (Alderholt) in the Silver Tour final.

Kidner (Ferndown), who had knocked out rankings leader Brett Wallace (Gosport) 2-0 in the last four, won the fifth leg in Bournemouth and the sixth leg in Havant and is currently fifth in the rankings.