ONE of the country’s most exp-erienced professional snooker coaches is helping two East Lancashire youngsters improve their game.

Reg Davies, who once coached three-times Masters champion Paul Hunter, has been working with talented young potters Anthony Wall and Neil Phillips.

Anthony from Darwen and Neil from Burnley have been travelling to the North West Junior Snooker Academy in Salford.

There they have worked Davies, who has more than 40 years experience coaching both in this country and abroad.

The pair were invited to the Academy, which is held at Swinton Leisure Centre, by Dave Spencer, the nephew of former world champion John Spencer.

Anthony, 10, and 12-year-old Neil have been travelling over to the Academy every Saturday for the last six weeks.

And Davies is already seeing big improvements in their game. The pair have been accepted into the Academy and have developed to the stage of now competing in the North West EASB U16s competition, alongside Ben Murphy – the nephew of former World snooker champion Shaun Murphy.

“I have seen big improve-ments from the boys in a very short space of time,” said Davies who has also worked with Ken Docherty and Joe Swales. “They have had to reach a certain standard before I would put them in to competitions and they have all done that. We have been working on basic things, like poise and cue delivery and they have all impressed me.”

The boys were in action at Bolton Snooker Club recently where Anthony won one and lost two of his three matches with Neil doing likewise from his outings to the table.

n The Snooker Academy is every Saturday (11am-1pm) and costs £6 for a two hour session.

Phone Swinton Leisure Centre on 0161 7940672 or Reg Davies on 07932 573616 for more details.