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Top pool players practice game at Whitley Bay pub

Jun 26 2011 by Emma King, Sunday Sun

Dave Styles, Marc Farnsworth and Ian Turner

FROM the outside the Seahorse pub looks like any ordinary bar - but this drinking hole happens to be home to some of the world's best pool players.

The bar at Whitley Bay FC isn’t just a haven for footballers, it also attracts some highly-skilled pool players including IPA (International Professional Pool Players Association) professional Marc Farnsworth who is ranked number four in the world.

The 33-year-old, who sells fruit and veg by day, turned pro at pool a few years ago and is seeded eighth for this year’s World Championships which started in Blackpool yesterday.

The lad from Houghton-le-Spring, who practises at the Seahorse, reached the semi-finals of the World Championships in 2009 and got to the last 16 last year.

But he is confident that 2011 will be his year.

Earlier this year Marc took the title of Staffordshire Open Champion 2011, after beating three times World champion Gareth Potts.

Marc also won the UK Professional Trophy last August and scooped £60,000 in a challenge match against world number two Adam Davis in October.

Marc, who started playing pool in his parents’ pub in Sunderland when he was seven-years-old, said: “I’ve been practising a lot - at least four or five hours a day.

“I’m really looking forward to the World Championships and I’m feeling pretty confident.

“It would be amazing if I won it.”

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