A man from Loudwater has secured one of the most prestigious prizes in pool, the European Pool Championship singles title, after an epic run of performances in Ireland recently.

Dylan Leary, 50, represents Northern Ireland at pool and produced a series of brilliant displays in Killarney to win the title.

Leary, who previously played snooker for 30 years, has only played pool for the last eight years since the Racks Pool and Snooker Club was reopened in Maidenhead.

Leary told the Bucks Free Press that he was in confident heading into the tournament and lauded it as the biggest title of his career.

He said: "This is definitely my biggest win so far.

"I was really happy with my form and was playing great leading up to the tournament."

Leary began his campaign with a comfortable 6-3 win over Ray Flynn of Ireland before disposing of John Barry 6-2 in the second round.

He then brushed aside Alvaro Almeida of Portugal 6-1 in the last 64 but in his next match, Leary admitted he had a slice of luck against England's Sam Bircher.

He said: "At 5-2 up I potted match ball to win 6-2 when the white went in off, he then won the next two frames to make it 5-4 then he missed a straightforward pot to force a decider. I felt that was a lucky escape."

Leary made the most of that stroke of luck when he beat Karl Sutton 6-3 in the last 16 before a thrilling 7-6 victory over Aaron Davies of England in the quarter-finals.

The semi-final saw an emphatic triumph for Leary, prevailing 7-2 over Cedric Le Quellec and then easing to an 8-2 win over Ireland's Shaun Sharkey in the final.

Leary will now be eyeing a tilt at the World Championships in June.