FOUR-time Town Champion Mike Finn made a winning return to the Cuestars circuit after an 18-month break, but bemoaned the lack of youngsters at the event.

The 28-year-old from Eastleigh pocketed a tidy £100 after dropping just three frames at the first leg of the Championship Tour at Jesters Snooker Hall, Swindon.

After topping his group and seeing off his Churchills A teammate Adam Nash 2-0 in the last-eight, The Mighty Finn accounted for Seb Worrall (Swindon) in a thrilling semi-final.

He took the first two frames with breaks of 81 and 57. Worrall pulled one back with a 93 but Finn fired in runs of 36 and a 58 to wrap up a 3-1 victory.

Following a “pretty comfortable” 3-0 win over three-time rankings winner Jon Charlton (Surrey) in the final, Finn (pictured) said: “The standard was pretty decent.

“One hundred quid prize money is not to be sniffed at but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more youngsters playing.

“It’s the only way for them to improve quicker, coming up against better players, even though they might not think so at the time.”

Meanwhile, Mitch Wade, who hadn’t played in a Cuestars event since the new scratch format was introduced in 2009, missed out on qualifying for the knockout by the narrowest of margins.

The 32-year-old won two of his four group-stage matches and finished with an identical record to Sam Storey (Newbury), whom he had lost to, so went out on the head-to-head rule.