SOUTHAMPTON students enhanced their reputation as one of the strongest university snooker teams in the country by winning the Midlands Cup for the first time.

Skipper Kurtis Haberstraw said he was “proud of the guys for what we achieved” during the two-day event at the Atack Snooker Club, Nuneaton.

University of Southampton smashed through the group stages, beating Imperial College London 9-1 and Coventry 8-2.

Haberstraw comfortably won a one-frame tie-break in the quarter-finals after his team staged a comeback from 3-0 down to draw 5-5 with Nottingham.

And they eased past York 6-2 in the last four.

“That gave us a lot of confidence going into the final against Kent which was very tight,” said Haberstraw.

After a 6-4 victory, the 22-year-old from Swansea declared: “What a start to the year!”

And he added: “It feels amazing to captain such a great group of lads. They played better than I could have asked for.

“The team made me raise my level because I didn’t want to let them down.”

Haberstraw, who is studying aeronautical engineering, also praised the “fantastic” support of squad member and Poland international Weronika Nowicka.

In the individual knockout, Haberstraw lost 2-1 in the semi-finals to the eventual champion Dan Devlin (Kent).

Micky Olding accounted for first seed Gwilym Enstone (Warwick) in the last 32 and went out to sixth seed Tom Barrett (Nottingham) in the quarter-finals.

Mike Andrews and Martin Cordeiro made last-32 exits and Simon Alderton was a first-round casualty.

Paul Allen, from Hedge End, skippered the Oxford University side that lost 7-3 to Warwick and 8-2 to Nottingham, and he went out in the first round of the singles to Stewart Ball (Warwick). The students are now preparing for a trip to Leeds in March for the British Universities & Colleges Sport Snooker Championships, which Southampton won in 2013.