Huntingdon's Luke Gilbert, who is Ultimate Pool reigning 8-ball pool U23 world champion and captain of the England U23 team, has had one of the most successful years so far making history along the way.
The 21-year-old from Stukeley Meadows, who played from The Court Pool and Snooker Club and played for Cambridgeshire county since he was 13-years-old, went on to represent England from the age of 16.
He has played for many local teams in the Huntingdon, St Neots, St Ives, Cambridge and Peterborough Pool Leagues.
Luke originally started cue sports by playing snooker on a junior snooker tour after he was spotted and coached by World Snooker Coach Brian Cox who helped develop Luke’s cue action and mindset.
Earlier this year, in February, he travelled to Malta to compete in the European pool championships U23 singles, team and men’s singles events.
First up was the under 23’s where he beat ex-snooker pro Tony Drago to the title, but there was bigger things to come.
Luke still had the men’s final to play against fellow Ultimate Pool professional and reigning title holder Dejan Grech informant of a home crowd.
Luke made history in winning both the men’s and under 23 titles, something that has never been achieved before.
Luke then attended the WEPF World Eight Ball Pool Championships in Morocco, keen to add to his two world titles he had already achieved having won the Junior World Title in 2018 and Under 23 World Title in 2019.
Luke gained his first world title with the England A Team, beating Morocco 5-0, with two events still to play Luke was still on target to complete an historic treble.
Playing in the Under 23 Double, Luke and fellow England mate Jasper Simmonds secured another World Title for the England Team.
With the singles event left to play, Luke went into the final playing another team mate, Jack Schofield, where Luke won 8-4, making history again, claiming three world titles in one week.
Luke now holds seven international titles, having already won the home nations event in late 2022.
Away from England duty, Luke also competes on the Ultimate Pool tour as a professional player where he can be seen playing regularly on live TV.
"It’s been a fantastic year for me so far but I’m keen to add professional titles to my CV," he said.
"I’m lucky to have great sponsors that help me financially to travel and compete.
"I have a wide range of sponsors: Custom Cues, who supply cues all over the world, Chassis Cabs, who are a nationwide business, SCD packaging and Kingsbrook accounting who are based in Northampton, and Millertech who are based in St Neots."
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