Future world champion?

PROMOTER Dave Harris claims young darting prospect Adrian Gray could become a world champion despite seeing him go down to a 4-1 defeat against Jamie Harvey in the big England v Scotland contest at the ATHA Showbar on Friday night.

The 22-year-old world number 60 from Hastings showed flashes of brilliance but failed to block out the vocal backing of a healthy audience. Harris said: "If he learns to focus he will be a champion of the world but he gets unsettled by crowd support."

He picked himself up to finish runner-up in the lucrative Bexhill Open on Sunday, a tournament in which Hastings' world number 37 Shayne Burgess reached the semi-finals.

Burgess and Gray agreed to a 500 winner takes all showdown in the new year and Harris also hopes to fix an England v Wales night involving the pair plus another young local star.