When Steve Dandrea’s father passed away last year, the Epsom & District Snooker League player almost walked away from the sport he loved.

Having gone three months without as much as going near his cue, the 23-year-old estate agent from Motspur Park returned to the table in September and has not looked back since.

He rejoined Raynes Park Conservatives Club, where his dad Mauro had spent a lot of his playing days, and went undefeated in winning the league’s first division title and the Skinner Cup, along with the rest of his team, brother Alex, three-time former league winner Jeff Smithers and his 15-year-old prodigy son Jack.

Dandrea also picked up trophies for the highest break of the season, 74, and the most breaks of more than 25, of which he made 17.

“After my dad died I didn’t pick up a cue for three months,” he said.

“But I decided he would have wanted me to have a good go at it and it has all been for him this year.

“He played in the league for 31 years and it was a real passion of his – everyone knew who he was and had a lot of time for him.

“He played at Raynes Park for 22 years before we moved to Wimbledon Village a couple of years ago to play for them.

“But after he died we thought, as this season was going to be for him, we would go back to where he loved playing the game, and that was with Raynes Park.

“And now I have done everything.

“I have won the division, the Skinner Cup, made the most breaks of more than 25 and the highest break of all three divisions.

“And, if you ask anyone else in the league, they will probably say I am the best player in the division now.”

The team now move up to the semi-professional Premier Division, where they will need Jack, hotly tipped for stardom on the pool circuit, to be at his best.

“Jack is a top drawer pool player who plays for England and he has been tipped to be pretty tasty in the future,” said Dandrea.

“He will be a professional, I have no doubt about that, and I think Jimmy White has already tipped him to be a pool world champion.

“He is awesome to watch and at just 15 he has done very well, making a lot of the older men feel very silly if they don’t know what he has done.

“The Premier Division is semi-professional so once you get there you have to start practising three or four times a week or you will lose 2-0 every time.”