GARY Rogers and Carl De Pasquale are believed to be the first brothers for more than a century to win the York Faber Shield Billiards League title.

The pair clinched this season's championship for Heworth, adding to an impressive personal haul of silverware in 2016 for Rogers, who has represented England in the past.

Eldest sibling Rogers, 47, won the league's highest break prize for the seventh time in the last eight years, with his 134 the best ever recorded in the competition.

He was also crowned the English Open Plate winner in Cambridge and a match break of 184 saw him lift the Yorkshire Handicap trophy, which was staged at Leeds.

As a result, Rogers is expected to make the Yorkshire team for January's County Cup tournament, but he was just as thrilled with his achievements playing alongside 37-year-old brother De Pasquale, as any of his individual accomplishments.

On their historic success, Rogers said: "We think there were a pair of brothers called the Breeds who played out of Fulford and might have won the title in the 1900s, but we believe we are the first since then.

"It's not easy to win the league with the handicapping system that's in place and it's a big challenge. It's also the first season we have played together and it was Carl's first in the league, but he has improved to the extent that he is now entering competitions further afield.

"He's still on a learning curve, but I'm pleased with his progress. It's also helped that Darren Clark as come to us from Teesside because he's a very good player."

Rogers takes particular pleasure and satisfaction from Heworth's triumphant campaign, considering the competition in York is as stern as it has been for many years.

"The standard is improving since I first returned to the league in 2008," he pointed out. "It had dropped a bit because Terry Ward had stopped playing and Ken Taylor had lost a bit of form.

"But Terry is playing again and Acomb have also got a very good, young team, primarily made up of snooker players like Dan Potter, who have taken up billiards. The results show the standards have risen and there are more than ten players making decent breaks of 30, 40 and 50, which is good at club level.

"There are also three or four who are capable of making century breaks in the league now and that's not been the case for a long time now. People like Mick Borg and Richard Lillie, from Acomb, Fulford's Glen Mountain and Ian Robinson, of Bootham, have really upped the quality."

While billiards might trail snooker in the popularity stakes, Rogers is a confessed convert to the three-ball game, adding: "I used to live and breathe snooker but, once I started playing billiards, I realised there was so much more to the game.

"It's more of a participation sport, than for spectators but, with snooker, there's always an end in sight with frames. Billiards is less straight-forward and I really enjoy the complexities of the game with the different scoring opportunities of the spots and cannons."