MUSSELBURGH'S young snooker star Ross Muir came so close to winning a second successive Snooker Star of the Future trophy last week but just missed out in the final to an opponent three years his senior.

The 15-year-old, a pupil at Musselburgh Grammar School, won the under-15 competition, also held at Prestatyn in Wales, last year with a storming performance, which added to the fast-rising reputation of the Scottish under-16 champion.

And Muir set about once again proving his undoubted status as one to watch for the future in the 15-20 age group in this year's tournament, against a string of opponents several years older.

Muir cruised through his group to book a place in the last-16 and from then on he turned on the style, first dismissing Perth's Scott Donaldson and then potting his way to a sensational 3-1 win over young English prodigy Faraq Ajaib.

He then followed that up with a similarly classy performance to see off another young English star, Tom Kerslake, 3-1 and reach the final, aiming to make it two titles in two years at Pontin's World Snooker Centre.

Facing Muir in the final was fellow Scot Eden Sharav, an 18-year-old from Alloa who had been made to work harder to claim his place in the final, being taken to the wire in his semi-final clash with Mitchell Mann before prevailing 3-2.

However, Sharav's greater experience told in the final as young Muir struggled with his game, the older man claiming a 4-0 victory to take the title.

But Muir, who got the chance to play at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield - the home of the World Snooker Championship - in 2009 when he won the Junior Pot Black Championship, has plenty more years ahead of him to claim the title and should feel no shame in losing to a quality opponent three years older than him.

Muir, who lives on Edinburgh Road, practices at Edinburgh's Angle Club in Morningside five times a week and looks to have a bright future ahead of him in the sport.