Well what a way to finish off a fantastic year for Total9ball, players were invited to attend our Christmas fun filled event. Kindly St Albans Hurricane Room offered us their facilities to use and also added a whopping £200 to the prize pot which enabled T9B to reduce our entry fees to encourage as many players as possible. It was decided the entry fee would be £5 for local members of the club and £10 for everyone else. We ended up with 22 players in attendance which is a good number considering it was a last minute event and only advertised for around a week and a half. There were a great mix of players from local talents Dan and Dave Lim to top amateurs with Courtney Symons and Ramesh Gokhul in attendance, as well as a top level professional Craig Osborne it was sure to be a fun day. Craig wasn't the only cue sport celebrity in the Hurricane Room though, we were very pleased to have Masato Hiraoka from Kamui not only at the venue but also showing that he himself is a very good 9ball player and Dave Knight, owner of Pro9, was there taking the photos and chatting to the players about all things pool from chalks to tips, cues to jump cues and displaying a fantastic range of Kamui products.
The format used was the trialled and tested Total9ball 2x format again with a twist. One side of the draw was handicapped race to 7 and the other a tense race to 3 shoot-out, matches began at around 11am with the races to 7 first up. Luke Rollison vs Courtney Symons was the pick of the first round ties with Luke seeming to be bang in form with a convincing 7v2 win, Craig Osborne was the highest ranked player in the event and was expected to be there or thereabouts at the end of the competition but with Craig having to start -3 against fearless Jaspal Bamotra it was an early exit from the first side of the draw for the Ipswich Professional.
Finlay Laing's first match was against ever improving Wayne Rooke, Finlay played some top 9ball to take a big 6v1 lead but Wayne was in a battling mood to take it to hill-hill. Wayne had a chance in the final rack but in his words he chopped a ball and left the match there for Finlay. Masato drew one of Total9balls top amateur players in Ramesh Gokhul and was on the receiving end of a 7v3 result.
In the other half of the draw as mentioned earlier matches were race to 3 shoot-out style with shock results expected. Total9ball Amateur series event 4 winner beat Luke Rollison 3v0 with the aid of a golden break and local talent Dan Lim setup a battle of the brothers in round two by beating Finlay Laing 3v1. Phil Wildman achieved a 3v1 victory over Greg Jansz and Masato showed class, like his Kamui product, to advance 3v1 at the expense of Paul Summerfield.
It was at this point of the day when the fun began with a rebuy break dish comp. Players had to make a legal break and clear the balls 1 through to 9 to enter the winners circle. After 28 total attempts only 4 players succeeded and those players were Craig Osborne, Luke Rollison, Mark Parker and Phil Wildman. The 4 players continued until only one player broke dished, that player was Luke Rollison from Chichester and he collected the £56 pot which was a good prize as Luke only invested £2. The last special event of the day was speed pool and it was sure to get the players adrenaline going. This was run as a Knock-out competition, two tables at the same time, two players charging round trying to pot their balls before their opponent. So here were the rules both players break the 15 balls and matches began after a count of 3,2,1 go. Players could play shots while the balls were still moving, but a foul would give an immediate 5 second penalty. All players gathered around the tables and produced a brilliant and loud atmosphere. The speed pool event won ,believe it or not, by Heavyweight Phil Wildman, Phil's final ball was potted about a second before runner up Craig Osborne's.
Watch the T9B Speed Pool Final - it's hilarious!
Back to the main event and we will pick it up from where there were just eight players left across the two events all, of whom were now in the prize money.
New player to T9B John Egan showed he was a good cueist beating probably Total9balls most improved player Tom Staveley 7v6 while Phil Wildman was clearly continuing his fine form from the T9B Grand Finals the previous weekend to run out a 7v3 winner against Ramesh Gokhul. The race to 3 side matches saw Craig Osborne prevail 3v1 against another new face with a talent Filip Krawczyk. Courtney Symons also won by the same score against Phil Wildman.
The Semi Final line up with results is below:-
Phil Wildman -2 7v4 John Egan Courtney Symons 3v2 Craig Osborne
It had been a very long day with all sorts of varieties of pool played. The finalists Courtney and Phil decided to chop up the prize money and both go home winners. The split worked out at £170 each which was a great reward for just a £10 entry fee. The semi finalists Craig and John picked up £40 each and the quarter finalists Filip Krawczyk, Phil Wildman, Ramesh Gokhul, and Tom Staveley collected £15 each.
Watch Craig Osborne and Courtney Symons in the Semi-Final Race to 3 event.
This really was a great way to end a impressive year for T9B. It's clear that Total9ball had become a driving force in UK 9Ball and we seem to be getting bigger and bigger with each event. It's brilliant to see new faces regularly at T9B events and with the new National Series beginning in February 2013 the future really is looking bright for us and UK pool.
Thanks to St Albans Hurricane Rooms for all there continued support and to all the players who attend our events and to Nicole who helps the events to run smoothly on the day.
Nicole and myself would now like to take this time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Finally... Come on Europe in the Mosconi Cup beginning on Monday get the job done guys.
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