Tony Drago at the T9B event in Solihull as the tour rolls out it's national open series.
Stars come out for Solihull T9B National Series Event 1
Total9Ball rolled out Event One of it's National Series held at Solihull Rileys over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of February. This was the first event of six to be played around the country with the Final event being held in Leicester on the 14th and 15th September.
The field of players was rammed full of talent, Craig Osborne, Karl Boyes, Mark Gray and Tony Drago to name a few and personally I was so proud to have some many big names at an event of mine. Over the past three years Total9Ball has built up a reputation for running the best amateur series in the UK. We have now expanded to offer all players some action with this National Open Series and the new season of the Amateur Series which begins next Saturday (9th February at St Albans Hurricane Room).
38 players joined us at Solihull Rileys for Event one for this fantastic new National Series sponsored by Kamui and it was great to see so many new faces. All players were entered into the draw twice giving each player a minimum of two matches and also two chances to get into the prize money round. This format is called double chance 'The Undefeated' it was designed by Phil Wildman founder of Total9Ball. The feedback since this was created has been amazing and to hear top players such as Mark Gray and Richard Jones from the British Pool Federation say it's the best format in the UK was fantastic.
Tony Drago is delighted with his new pool cue made by Germany's Thomas Gollowitsch.
The club in Solihull had planned to have their tables re-clothed in January but due to the adverse weather conditions it was delayed until 4 days after this event was held which was a massive shame but the players seemed to make the best of the conditions we had available.
The matches began at 12.20 on Saturday with the first eight of the 12 planned preliminary round matches. The very first result was unexpected with James Welch (0) defeating UK number one Imran Majid (-4) 9-3 handicaps in the brackets. This a great win for James a regular at the T9B Amateur Series. Aslam Abubaker (0) showed he has the bottle during a tense hill-hill decider as he beat Stewart Colclough (-4) 9-8, talented Tem Dixon (-1) making his Total9ball debut started off great guns by beating Tony Fry (-1) 9-1 and there was also an all professional match in this round with Karl Boyes (Blackpool) coming out on top 9-7 over Richard Jones (Cambridge).
We now move into the first round proper with all players still involved within the event some with two chances and some with just one chance left to impress. Tony 'The Tornado' Drago (-4) had mixed fortunes of the hill-hill situation he beat Mark Gray (-4) 9-8 but lost by the same scoreline to Total9Ball art worker Mark Parker (0). An excellent result for Parker who won his first Total9Ball event in 2012. I predicted before a ball was hit that the winner would be Daryn Walker (-4)... He had a battle on his hands against Ramesh 'G Force' Gokhul (-2) running out a 9-8 winner. A quarter of the results in the round of 64 ended 9-8 showing the handicap system is almost nailed on. Tom 'The Disher' Donlon (-3) began the event very well with winning results of 9-1 and 9-2 over So Shaw (-3) and Tony Oscroft (+2). James Welch (0) fortunes in the draw didn’t get any better his reward for defeating Imran Majid (-4) was a match with Daryl Peach (-4). Welch battled hard but ended up on the wrong side of a 9-8 scoreline and I bet Welch couldn’t believe his luck to draw another professional Richard Jones (-4) in the other half of the draw, again a very close match with Jones edging Welch out of the event 9-7.
Day One of the T9B National Series drew to a close at about 10pm with the final results of the day being a fantastic win for in form Benji Buckley (-2) over Tony Drago (-4) 9-8 and another 9-8 result as James Kay confirmed he would return to play on the Sunday beating Daryl Peach.
Sunday's matches started at 11.30am, and there were two players still with both chances remaining. Those players were Craig Osborne and Karl Boyes, so what better way to start Sunday's proceedings than Craig vs Karl. Craig looked to have hit somewhere near top gear as he defeated Karl 9-2. This result meant Osborne had got the furthest in both sides of the draw and would pick up two lots of prize money. Mark Gray (-4) took his chances against local talent Kris Kovacs (0) winning 9-6, Jamie Bryan (+1) came up just short after being ahead for the whole match against James Kay (-4) losing 9-8, still a good result to run Mr Kay so close for Jamie who is currently suffering with a back injury. Aslam (0) produced the result of the round again holding his nerve to send Daryl Peach (-4) home 9-8.
Could Craig (-4) become the first ever Undefeated player? Next up was Benji Buckley (-2). This match also ended up going all the way to hill-hill but who won the all crucial final rack? There were a few missed balls and many safety shots but it was Buckley who held his nerve and sunk the final 9ball to advance to the Semi Finals.
The Semi Final line up was very strong as Daryn Walker (-4) booked his place in the Final but only by the slimmest margin, yes you guessed it 9-8 over Buckley(-2). The other Semi Final wasn’t as close between Gray and Osborne with Craig winning 7-0 (both players agreed to the shorter distance match) Unfortunately Gray had a lengthy wait before this match as Craig was involved still in both sides of the draw but take nothing away from Osborne it's still a great result.
So the Final was between Craig Osborne and Daryn Walker - again both players agreed to the shorter race to 7 racks. The match seemed to be over in a really short space of time as Craig converted a 7-4 win. Both players showed how talented they were during the competition but perhaps the Final was won by the consistency of Craig's break.
So there you have it - Event One Winner is Craig Osborne. Watching Craig play is like poetry in motion and considering Craig works full time and practices very little it's an amazing achievement for him to keep producing result after result like he does. Daryn Walker also deserves a lot of credit as he lost his very first match and battled through with his second chance all the way to the Final. Craig and Daryn are both top guys and I thank them and everyone else for your feedback in regards to the competition.
I would like to thank all the players who supported this event without your support there is no competition also thanks to Nicole for running the tournament desk very well for a total or nearly 20 hours and to our sponsors Kamui. It was also great to have Dave Knight from www.pro9.co.uk with us and his Pro Shop. Thanks to Rileys for the use of the club's facilities and to the staff who coped really well with all the extra people in the club.
So Event One is over and we look forward to Event Two due to be held in Wealdstone on the 16th and 17th March. There will be a few changes made to make these events run better.
1. Earlier start times both days.
2. Shorter matches from 9 to 7 bearing in mind there is the handicap on top of the race to 7.
3. Prize money to begin a round earlier even if it's just a small amount.
4. A club inspection to take place at each club to check conditions are high enough.
5. Match Balls and Scoreboards to be provided by T9B for each table.
6. More accurate match start times and less delays throughout the event.
Total 9 Ball National Series Event 1 Mark Gray vs. Tommy Donlon.
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