The cracking trophy on offer at the T9B National Series - Event 2
The Wealdstone Of Oz
The 16th of March saw Total9ball’s The National Undefeated Series head to the country's capital with Event Two being held in Wealdstone Riley’s, London. There were some great talents on show including Craig Osborne, Imran Majid, Kev Uzzell, Mark Gray and Richard Jones to name a few. It was an early start for tournament director Nicole Hansen and myself setting off from Reading at 7am.
Matches began at 10.30am after the draw was completed by Paul McMichael, was today going to be the day that we got our first Undefeated player? All players knew the task ahead... Win 8 straight matches to collect the Winners and Runners Up prize money plus the ‘The Undefeated Jackpot’ totaling £850, which is a nice day's work by anybody’s standards.
Paul, who completed the draw, pitted friends against each other as early as the first round drawing Courtney Symons against traveling companion Finlay Laing and Richard Jones against Mark Gray. Courtney and Mark both booked their places in the second round with convincing wins. T9B National Series Event 1 Winner Craig Osborne began his defence against Jermaine Pierre, Craig looked as focused as ever winning 7-1 and you could tell he was in Wealdstone to get the job done and take the beautiful Total9ball glass trophy home along with a large chunk of the Prize money but would it be the Jackpot?
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Richard Twomey made the trip with Craig Osborne and he didn’t disappoint in his first T9B event reaching the Quarter Final stage, picking up £60 for his troubles. Tom Staveley was unlucky to lose his two matches on the hill first against T9B founder Phil Wildman and second to the talented Kev Uzzell. Shakz Islam collected his first T9B prize money beating Paul McMichael 7v6 to also reach the Quarter Final Stage. Aslam Abubaker continued his fine T9B form gaining a few good results defeating Phil Wildman and Richard Twomey before he was eliminated by Craig Osborne in a close match, Aslam is one of the top disabled players in the country and it's great to watch him play.
Moving on to the later stages of the tournament let's pick it up from the Quarter Final draw below.
Craig Osborne v Mark Gray Imran Majid v Courtney Symons Craig Osborne v Shakz Islam David Walsh v Richard Twomey
It was in this round where the standard really began to pick up with the Winning Line in sight. After the first 8 racks of the Craig Osborne v Mark Gray match it was clear that both players must have been practicing cleaning the dishes last night as the first 8 racks were all break dishes. Craig ended up a 7v6 Winner in this match but Gray was left shocked as he broke dished all 6 of his breaks and still didn’t get the win.
"How is that not good enough", Gray commented after the match.
Craig followed this result with a 7-0 against Shakz Islam and was therefore only two wins away from being the first ever T9B Undefeated player. Imran Majid made few mistakes gaining a 7v2 win over Courtney Symons while David Walsh produced some of his old form beating Rich Twomey 7v4.
At the Semi stage we were down to the one table situation. First up Osborne v Walsh, Dave kept up with a surely tiring Osborne but couldn’t convert an opportunity to take the match to Hill-Hill leaving Craig to mop up and book his place in the Final.
Craig after a 10 minute or so break took to the table needing one more result to scoop the £850 Jackpot and create Total9ball history by being the first to win the event both sides however it was the UK number one Imran Majid standing in his way. This match was recorded and is defiantly worth a view. If you don’t want to know the result please stop reading now.
Craig looked drained missing a few balls in the opening few racks and Imran looked focused taking a 4v1 lead. Craig showed a great heart of fighting spirit to turn the game around and lead 5v4. Imran replied so the score was now 5v5, now it was a race to 2. Imran calmly and precisely sinks the 9balls to lead 6v5. in the 12th rack Imran potted a couple of fantastic balls gaining excellent position but just when he looked to have done all the hard work he over stunned a shot with the rest and hooked himself. Imran fouled and Craig was back in business 6-6 (Hill-Hill) after breaking so well through-out the event this wasn’t about to change as Osborne thundered into the pack of 9balls sinking two balls and ending in not to bad shape on the one ball. Craig continues effortlessly potting the balls four, five and six - this guy is relentless but then lands straight on the seven... He pots the seven and draws back to land on the eight ball but again he was straight. All Craig could do is drop in the eight and leave a tough long pressure 9ball worth an extra £400. He gets down and cues the white... The tension builds... He contacts the white cleanly but the 9ball rattles and hangs leaving Imran the match.
Wow what a match, the most exciting I have seen for a while. I think we can safely say nobody can come closer without winning the Jackpot but what a gallant attempt by Craig Osborne.
This meant that the two players would have to play again in the Final. Craig and Imran decided to split up the prize money and play a one rack shootout for the Glass trophy. Craig held in his disappointment to win the rack and complete his second T9B National Undefeated Series win.
Hard luck to Craig on the Jackpot great attempt, although you didn’t do it you’re a class act and showed the mental strength that you have to not let the disappointment take over.
Thanks to Nicole Hansen for again keeping the matches flowing throughout the day and to Dave Knight for bringing the Pro Shop to the event and for taking some excellent action photos. Also to the players who completed great to see you all.
The Next event will be held at Escape in Barnsley on the 4th and 5th May, this is one of the best clubs in the country with good facilities and we hope to see you all in Yorkshire as the Jackpot rolls up to £300 on top of the event's prize money.
Some feedback was given by the players and this has been noted. There may be a venue change so we can offer the best club tables, this will be announced as soon as possible.
Over and Out
Total 9 Ball National Series Event 2 Champion - Craig Osborne
Imran Majid
The sea of tables at Rileys Wealdstone
Phil Wildman at the tournament desk
Richard Twomey
Shakz Islam
T9B sponsor product the Ultimate Breakmaster 9 Ball Template in action!
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