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T9B UK Open Championship 2013
Mickey Flynns American Pool
103 Mill Road
Cambridge
CB1 2AZ
Tel: 01223 309 000
www.mickeyflynns.co.uk
www.t9b.co.uk
www.ustream.tv/channel/cuestreamuk
Watch the live streaming video and chat about the match here!

Saturday 6 April 2013

The Total 9 Ball UK Open Champion 2013 - Mark Gray.
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Mark Gray Rules at T9B UK Championship

Mickey Flynns Cambridge played great hosts for the T9B UK Championship on Saturday 6th April 2013. 24 players entered this new prestigious event to the 9ball calendar. The unbeatable T9B 2x format was used but there were a few elements that made this event different from the rest, for the first time ever T9B used winner breaks but also a break box. It was decided by the players that the balls were breaking too easily on the new cloths at the Cambridge club on Mill Road from the wing, therefore the break box was introduced.

The club was set-up late on Friday night by Ricardo Jones, each table was cleaned and fully equipped with a set of Aramith Match balls, a scoreboard and an Ultimate Breakmaster Rack. Union Jack flags were hung between the tables and Kamui posters surrounded the main stream table... The venue looked amazing.

Mickey Flynns is perfect to watch great 9ball as the bar area is raised and over looks the tables. Even though Richard had be up very late setting up the club he wasn�t going to let the players down, after just a few hours sleep Jones was back at the club cooking the Bacon rolls for when the players arrived.

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Union Jacks proudly flying over the tables at the T9B UK Championships.
Matches began a little behind schedule at around 10.45am on Saturday morning but boy did we have some great encounters to start with... Shaun Chipperfield defeated Luke Rollison 7v5. Chris Buckmaster advanced 7v6 against Finlay Laing, Richard Twomey started the event very well with a quick 7v4 win against Mark Gray and Courtney Symons v Craig Osborne was the first match on the Live stream, this match ended in a great 7v6 win for Symons.

The standard of players at this event was of a very high level and it was great to have such a high calibre of players under one roof at a T9B event.

Lee Rigby produced the result of round two, defeating Rich Twomey 7v3, Lee had been up nearly all night the evening before this event, streaming the 5K per man money match between Elliott Sanderson v Martin Chapman in Keighley, I believe tiredness showed as Lee lost his next two matches to Phil Wildman and Shakz Islam.

Shaun Chipperfield recorded two good wins in round two, defeating So Shaw 7v1 and T9B Amateur Champion 2012 Jonathan Vaughan 7v6 from 6v3 down, Shaun is relatively new to the game of 9ball I believe in his second full season and is the only ever amateur player to win a GB9 Main Event which is an amazing achievement for the Ipswich potter.

There were some shock results coming back to the tournament desk as Shakz Islam made good use of his large handicap to beat Craig Osborne 7v3, Rattapol Sassmann also made good use of his handicap head start as he defeated Courtney Symons 7v5, Jamie Bryan recorded his first break dish of the event at Hill-Hill to defeat T9B founder Phil Wildman 7v6, Jonathan Vaughan achieved a fantastic performance to defeat the current UK number one Imran Majid 7v4, Tom Staveley showed he is currently in good form beating Chris Buckmaster 7v6 but then ran into Mark Gray in the other side of the draw, Gray lost his first match so this was a must win match against Staveley to keep his tournament alive and kicking, Gray played some solid pool and ran out a 7v4 winner.

At the last 16 stage there were just 2 players still left in the event twice Richard Jones and Shaun Chipperfield... Could we have our first undefeated player? Would one player scoop both the Winners and Runners Up money and trophies? I can tell you that it was this round were these two players hopes were dashed as both players recorded one win and one loss. Jones battled hard to beat Jamie Bryan 7v5 from I believe 5v0 down but then couldn't get going on the stream table as he was bashed 7v3 by Phil Wildman. Shaun Chipperfield edged out Jonathan Vaughan 7v6 from 6v2 down but again the same as Richard couldn't get going on the stream table as he was beaten convincingly 7v3 by Tom Staveley. Mark Gray knocked out Leicester's Tem Dixon 7v4 and was just in time to sit back and enjoy the Grand National.

On the subject of the Grand National although Craig Osborne suffered a surprising first round exit from both sides of the draw, he did however win over �400 on the country's most famous horse race - so not all bad, anyway back to where the action was really hot - Mickey Flynns. Richard Jones again swapped his cue for the chef's apron as he was out the back doing a BBQ for the players, burgers and hot dogs were given out to the players as we had a short break. The matches again commenced and it was still clear that the break box was causing many players a problem as sinking balls from the break was very tough. Mark Gray eliminated Shaun Chipperfield 7v5 wow Rich Twomey blew Phil Wildman away 7v1. Rich seemed to be the only player who was consistently getting balls from the break and running racks. Richard Jones battled through against Tom Staveley 7v5 this was a tough match for Richard 'The Chef' Jones as he had to begin -4 racks.

On to the Semi Finals and the line up included 3 professional 9ballers... Imran Majid, Mark Gray and Richard Jones, and one of the country's best English pool players, Rich Twomey, so you know the action was gonna be smoking hot, both matches were streamed and available along with all the other streamed matches here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cuestreamuk.

First up Twomey v Gray and it was Rich who had the upper hand for most of the match and he had a great opportunity to book his place in the Final leading 7v6 in a race to 8 but while stretching over the 9ball missed what looked a relatively straight forward 7ball... He thought he got lucky though as he hooked the 7ball behind the 8ball but Gray produced the shot of the day as he kicked off the top rail combo the 7ball into the 8 which then traveled I'd say 4 foot to combo in the 9ball to keep his hopes alive. Mark then sunk the 9ball at hill-hill to book his place in the Final and his first at a T9B event.

Watch the semi-final (above) featuring Richard Jones vs. Imran Majid.
The second semi final involved the ever consistent Imran Majid and the local hero Richard Jones, this was a fantastic match which had it all and the atmosphere in the club was electric as the drinks flowed across the bar the music was loud the girls were dancing and I'd say between 50 and 80 locals looked on as their man Richard Jones battled with Imran Majid, Rich missed a few crucial balls which allowed Imran to lead 6v4, Richard Jones though was spurred on by his supporters and battled back to take the match 7v6 the stream is well worth a watch as Jones sinks the final 9ball the roof was lifted off the club by a loud roar from his supporters and the party atmosphere was raised a few notches if that was possible.

Watch the final (above) featuring Mark Gray vs. Richard Jones.
The Finalists Mark Gray and Richard Jones decided to reduce the final to a race to 5, the players are good friends off the table so they split up their prize money but even though there was no extra money at stake you could tell they both wanted to win this event so badly and become UK Champion. Mark 'The Granite' Gray ended up the 5v4 victor and was announced T9B UK Champion. Well done to both players a good achievement to be Winner and Runner up of such a high standard event. I bet Mark didn't expect to be the winner after a defeat in his first match of the day but then again maybe that helped as it's such a tiring long day if you go far in both halves of the draw.

Thanks to Mickey Flynns and Richard Jones for being such fantastic hosts, Thanks to Lee Rigby for setting up the stream this adds so much to our events and myself, Nicole and all the players really appreciate his hard work not just for our event on Saturday but for the overall mass of work he does for UK 9ball. Thanks to Dave Knight for attending and bring The Pro Shop once again Dave shows a massive commitment to all T9B event no matter how far he has to travel to be there. Thanks to Nicole Hansen for again keeping the event running smoothly and proving she is a top tournament director. Thanks to our sponsors Kamui, Sanctuary Cues and Ultimate Breakmaster and thanks to the players who supported this event.

The Next T9B event will be held at St Albans Hurricane Room on the 27th April this event will be the Amateur 2x Series event 3 there is a thread for this event on www.pro9.co.uk now, these events are always well supported and great value for money so get your names down now and get involved in this event.

Players support is really appreciated... We spend many hours organising and promoting our events and we really need the players support to make our event successful, The events we run are trying to keep the game of 9ball alive and we do it because we love game. T9B and GB9 needs player support so we can show what we can do and it's your job as players to support these events when and where you can and be ambassadors for the game by promoting to fellow players.

T9B are now in the process of planning an Amateur 10ball UK Championships to be held at Mickey Flynns Cambridge, all details will be realised in the next few days.

Hope you all enjoyed the Total 9 Ball UK Championships and more of our future events.

The really luscious trophies for winner and runner-up!

The happiest two finalists on the planet - local heroes Richard Jones & Mark Gray.
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Click the image to view the larger poster - use "back" to return here.

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