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The Road to St Albans - Event 4 from Total9Ball
Hurricane Room
10 Corporation Street,
High Wycombe
Bucks
HP13 6TQ
Tel: 01494 444228
www.hurricaneroom.co.uk
www.total9ball.com

Sunday 30 November 2014

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Clements take his first Total9ball Title

Total9Ball held its 4th and final Sunday Goldens event on Sunday 30th November at the spectacular Hurricane Room venue in High Wycombe. 22 players took to the tables all hoping to reach the Semi Finals to bag themselves a seeded spot at the Grand Finals held in St Albans in two weeks� time (Sunday 14th Dec). There was also prize money awarded on the day, a beautiful glass T9B trophy and the prestige of winning a Total9Ball title.

This event was thrown completely open with some of the big guns missing, Courtney Symons, Craig Osborne and Shaun Storry. Who would hit top form and produce the goods at this event?

The format used was group stages into straight knock-out. 22 players were split into two groups of 11, with each player competing in three, race to seven group stage matches. The top six players from each group would advance to the knockout stage. The top two players from each group would be seeded into the Quarter Final stage with the next four players in each group playing off to reach the Quarter Final (prize money) stage.

Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.

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Matches began at 10.45am, Dominic Clements made a long 4.30 hour trip from Cornwall with Robin Cripps, would such a long trip fatigue their performances? The answer... Absolutely not, both players completed the group stages with a 100% win record. Dominic looked to be playing very well and he didn�t make a slow start on the newly re-clothed tables as he produced some good winning results 7v2 (John Beesley), 7v5 (Mark Foster) and 7v2 (Wayne Rooke) saw Clements top group B. Robin Cripps also recorded three straight wins in Group A. Robin�s day started with an impressive and confidents boosting 7v4 victory over Tom Staveley, this was followed by a 7v5 winning score line against Brian Cassidy and finally a 7v3 drubbing of Vesilin Paprandonov secured Cripps a space in the knock-out stages but unfortunately for Robin he would have to settle for a non-seeded spot as Del Sim and Phil Wildman with the aid of a bye both completed the group stage with a slightly better rack difference. Del was on fire, as his girlfriend over from New York looked on� perhaps this is what Del needs to get himself motivated. Del took out Tom Staveley and Richard Fullwell both 7v2. Phil Wildman seemed to hit the ground running as a played a good first match beating Joe Granville 7v0 this was followed by a 7v4 victory over High Wycombe Legend Richard Fullwell. Jason Rosser and Ashik Nathwani also qualified through with 100% win records, Jason with wins against Richard Fullwell 7v4, Joe Granville 7v2 and Dale Cadet 7v3. While Ashik defeated Mark Parker 7v5, Jazz Bamotra 7v6 and Danny Johnson 7v4. Dale Cadet progressed to the knock-out stages with two out of three match wins as he reported impressive wins of 7v1 (Brian Cassidy) and 7v4 (Veslin Paprandonov). It was great to see Steve Chick competing in his first ever 10ball event and nice to see him Qualify through his group, Steve defeated Wayne Rooke 7v6 and was aided by a bye. Veslin Paprandonov squeezed through with just one win. Jamie Bryan and Mark Parker where locked on the same points and therefore were forced into a deadly one rack shoot-out to decide who would advance. Mark produce a nice clearance under pressure to book the final space in the Knock-out rounds. The event at this stage lost two of the pre-tournament favourites with both Brian Cassidy and Tom Staveley not making it through.

Ok so at this stage in the event it was time for the side games, 17 players participated in the one rack shoot-out, a straight knock-out draw was made. All prize money paid in was paid out and therefore the winner would receive �60 and the runner up �25. The Final was contested between Mark Foster and Phil Wildman. Phil played a weak safety shot and left Mark a long pot, Mark took this on and hit the heart of the pocket and cleared the table to take this events shoot-out title.

Next up the Break Dish. After raffle tickets were sold the total pot was up to �400 that was broken down to �30 a ball with a �100 bonus for the clearance. The draw was completed by a non-player who drew Phil Wildman to step up. Unfortunately Phil made a dry break and the opportunity was gone. The final player to make an attempt was Rich Fullwell, he smashed the break making a ball in a side pocket. Richard decided to continue with a thin cut but this shot was missed� therefore the prize pot rolls over to the Grand Final held at St Albans on Sunday 14th December.

So back to the main event in which 12 players still remained. The four seeded players waited for players to qualify through to play them, the draw looked like this:-

Dale Cadet 6                                                                 Ashik Nathwani

         V                                                To Play

Veslin Papradonov 7

Robin Cripps 7                                                             Phil WIldman

         V                                             To Play

Lionel Brown 3

Mark Parker 7                                                             Del Sim

         V                                             To Play

Steve Chick 1

Mark Foster 7                                                             Dominic Clements

         V                                             To Play

Jason Rosser 5

So the final 8 players involved in this event all looked very confident. Dominic Clements was involved in the match of the round against Mark Foster. Mark was looking to reverse the earlier result between the two players and looked like doing so as he raced into a 6v2 lead. From this point what happened was nothing short of a miracle. Dominic took to the table knowing any mistakes from this point could be his last. Pot by pot Dominic�s rack score increased. For three racks Dom played mistake free pool to make the score 5v6. In the 12th Rack Clements went in off with just four balls remaining. Mark by this point didn�t look so confident as he watched his lead dwindle away. Around 15 to 20 people watched this exciting climax to this match. Mark did all the hard work and with just the 10ball remaining surely this match was over. Mark drops the 10ball but to his disgust he lost control of the cue ball and scratched� The drama... 6v6 a hill-hill battle ahead. Mark had the break but broke dry. After a long safety exchange Dominic was given the chance to clinch this dramatic match and he made sure of every pot to move into the Semi Finals. This can only be related to for football fans Liverpool vs Ac Milan Champions League Final and for darts fans James Wade vs Mervin King. A truly brilliant match full of excitement. Unlucky to Mark Foster as I believe both players deserved to win.

Robin Cripps played near faultless pool as he knocked Phil Wildman out of the event 7v2. Robin raced into a 5v0 lead and Phil just wasn�t given the chance to even get involved in this match. Well played Robin. Del Sim impressed just as much as he did in the group stages as he took out Mark Parker 7v4 and Ashik Nathwani showed off his A game against Veslin Paprandonov winning 7v2.

The Semi Final saw Dominic Clements take on Del Sim. Del look drained and tired whereas Dominic looked full of beans and ready for action. Del only managed to convert one opportunity in one rack whereas Dominic capitalised seven times. End result 7v1. Ashik Nathwani was the player standing in the way of an all Cornwall final. Ashik took a cool 5v1 lead but brave Cripps made a comeback to level at 5v5, unfortunately for Robin, Ashik sparked back into form and took the match 7v5.

After a long day of play the Final was upon us. Clements vs Nathwani. It was Clements who controlled the early stages of the match as he went 3v0 up, Ash fought back and levelled at 3v3. Dominic wasn�t to be denied though and went on to become Event 4 Sunday Golden Champion by 7 racks to 4

A massive well done to Dominic Clements, a fantastic win for the Penzance potter, there was times were it looked unlikely or in fact almost impossible for Dom to win this event but he showed true grit and determination and got the job done. Have always thought Clements was a class player just perhaps in need of a good result or a confidence boost� we can safely say this was a great result. We hope the confidence gained from this event win will help Dom achieve the results he deserves in other events and hope to see him back at a Total9ball event soon. I feel Dominic deserved the win as in between matches he was the only player tweaking his game on the practice table and you could see the determination in his eyes throughout the event. Well Done Dom and enjoy the win.

Another brilliant tournament held at High Wycombe Hurricane Room. We are always so well looked after here. Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event and continuing the sponsorship deal for the 2015 season. Thanks to Kim Rowlett for minding the desk and keeping the event running smoothly. To Mark for taking the photos and also to all the players who travelled many miles to compete in this event.

The season is now just a few events away from completion, We still have The Amateur Series Grand Final (St Albans Saturday 6th December) The T9B Christmas special event (St Albans Saturday 13th December) and The Sunday Series Grand Final (Sunday 14th December)

Also the dates for T9B 2015 season have now been released and are available at www.total9ball.com our new website. Membership for next season is still available for �25, being a member saves players �5 per event attended on entry fees, so start saving now.

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