Pro9 - Europe's No.1 Pool Player Resource

GB9 Ball Tour London Classic
Rileys American Pool and Snooker - Wealdstone
35-43 High Street
Harrow
Wealdstone
Middlesex
HA3 5DE
Telephone: 020 8863 3705
www.gb9balltour.com
www.rileysltd.com
Over 120 photos from this event - AVAILABLE NOW!!!

Sunday 1 June 2008

2008 GB9 London Classic Champion Imran Majid (left),
presented with his trophy by Pete Williams, Director of CueSportTV
Imran Majid maintains unbeaten record at GB9 Ball Tour Main Event

After three days of play, with a full field of 128 elite quality players in the Main Event at the GB9 event in Harrow, Imran Majid has done the unthinkable and won for the third time in a row. It shouldn't be possible should it? There's too much luck needed in nine-ball to have a dominant champion isn't there?

Well... Apparently not, but the journey wasn't without hiccups, not least the final match which went hill-hill with both players missing the final nine ball once, after Majid left himself too straight on the eight to get good shape on the nine. He missed a long thin cut playing from near the rail, then Hundal missed the only shot available to him, a table length bank into the opposite corner pocket!

Both shots were very makeable, but nine ball is all about the pressure, and these were the hero shots, the ones that count, the "make or break" shots, the ones that nine ball is all about - these two shots made this the best GB9 final so far... After three days of play the title, the money, the ranking points, the glory - everything hung on this one last 21/4 inch yellow striped ball. Majid executed a perfect cut down the opposite rail to send the nine into oblivion and his star into orbit. Nine ball pool at it's best - absolutely thrilling!!!

"Read More" for details...

In an interview before the final Imran said, "Well I think to start off with I've got a big advantage playing on these tapped in conditions, I use a cut break and it works very well."

"Most of the time I'm getting a shot on the one and I'm never going to scratch, whereas other people are putting it down to luck to get a shot on the one ball and scratching a lot of times, you know hitting the ball hard and they don't really know where the cue ball is going sometimes so I think I'm three racks up before I start any match."

Three wins out of three tournaments and only six events in a season, is it too early to be mentioning the possibility of a Grand Slam? Well... Majid is already looking forward to the next GB9 event, the GB9 Yorkshire Cup to be held at the beautiful seaside town of Scarborough.

"The club looks very nice", he said!

2008 GB9 London Classic Runner-Up Raj Hundal (right),
presented with his cheque by Pete Williams, Director of CueSportTV

Action from the final of the 2008 GB9 London Classic

Raj Hundal in action at the 2008 GB9 London Classic

Jonathan Mathers in action at the 2008 GB9 London Classic

2008 GB9 London Classic player David Walsh in action

Valentine's Day Massacre

This is incredible... Six foot five inch Michael "The Yeti" Valentine - yes, a giant of a man with a giant-sized break was playing a match when the joint of his break cue failed. The shaft snapped off mid-break and fell noisily onto the bed of the table, but despite all the balls rolling all over the play-field, not one of them touched the shaft.

"The shaft went flying up in the air and the butt actually hit my chin, I didn't really know whether to hold my chin or go for the shaft", "I've never broken a break cue before and it was quite funny as Karl didn't get a foul from it as it never touched a ball".

A quick inspection of the SledgeHammer cue components revealed that the actual joint pin was completely obliterated and had sheared right off.

With the debris from the shaft not impeding the flow of any of the balls, Valentine was permitted to continue playing after removing the shaft from the table and proceeded to completely clear the table for a well earned, but expensive point.

Valentine's break is deceptive, it doesn't look like there's too much power going on, and it isn't an elaborate affair with a ton of follow-through either, but the give-away is if you listen to it.... A controlled, understated break that produces an ear-splitting crack every time the white hits the one ball.

THE STATS

THE GB9 LONDON CLASSIC
THE MAIN TOURNAMENT
THE LAST 32
Imran Majid	9 : 8	Paul Williams
Andy Appleton	9 : 6	Clark Smith
Neil Raybone	9 : 5	Paul Medati
Andy Barnett	9 : 8	Daryl Peach
Scott Higgins	9 : 6	James Kay
Tommy Donlon	9 : 8	Andrew Nicholson
Adam Clarke	9 : 7	Kevin Uzzell
Michael Valentine	9 : 8	Karl Boyes
Darren Appleton	9 : 4	Chris Cowie
Damian Massey	9 : 4	Gary Houstoun
Jonathan Mathers	9 : 5	Christopher Robson
Andy Worthington	9 : 5	Thomas Ainsworth-Smith
Mark Gray	9 : 1	Jason Howard
David Walsh	9 : 8	Adam Benn Smith
Pat Holtz	9 : 7	Tony Drago
Raj Hundal	9 : 2	Paul Edwards

THE GB9 LONDON CLASSIC
THE MAIN TOURNAMENT
THE LAST 16
Imran Majid	9 : 5	Andy Appleton
Andy Barnett	9 : 7	Neil Raybone
Tommy Donlon	9 : 7	Scott Higgins
Michael Valentine	9 : 6	Adam Clarke
Darren Appleton	9 : 3	Damian Massey
Jonathan Mathers	9 : 6	Andy Worthington
David Walsh	9 : 7	Mark Gray
Raj Hundal	9 : 8	Pat Holtz

THE GB9 LONDON CLASSIC
THE MAIN TOURNAMENT
THE QUARTER-FINALS
Imran Majid	9 : 3	Andy Barnett
Michael Valentine	9 : 4	Tommy Donlon
Darren Appleton	9 : 4	Jonathan Mathers
Raj Hundal	9 : 6	David Walsh

THE GB9 LONDON CLASSIC
THE MAIN TOURNAMENT
THE SEMI-FINALS
Imran Majid	9 : 4	Michael Valentine
Raj Hundal	9 : 8	Darren Appleton

THE GB9 LONDON CLASSIC
THE MAIN TOURNAMENT
THE FINAL
Imran Majid	11 : 10	Raj Hundal

Visit the official tour website: www.gb9balltour.com

The GB9 Ball Tour is sponsored by:

And the GB9 Ball Tour is promoted by:

The GB9 Tour, sponsored in it's inaugural year by Rileys Pool, Snooker and Poker Clubs, has drawn talent from the length and breadth of the country, who will be putting the final touches to their practice routines in readiness for what must be the toughest national tour in Europe.

The GB9 official match cloth is sponsored by Z9Billiard Cloth by Klaus Zobrekis, a new company with a new high tech cloth, designed after three years of intensive development, and aimed at the top end of the market for professional "worsted" pool/billiard cloth for American style tables.

Visit www.gb9balltour.com for more details.

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