Rileys American Pool & Snooker Stretford
Stretford Arndale Centre
Chester Road, Stretford
MANCHESTER
Greater Manchester
M32 9BD
Tel: 0161 865 8123
Fax: 0161 865 8123
www.empirepooltour.com
View the current rankings at the EPT website
www.rileysltd.com
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Saturday/Sunday 17-18 June 2006
Mark Gray before the final of The Manchester 8-Ball open.
A short interview with Mark Gray
The matches are at set times so it's easy to grab a player between matches and have a chat, I saw my chance and nabbed Mark Gray after his semi-final match match with Rico Diks. Here's what he had to say when I asked him the classic opening question about how he feels now that he's in the final?
"I'm pretty surprised really, I've not really played 8-ball much, although saying that, I played once before and won the tournament at St. Albans so obviously it's more my game than 9-Ball I reckon. Rico's a great player and that's a superb result for me."
Click on "Read More..." for the details.
"I'm very pleased really, I just came here hoping to win a couple of matches, so obviously to get to the final AND win an IPT qualifier place is great, more than I could hope for really."
Can you win this final?
"Well, I've beat Daryl Peach and Rico Diks, I'm not sure who I've got in the final, but obviously I'm in with a chance."
What if I say you're playing Darren Appleton?
"Oh, well... You know. Another tough player - as they all are - but they've all got to be beat so you've got to try."
How happy are you about this new EPT tour starting up>
"Yeah, it's very good because obviously in this country the American disciplines are not as popular as other cue sports in this country. Obviously we've got a good 9-ball tour run by Ted (Bristow) from the BPPPA, it could do with a little more finance in it but I'm sure Ted's working on it. So to have another tour like this 8-ball tour, the EPT, and with Mark Segal putting the money in it's great, it encourages the players to play a bit more, and gets us used to the American sports a bit more so hopefully we can cane the Yanks in the future!"
8-ball or 9-ball?
"I think for TV, 9-ball is probably slightly more attractive because it's quicker and the rules are a lot more straight forward, but I think 8-ball has a lot of skill in it as well, so it depends on your preference. Personally I'm loving them both at the moment!"
Have you been to any IPT qualifiers yet?
"I've not played in any, I'm looking into that further down the line, hopefully within six to twelve months, maybe I'll get there sooner than I think!"
With regard to the EPT, the Empire Pool Tour, what do you think they have got right, and what do you think they have got wrong?
"Obviously it's the better prize money which encourages more players to come from further afield, it's good to see some of the Europeans here, and hopefully Nick van den Berg said he will be coming over from Holland too, it's just unfortunate that he's busy at the World Masters this week otherwise he would have been here too. So it encourages the overseas players to come over and it's nice to see them come over here as we're always going overseas to see them on the 9-ball Euro Tour."
Do you think the EPT could do anything better?
"Well it's been run well today, obviously it's the first event that's been run and you have a few little hiccups, but on the whole I think it's gone well and you can tell it's only going to get better and better for the future."
Darren Appleton before the final of The Manchester 8-Ball open.
A short interview with Darren Appleton
I'm especially pleased to get an interview with Darren Appleton as I've been carping on about how good English pool players are at the American style game, and trying to convert them to the big ball game for years, but that was 9-ball, and it has taken the IPT and American 8-ball to arouse their interest, but at least they're coming on-board now!
After explaining the above to Darren he immediately drops the bombshell...
"8-ball is better on American tables than it is on our 7 foot reds and yellows tables!"
Wooh errrr, can I quote you saying that?
"Yeah, definitely."
Great! Congratulations on getting a spot on the IPT tour, that's a terrific result, how pleased are you about that?
"Oh, chuffed to bits!"
"I applied for the IPT last August, and I found out in September that I got accepted onto the tour, so it's been a massive wait, I've been waiting to play for about 8 months now and I'm just really looking forward to playing."
"It's really exciting but I started playing American pool, more or less full time, around September/October last year and I've played in quite a lot of tournaments, mainly 9-ball pool. But the last two months I've been mixing both English pool and American pool."
"I've just got beat in the (final) of the World Championships for English pool and that's basically me finished with that game now (apart from future World Championship events) - I will dedicate myself to American pool now, practice every day for the IPT and I'm really looking forward to it."
How important is the IPT to the growth of this sport?
"Well you can see now, that Daryl has set a tour up and to be fair , it's going really well and I thinks it's going to really grow."
"I think you're going to see a lot of English 8-ball players, especially at the next event, and I think eventually, I'd say that 75% of English 8-Ball players are definitely going to switch codes and start playing American 8-Ball, because people are starting to realise that the IPT IS happening, it IS great, it's massive, and it's only good for the sport, and players now have the opportunity to make a proper living."
How are you enjoying this tournament? How far do you think you can go in it?
"I didn't get back from Blackpool from the World Championships of English pool until Friday and I was really tired and drained."
"Yesterday I was thinking shall I go or not? But I just said well... I've paid up and I really need to start playing."
"Obviously I'm very pleased to be here, I've not played great but I've just battled along, I'm in the quarter final - I think I play the winner of Carl Morris's match."
"Obviously I think I CAN win it but I know I've got to play better!"
Are you enjoying this tour and do you think it's going to be good for the industry?
"I was speaking to Daryl yesterday and I think he said that he's hoping the money's going to go up for the next event. I think he got about 68 runners for the first tournament, which is pretty good, but I really believe he's going to get a lot more players in the future. I think it's really going to grow. I definitely believe in 6 months it's going to be the best tour in England."
"It's very good match practice for the players like me and Daryl and the rest, Pat Holtz, Carl Morris and players that are on the IPT."