Barceló Daventry Hotel
Sedgemoor Way
Daventry
Northamptonshire
NN11 0SG
United Kingdom
www.gb9balltour.com
Friday/Saturday/Sunday 5-7 August 2011
The playing arena at the Barcelo Daventry Hotel
2011 EVENT 3 - GB9 NORTHERN MASTERS
The GB 9 Ball Tour returns swiftly to the Barceló Hotel in Daventry in August for this season's Northern Masters - just seven weeks since the last action packed weekend took place. This event comes fresh off the back of the 2011 World 9-Ball Championship held in Doha, Qatar, which will go down in many people's books as one of the closest fought and most dramatic tournaments in years, perhaps ever. GB9 was well represented over in the middle-east, with some gutsy and often stunning pool guiding our players to some highly notable finishes.
The most prestigious competition in the 9-ball calendar contained no less than 6 current GB9 players; joining them also was former tour player and now United States resident Darren Appleton, all hoping to bring the world title home as Daryl Peach did four years ago. Expectations were high as Darren and Daryl, along with new British number 1 Imran Majid, and also Karl Boyes, Chris Melling, Mark Gray and Scott Higgins progressed through their respective group stage matches to make the round of 64. It was at this stage that Karl Boyes and Imran Majid bid farewell to the field, with last month's Paul Medati Trophy winner Chris Melling and Scott Higgins knocked out in the very next round. Next on their way home was Darren Appleton in the last 16, whereas Daryl Peach fell just two matches short of his second World Championship final, succumbing in the quarter-finals to eventual runner-up and reigning 8-Ball World Champion, Dennis Orcullo. Despite Mark Gray losing his status as British number 1 after last month's Paul Medati Trophy, he made a remarkable run to the semi-finals in Doha, dispatching the likes of Shane van Boening and his very own compatriot Chris Melling before being eliminated at the penultimate hurdle in a pulsating, ultimately heartbreaking, hill-hill encounter by the eventual winner, Yukio Akagariyama of Japan. With the exception of the typically vast and omnipresent Filipino contingent, no country was better represented in the knockout stages of the tournament than Great Britain - a grand yet thoroughly true testament to the state of 9-ball pool in Great Britain.
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2010 GB9 Northern Masters Winner, Chris Melling
Chris Melling will be looking to defend the title he won back in November 2010, with a further 143 players trying their best to snatch the title away from him. One of those players will be snooker professional Stuart Pettman. He follows in the line of ex-professional Darryn Walker at trying his hand at competition level 9-ball pool, and the man from Preston, a regular in the top 64 official World Snooker rankings, will be keen to hit the ground running. All of the GB9 players in Doha will be appearing in Daventry, along with many other highly talented cueists looking to ink their name onto the ever growing map of 9-ball talent on these shores.
New GB9 tour player - Pro snooker player Stuart Pettman
Play at the Northern Masters will begin as ever with the Challenge Cup first round at 5pm on Friday August 5th, concluding on the evening of Sunday August 7th. Everybody is welcome to come along and watch and, with so many world class players on show, it's sure to contain the same top quality action that we've seen so far this season.
