The St Albans Hurricane Room
Unit 8 Verulam Industrial Estate
224 London Road
St Albans
Hertfordshire
AL1 1JF
www.hurricaneroom.co.uk
www.t9b.co.uk - Live scoring
Saturday 13 October 2012
Gary Bullocke (L) and Courtney Symons (R) shake hands before the Total9Ball final.
Symons is Smashing at T9B
Courtney Symons continues his winning ways as he hits top gear with the race heating up for the 16 Grand Final places. 32 players descended upon the Hurricane Room in St Albans for Event 3 of the T9B Amateur 2x Series. Players traveled from near and far to try to become the first to sweep the jackpot at the 2x series. All players are drawn randomly into both sides of the draw meaning a player who wins all their matches would win the winner's and runner's up prize money. It was declared by many players on the day that this was the strongest field ever seen at a T9B event with Chris Buckmaster, Courtney Symons, Gareth Esprit, Glenn Cooney, Luke Rollison, Neil Margossian, Michael Rhodes, Oly Bale, Ramesh Gokhul and Steve Petty to name a few all in attendance.
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Courtney Symons, event one runner up, began the tournament with a 7v2 win against youngster Shakz Islam but was taken to hill-hill in the second half of the draw by T9B Rookie Runner Up Ciprain Dandu before sinking the winning nine ball. Michael Rhodes made a three and a half hour journey on the day but it didn't show as he began his first T9B event with wins against Tom Staveley (7v4) and Phillip Wildman (7v5). Gary Bullocke who was wearing as colourful shirt as ever continued his fantastic T9B form with two first round victories beating Paul Taylor 7v6 and Dean Reeve 7v5.
In round two the winning ways for Symons and Rhodes continued both again registering two winning results each. Symons who practices at Mickey Flynns Club in Cambridge pulled clear of Welsh lad Nathan James 7v3 and defeated previous English Pool World Champion Oly Bale 7v5. Rhodes ran up a large win beating Wayne Rooke 7v1 and battled back against James Welch to win 7v5 after James Welch raced away at the start of the match. Round two also saw wins for Gary Bullocke 7v4 over Rich Main, Steve Petty ended Ciprain Dandu's tournament 7v1. Wayne Rooke after a heavy defeat to Rhodes sharpened up his form with an impressive 7v4 victory over Chris Buckmaster.
The winners in round three were guaranteed some prize money and again there was no holding back Courtney Symons or Michael Rhodes as they both again recorded two wins. Courtney was victorious against another player from Wales in this round as he beat impressive Jonathan Vaughan 7v4. Paul McMichael was his other opponent where Courtney was taken to hill-hill again and perhaps looked beaten but McMichael unfortunately miss-cued leaving an easy run out for his opponent. Michael Rhodes was really showing what he can do on the table as he advanced in the Quarter Finals winning 7v3 against previous World Under 21 English Pool Champion Steve Petty. This match can be viewed here. In Michael's other last 16 match he achieved his second 7v1 win of the day this time against Sunny Garib. So four of the eight Quarter Final spaces were taken up by Symons and Rhodes so who else filled the remaining spots... Rich Main took one of them as he seemed to be playing some top 9ball as he beat his good friend Luke Rollison 7v3. In another battle between friends Jaspal Bamotra beat Wayne Rooke 7v2. Gary Bullocke was playing some solid pool beating in form Glenn Cooney 7v3 and Ramesh Gokhul completed the line up winning 7v3 as Dean Reeve was eliminated.
Quarter Final line up below, results in this round dashed all chances for someone becoming... 'The Undefeated'
Courtney Symons 7 v 3 Michael Rhodes
Ramesh Gokhul 7 v 4 Rich Main
Gary Bullocke 7 v 5 Courtney Symons
Michael Rhodes 7 v 3 Jaspal Bamotra
The Semi Finals were full of class as four of the best were involved. Symons booked his place and showed he was now well and truly in top gear with a comprehensive 7v2 win over Ramesh Gokhul. While on the table next door the match between Gary Bullocke and Michael Rhodes went to a deciding rack, in which Bullocke held his nerve to book his place in his first Total9ball Final.
The Final was recorded and will be available later today (link will appear here) Courtney started the better of the two players taking a large lead but Gary showed true grit and determination to battle all the way back from the jaws of defeat to force an exciting hill-hill Final. Gary had an early chance but missed which opened the door for Courtney who cleared the remaining balls and finally got his hands on the T9B glass trophy. Unfortunately just before he posed for the winners photo he dropped and smashed the glass wear!!! T9B founder Phil Wildman will however present Symons with a replacement at the next event.
Gary Bullocke now shares a joint lead at the top of the Rankings with Ramesh Gokhul. Luke Rollison is in joint 3rd with Courtney Symons and Phil Wildman is in 5th.
Wow another excellent event and I hope that all players enjoyed this one as much as I did. Although I personally suffered an early defeat I still had a fantastic day as there was a really nice happy atmosphere at the event. The results and ranking have now been updated and are available along with each players win/lost stats at www.t9b.co.uk take a look. There are only 16 spots available at the Grand Finals and the ranking are very close, so I hope to see all players at the final qualifying event on Saturday 3rd November again held at this great venue in St Albans. Prior to this event on the 27th October there will be a event where players can win free entry into the newly announced T9B National Series.
Finally thanks to Dave Knight for the photography and supplying the camera that made the match videos possible, also to Nicole Hansen for her expert work again behind the tournament desk and of course to all the players who attended for their support.
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