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Official report from T9B Rookie Event 4 - St Albans

A Pro9 - Europe's No.1 Pool Player Resource Article

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Date: Saturday, May 25 2013 @ 08:50:35 UTC
Topic: Total 9 Ball



T9B The Double Chance Amateur/Rookie Series 2013
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 - entrants - chat - live score

Saturday 25 May 2013



Courtney too good for the field at T9B

Courtney Symons again showed his class at Event 4 of the T9B Amateur Series. Symons, now a 5 times T9B tournament winner, battled through the field yesterday at the Hurricane Room in St Albans to move himself up to 5th in the five event Amateur Series. Symons playing off a handicap of -3 will now be cut and join Luke Rollison on -4 for the remainder for the season. Before this event Courtney was in need of ranking points after he missed event three but now looks to have confirmed his place in the Amateur Series Grand Finals held at St Albans on the 27th July 2013.

Symons event began with a match against Phil Wildman, Courtney was never behind winning 7v3, the match however wasn’t the best with both players making a few uncharacteristic mistakes. Symons followed this result with wins against Dean Reeve (7v1) Lionel Brown (7v4) and Geoff Windeatt (7v5). Courtney's chances of scooping the Jackpot were crushed in the next match by the smallest of margins as new player to T9B Liam Monk defeated Symons 7v6. So this meant Courtney at this event only took one place in the Quarter Finals. Courtney made the most of this one chance though beating Lionel Brown 7v3 to confirm his place in the Semi Finals.

Tom Staveley, fresh from his first T9B event win in High Wycombe last weekend would have been hoping for more of the same, but it wasn't to be, as Staveley lost his first two matches 7v6 against Terry Arnold and Liam Monk. Liam as mentioned earlier is a new player to T9B, he has just returned from a trip to America playing cuesports experiencing some good success and results against some big name players. Liam's day began with a good 7v3 win against Sunny Garib, he followed this with the two hill-hill wins over Staveley and Symons but then ran into two in form players... Last season's Amateur Series Grand Final winner Jonathan Vaughan and Aslam Abubaker who reached the Final of the BWPPA last weekend in Barnsley, Liam was defeated in both matches by scoreline 7v5 and 7v2 respectively.

It was great to have Robin Cripps with us all the way from Penzance, Cornwall but it wasn’t to be Robin's day as he didn't seem to get going, losing matches to Jonathan Vaughan (7v3) and Dean Reeve (7v5).



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Watch the video of the final - Courtney Symons v Aslam Abubaker

Lionel Brown was rolling back the years yesterday as he looked to be in good form achieving his best T9B result to date, as he reached the Quarter Finals. Lionel produced some of his best play during wins over Terry Arnold (7v4) and Aslam Abubaker (7v6). Lionel may have got further in the event but he was doomed by Courtney Symons in both half’s of the draw losing 7v3 and 7v4.

Aslam Abubaker is a man in great form recently, and a quality Aslam has in his game is that he never gives up and battles right to the end in every match, this was proved as he battled back from 4v1 down to beat Richard Twomey 7v4 and then from 5v2 down to beat Jaspal Bamotra 7v5. He followed these matches with a 7v5 against traveling companion Tem Dixon, a 7v3 win against improving Steve Davison was next and then a magnificent 7v2 victory over Liam Monk. This booking him a place in the Semi-Final. Joining Aslam in the Semi-Final was ever consistent Sunny Garib. Earlier this year Sunny won the T9B Rookie Rampage event and looked like he was hungry to add another glass trophy to his collection winning two matches 7v5 over Paul Taylor and Jonathan Vaughan. So we now know three of the four Semi-Finalists, Aslam Abubaker, Courtney Symons and Sunny Garib but who would take the final place? The answer... Jonathan Vaughan who again made the long trip from Neath in Wales. Vaughan who is now putting the hours in on the practice table at the Terry Griffiths Matchroom in Llanelli showed his quality winning six matches straight and was the player who got the furthest in both sides of the draw. Jonathan's wins came against Paul Taylor (7v1), Liam Monk (7v5), Jaspal Bamotra (7v5), Tem Dixon (7v6), Robin Cripps (7v3) and Richard Twomey (7v5).

So in good time the Semi-Final matches were under way with Courtney Symons v Jonathan Vaughan and Aslam Abubaker v Sunny Garib. Courtney was taking no prisoners as he booked his place in the final beating Vaughan 7v2, while on the table opposite it looked for all money that it would be Sunny Garib joining him as he led Aslam Abubaker 6v2 but Aslam had other ideas, he battled back with a few key bits of luck to win 7v6, you could see how much it meant to Aslam as he potted the final 9ball.

The final was recorded and is available to view above. Courtney clawed back the -3 handicap and lead 5v4 Aslam missed an important 9ball to level up at 5v5 and this released any pressure on Symons who ended up a 7v4 winner.

Another great win for Courtney Symons, however the player of the day goes to Aslam, so many comebacks and a fantastic overall performance from, in my opinion, one of the best wheelchair players in the UK.

The break dish will roll up again as two attempts were made, Sunny Garib scratched of the break while Rich Twomey made a perfect break sinking 3 balls but a loose positional shot cost him the £80 prize. The break dish pot will roll up to £110 for Event 5.

Event 5 will be held at St Albans on Saturday 13th July and is the final qualifying event for the Grand Finals, it's so important for many players with the top 16 auto qualifying and many needing to enter the event to be eligible for the Grand Final Qualifier (must have played minimum 2 events). The thread is now available on www.pro9.co.uk so make sure you're involved by entering now.

Many thanks to The Hurricane Room, TD Nicole Hansen, Big Dave Knight and to the players. Hope to see you all at Event 5 and many more on 13th July.






















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