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 and chat
Saturday 31 May 2014
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Rollison Back in Top Gear at T9B Mid Season Grand Finals
T9B rolled back into St Albans on Saturday 31st May 2014, this time for the T9B Amateur Series Mid-Season Grand Finals. 18 players qualified for this event of which 13 were available to make the trip to sunny St Albans. The stipulation to enter this event was, you must have attended a minimum of three events out of the first five events played so far this season. Thanks to our sponsors Dynamic Billard, T9B were able to offer a Euro Tour spot place for the winner to an event of their choice and for good measure to increase the value of this event, T9B also added £200 sponsorship money towards the flight and hotel costs of the winning player.
So who would perform the best on the day and take down this event? Again the double chance format was used, giving players two chances at the main prize and one chance at the jackpot. The Amateur Series "Break-Dish Roll-Up" also continued. So there was plenty of pool for all to enjoy.
The event began with the seeded side of the draw, this was based on the rankings from the first five events within the 2013/2014 Amateur Series. Rattapol Sassmann, Dave Evans and Mark Parker all received byes as they were the players currently ranked 1, 2 and 3. Phil Wildman ranked in 4th battled back to win 7v6 from 5v1 down against Lionel Brown, while Luke Rollison ranked 5th defeated Steve Davison 7v5. Courtney Symons gave Ken Ng a large handicap head start but classy Symons advanced to Round Two. On to the second half of the draw and it seems Dave Evans can’t stay away from Mark Parker lately, I’m starting to think they like each other. After a win for Dave at the recent GB9 event the two met again this time at T9B. Evans again came out on top. Tom Staveley had to battle hard right to the death as Mike Stanley pushed him all the way but it was Tom whose name was added to Round Two.
Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.
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After the first round matches the 10ball "Break-Dish Roll-Up" was played. The pot already contained £120 from the previous event and there were sales a plenty again as another £80 was collected, this meant each ball was valued at £15 and a £50 bonus would be awarded for a 10ball clearance. Who would be the lucky player drawn??? It was… it was… it was… Lionel Brown, The players gathered around the table as the 10 £15 balls were racked, Lionel stepped up and split the balls open but unfortunately the cue ball hit the heart of the centre right pocket and the attempt was over almost before it even began. This means the pot rolls over to event six and tickets will be on sale again increasing the prize fund higher… If this continues the break dish will hold more prize money than the tournament itself.
Back to the Mid-Season Euro Tour Qualifier Grand Final. Phil Wildman seemed to playing well as he took full advantage of lots of uncharacteristic errors by an out-of-sorts Luke Rollison. Dave Evans then took on Courtney Symons, Dave looked to be playing some very high standard 9ball as he strolled to a 7v0 win against Courtney Symons who began the match -2 racks. Mark Parker was back to business as usual with an impressive 7v3 victory against Tom Staveley, while Rattapol Sassmann impressively ended Chris Bryant’s event 7v3.
Luke Rollisons fortunes were about to change as he began to show the quality of his game with a 7v2 result against Phil Wildman. Luke followed this with a good 7v5 victory over Tom Staveley and a 7v4 win result against Jaspal Bamotra. Strangely, Luke looked 1 million percent better than he did earlier in the day, I guess the table time at this T9B event was starting to wake the sleeping giant... This meant Danger with a capital D for all other players remaining in the event. Rattapol Sassmann showed why he is the currently the number one ranked player at T9B as he played with class in abundance to eliminate Phil Wildman 7v1. Dave Evans survived the longest in the event with the jackpot still insight, there were a few nail-biting moments ahead though as he fought hard making the most of his chances in the end against a heavily improved Steve Davison to prevail 7v6 from 5v1 behind. Evans clashed with Mark Parker for the second time in the event next and again the match was high quality to watch but Evans seemed unstoppable as he frustrated Parker to advance 7v5.
The Quarter Final results meant that both Semi Finals would involve Dave Evans. Dave was just two victories away from collecting The Winners prize, the Runners-Up prize, the £250 jackpot bonus, a place in a Eurotour event of his choice and £200 towards the costs of flights and accommodation, some prize on offer, could he complete the Jackpot and scoop the lot? Or would Dave be friendly and share?
Evans was pushed all the way in his first of two Semi Final matches, again he fought like a soldier and held his nerve as the two most consistent players ranked 1st and 2nd on the T9B Amateur Series Rankings clashed in the Semi Final, the final score was Evans 7 Sassmann 6. This result meant only Chichester based player Luke Rollison could stop Evans from snatching the Jackpot and that’s what he did... Luke ‘The Jackpot Grinch’ Rollison looked to be firing on all cylinders now and back to not far from his very best as he defeated a tired Dave Evans 7v5. This result would mean the players would have to meet again in the Final showdown. Rollison was bang on his game as he raced into a 6v1 lead, Dave unfortunately after a long day had no more to give. Luke Rollison lifted the trophy and showed signs he would like to wait until Decembers Euro Tour event as he would love to play in Sweden.
Another fantastic T9B event with a glorious amount of value for all entered players. Thanks goes to St Albans Hurricane Room for again having us in their club, to Nicole and Kim for running the tournament desk, to Mark Parker for taking the photos in between matches and to you the players for again supporting T9B events.
Next event is this coming Saturday and is the Total9Ball Money Multiplier 2. A couple of spaces are still remaining so if you would like to enter you should text or call Phil (07795-535051) or Mark Parker (07764-485711). The events offers guaranteed prize money, no handicaps and a guaranteed two matches for each entrant.
Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.
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