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 19 July 2014
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Amateur Event 7 - Wildman Back In Form
Total9Ball was back at the St Albans Hurricane Room this weekend for the 7th edition of the ten event Amateur Series. 27 players made the trip through the rain to Hertfordshire on Saturday 19th July 2014. Again there was an extremely strong field of players battling for the T9B glassware. It was very hard to pick a favourite for the event with Courtney Symons, Del Sim, Dave Evans, Elliott Sanderson, Mark Parker, Martin Correira, Neil Margossian, Phil Wildman, Tom Staveley and Zoltan Kojsza in the field of players. It was also great to see pool champions from years ago Ant Ginn and Gareth Esprit in attendance and in the mix for the title.
Matches began at 10.30, as usual all players were given two chances in this event. If a player was to remain unbeaten throughout the event the jackpot of £660 would be won.
Phil Wildman's day began very well with two 7v4 victories against Neil Margossian and new player to Total9Ball Jason Rosser. Brian Cassidy appeared to be in good form, a 7v1 result against Total9Ball's most successful player Courtney Symons and a 7v3 scoreline against Darian George proved that. The current T9B rankings leader Dave Evans also made the perfect start with two wins, the first over Wayne Rooke 7v2, Dave was however pushed all the way in his second match as he battled hard to a 7v6 win over Neil Margossian. Del Sim dropped just 5 racks across his two first round matches against Ken Ng and Zoltan Kojsza as he advanced to the last 32. Mark Hughes also recorded two win results against Panios Roules 7v3 and Shakz Islam 7v6.
Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.
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During the first rounds of matches, tickets were sold for the 10Ball Break-Dish Roll-Up, T9B received it's biggest amount of sales to date as the pot increased to £35 per ball potted and an £80 bonus for the clearance, Crazy money... £430 for potting 10balls. The lucky player to step up to the challenge was Jason Rosser. As mentioned earlier Jason was a new player to T9B at this event and it seemed his luck was in as his ticket was pulled out of the hat by Nick Hampton. How would Jason get on, up against the 10 balls with 27 players surrounding the table? Jason hit the break cleanly and managed to sink a ball in the top corner pocket. Jason left himself a hard 1 ball at a distance with only half of the bottom left corner pocket showing, he decided to have a go at it and he couldn't have hit it much better. £70 was announced by Phil Wildman, the table looked setup for the clearance but Jason decided he was happy with £70 winnings and stopped to collect, Well done Jason. This means at the next event before sales each ball will be valued at £30 with a £60 bonus for the clearance. This is getting very interesting.
The last 32 of the main event began after the Break-Dish and it was back to business for the remaining players. Del Sim, Dave Evans and Phil Wildman advanced to the last 16 with two lives remaining. Del Sim took out his fellow England international player Mark Parker 7v5 and broke his duck against Martin Correia 7v6. Dave Evans seemed to hit top gear as he reported an excellent 7v2 result over Richard Twomey while Phil Wildman seemed to be back in form beating Mark Hughes 7v5 and Mark Parker 7v3. Rich Gormley was defending his T9B title at this event as he was the champion of Event 6 last month. Rich again impressed as he eliminated Martin Correia 7v5. Mike Stanley was holding his nerve well as he ended Paul McMichael's day 7v6, this was after a brilliant 7v6 win over Tom Staveley earlier on in the day.
So 16 players remained, could the three players with both lives intact manage to stay undefeated? Del Sim booked a Quarter Final place but it was just a 50% win rate in the last 16 for him as he defeated Mike Stanley 7v4 but was on the receiving end of a 7v4 result against Tony Burton. Dave Evans and Phil Wildman kept their Jackpot opportunities alive as Dave advanced 7v3, 7v5 against Ant Ginn and Tom Staveley respectively, while Phil Wildman looked on fire as he dropped just 3 racks against Nick Hampton and Rich Twomey. Elliott Sanderson made sure there would be no repeat win at this event for Rich Gormley (7v4) Brian Cassidy was at it again with another impressive 7v1 result against Gareth Esprit.
At the Quarter Final stage both Dave Evans and Phil Wildman were just four more positive results away from the T9B £660 Jackpot. Dave Evans had his jackpot chances dashed by Tony Burton 7v6. Dave then must have thought well if I cant do it I'm going to make sure I end Phil Wildman's chances too and that's exactly what happened also 7v6. Phil Wildman looked exhausted but commented after the match 'wow that was a fantastic match to be involved in... I really enjoyed it even though I lost... a battle from start to finish'. Phil did however get it right in his other Quarter Final match as he won 7v5 against Brian Cassidy. Del Sim took on Elliott Sanderson in the final Quarter Final match and it was Del who produced the goods 7v4.
Semi Final time, Dave Evans looked unstoppable as he breezed past Del Sim 7v2 on the table opposite it was Phil Wildman who took his match with Tony Burton 7v5.
Dave Evans and Phil Wildman decided that it had been a very long day and they were both happy to split the prize money and play a race to three racks for the beautiful trophy. These two players are so closely matched and again the match was decided by just one rack as Phil Wildman prevailed 3v2.
What an event. It had everything and was full of excitement from start to finish. Well done to Phil Wildman and Dave Evans, In my opinion they were both winners. Also great performances from Del Sim and Tony Burton.
The next event will be on Sunday 10th August at St Albans as the discipline of pool changes to 10ball for the UK Amateur Championships. Remaining spaces in this event are already down to 10 so if you would like to compete then your entry is required asap.
Thanks to St Albans Hurricane Room for supplying the venue, to Kim and Nicole for giving up hours of there free time to make sure the event ran smoothly, to Mark Parker for all his work with the camera, to our sponsors and the players for their continued support.
Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.
Enjoy this event? Tell your friends... more players more prize money.
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