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
Sunday 17 August 2014
Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggggg Osborne wins again
So the start of a new Total9Ball series and it was a great start for Craig Osborne as he proves once again just how talented he is. Total9Ball has listened to feedback and created a new Open Handicap Series. The entry fees on this occasion have been kept low to try to attract as many players as possible and although we had a good entry level of 23 for the first event, we hope more players support this brilliant new series. The basis behind this new series is to offer all players the opportunity to compete in regular events at different venues, playing a variety of formats and disciplines at an affordable price.
Total9Ball have decided however to make a few changes to the series to help things run better and not shut any players out. The Grand Final will not be open to players who have attended at least one event of this series, however Grand Finalists will be selected based on how many event each player attends as we do have a maximum amount of players for the Grand Final. So get supporting these events and book your place at the Grand Finals.
Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.
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The format used for the event held this weekend just gone (17/08/2014) was Group Stages into a seeded straight knockout . As there were 23 players T9B took the decision to schedule 5x groups of four players and 1x group of three players with 12 players qualifying for the Knock-out stages, this meant the four best qualifiers were seeded to the Quarter Finals (Prize money) and the other eight qualifiers had to playoff to reach this round. Matches were race to seven but also the handicaps were added, making each match longer. The Group stage matches began at 10.30am and as always there was a group of death, that group was Group A… the only group of 3 players. Ant Ginn, Del Sim and Shaun Storry had to battled hard for the two spaces in the Knock-out rounds of the competition. All matches were close with scores of 7v6, 7v6 and 7v5 but it was Ant and Shaun who prevailed through. Shaun Storry in one match had to produce comeback of the event as he trailed 6v1 to Ant Ginn before upping his game to win 7v6. Craig Osborne seemed as always to be playing some great pool, Craig won all three of his qualifying group matches off a -4 handicap to advance to the Quarter Finals as a seeded player. Craig reported wins against Kevin Smith 7v1, Mark Hughes 7v5 and Ciprain Dandu 7v4. Courtney Symons (Cambridge), Jon Davies (Bristol) Neil Cummings (Windsor) and Shaun Storry (Essex) also recorded a 100% win rates for the group stages. As there was only four seeded positions available in the Quarter Finals it was down to luck of the draw for who would be seeded and who would drop back a round for a preliminary match. Unfortunately it was Neil Cumming’s who drew the short straw as he now had an extra match to play to reach the prize money.
Each Total9Ball series has its own break dish pot. £110 was collected in total tickets sales at this event meaning the lucky drawn player would be paid £10 per ball potted and a £10 bonus for the clearance as long as they don’t miss or call collect rather than continue and miss a ball. First name out of the pot was Neil Cummings… Neil took his time and broke the 10 balls up with a powerful break. Neil unfortunately sunk the white in the top right pocket and his attempt was over. As the white ball was potted off the break a second lucky players was picked to attempt the clearance at full pot value. Courtney Symons was the next player drawn, Symons looked tense on his break off shot and thought he hadn’t made a ball as he raised his cue above his head. The final ball that was moving did however drop into the bottom left pocket and the attempt was on. Courtney seemed to be in ideal position to pot all 10 balls and empty the break dish pot. Symons potted balls 1 to 8 with ease whilst maintaining great shape on the following ball. Courtney got down on the 9ball and at this stage was on £80. He cued up and looked as confident as ever but unbelievably rattled the ball in the bottom left pocket. All players around the table looked surprised as did Courtney himself. The pot rolls over to Event two of this series and will contain a minimum of £110 before event two sales.
Back to the main event now and the important Prelim matches. Brian Cassidy vs Ant Ginn was the first match, Ant began this match off -1 on the scoreboard and that -1 rack would be the only rack that Ginn would win as in form Brian Cassidy excelled 7v0. Ashik Nathwani is now really committing to 9ball pool and its already showing as his results continue to improve, in this round it would be Ciprain Dandu on the receiving end of a 7v3 result for Nathwani. Lionel Brown is really going through a purple patch as he is often cashing in these events now, Mike Stanley was his next opponent in this event and it was Mike who was doing all the hard work but failing to convert the final few balls leaving easy pickings for Lionel to run out a 7v4 winner. Joe Granville looks a much improved player and a 7v1 victory over Neil Cummings will only improve his confidence for future events.
The Quarter Finals saw the seeded players back involved in the event and it was 50/50 results for them as Courtney Symons (7v5 Granville) and Craig Osborne (7v3 Brown) both won their respective matches while unseeded Ashik Nathwani (7v6 Jon Davies) and Brian Cassidy (7v5 Storry) both booked their Semi Finals spots. Great to see Jon Davies back in action, in my opinion he is a massively underrated player and could really do some damage in future events.
Time for the Semi-Finals to commence and this would be the round where the big guns collided, Courtney Symons vs Craig Osborne. Craig began this match off a -1 handicap but he really was zoned in to the job ahead, Craig’s break is a massive part of his game and makes him at times devastating to play against. Courtney battled hard but unfortunately for him it wasn’t enough on this day as Osborne reached yet another T9B event Final 7v4. It would be Brian Cassidy who would meet Craig in the Final as he made the most of his chances eliminating Ashik Nathwani 7v4.
So the two finalists were called to the table and the final began, Craig really had to play his best pool to first catch up the handicap head start and then reach the magic 7 racks. Craig really did play well in the Final, I only remember seeing him miss one ball as he took the match impressively 7v3. After the Final I had a chat with Craig and he said ‘I actually think that is the best match I have ever played, I really had to fight in every rack as I know Cassidy is a very good player when in the form he showed today’
So there we have it... It's glass for Craig Osborne as he proves again that he is one of the country’s best players. It’s great to have such a talent in our T9B open events but we do hope to get him beat at the next event held at Hurricane Room Colindale on Sunday 7th September. Can you help T9B stop Craig Osborne running riot again? The entry list is now open so get your names down.
Thanks again to the Hurricane Room club in St Albans for Sponsoring the tables for the event, to Kim for running the tournament desk, to Mark for catching some great action shots of the players and to all the players who attended for their continued support.
Upcoming T9B Events (All available to enter now, pls text Mark on 07764-485711 or Phil on 07795535051 to enter)
Saturday 30th August – T9B Amateur Series Event 8 (Breakdish should be close to £50 a ball with a clearance bonus after sales so don’t miss this one)
Sunday 7th September – T9B The Road to St Albans Event 2 (All players attending this event will be invited to Grand Finals in Dec. Break Dish guaranteed £11 per ball before sales)
Saturday and Sunday 20th and 21st Sept – T9B Weekender (5 events for all players over two days. Events all players together (Scratch) and an event split into playing standard groups also a blind scotch doubles redraw event, one rack shootout and a weekend Break Dish)
Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.
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