The St Albans Hurricane Room
Unit 8 Verulam Industrial Estate
224 London Road
St Albans
Hertfordshire
AL1 1JF
www.hurricaneroom.co.uk
www.total9ball.com
Saturday 28 March 2015
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T9B players are going on tour to Holland for The Deurne City Classic
Saturday 28th March saw Total9ball fever ramp up again as the first ever qualifier took place in the UK for the Deurne City Classic. The DCC is by all accounts a brilliant event held annually in Holland, played on 28 recovered tables with in excess of 500 players from around the world competing. There is so much going on with 9ball, 10ball, Banks, One pocket, Ring games and cash games galore to name a few. T9B took the opportunity to contact the organisers in the Netherlands and agreed to help promote this event via a UK qualifier, where players could win sponsorship money towards attending this nonstop European pool festival.
Total9ball were very pleased with a turnout of 26 players all looking to make sure it was their name booked on the flight tickets to Eindhoven at the end of May. T9B decided to use the league stage format with each player competing in three league fixtures with 15 players advancing to the knock-out stage. Now why 15 player you ask? T9B calculated the money and announced we could send 5 players plus the winner of our side event the one rack shootout. This would mean the top 5 players after 3 matches would be seeded into the final qualifying round while the next 10 ranked players would have a playoff to reach the final qualifying match.
Thanks to Dynamic Billard for sponsoring this event.
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The day kicked off in an unusual way with the side events being played first. We began with the one rack shootout – 24 of the 26 players competed with the winner taking the first spot at The Duerne City classic held between the 28th May and 1st June. Ashik Nathwani reached the final and he would be up against Steve Chick. Steve must of thought he was dead and buried in the Semi-Final as Tom Staveley cued up the 9ball but unfortunately for Tom and to Steve’s delight he miscued handing the match to Chick. Ashik and Steve have now played in the last 3 successive T9B Events and all have gone in favour of the man from Leicester Ashik Nathwani and things weren’t to change today as Ashik became the first qualifying player of the day. Ashik this season has now been sponsored by T9B to attend the Portuguese Euro Tour and now this event in Holland.
The break dish was well supported by the players as £200 was collected in total. The idea behind this was cash prizes as usual £15 per ball potted with a nice £50 bonus for the clearance. Three players would make an attempt and if the pot wasn’t won the money would be used to help boost the sponsorship money for the players who later qualified to attend the DCC event. First up… Steve ‘The Breakdish’ Davision!!!! The balls were racked and Steve looked confident as last time he got picked for the break dish side event he potted 4 balls to accrue a magnificent prize of over £300. Today wasn’t to be his day however as he broke dry. Next up to make an attempt was… Tom Staveley!!! Known for his 10 ball breaking ability Tom stepped up and crunched the balls potting a ball and a prize of £15 was announced, Tom decided to continue his attempt risking the so far accrued monies. He was looking in great shape for the clearance after a couple of decent pressure shots, £75 was announced and again Tom continued, after Staveley knocked in the next lowest numbered ball a prize of £90 was shouted out by T9B founder Phil Wildman. Tom had just half a pocket to aim for with just 4 balls remaining as another ball was acting a break dish pot defender. Tom decided to live by the sword as he dared to go for broke. The defending ball unfortunately for Tom did its job as the break dish pot protector… the legal ball clipped it whilst en-route to the pocket diverting the it off target. Brave attempt by Tom but sadly there is no prizes for bravery. The 3rd and final player was Rich Fullwell, this time the pot was reduced to £5 per ball with a £50 bonus. Rich creamed the break sinking two balls but the joy was sort lived as Rich was hooked on the next legal ball remaining on the table. Rich refused the £10 prize and gave the balls a whack but to no avail. This meant T9B could add the collected break dish money towards the players sponsorship prizes for the qualifying players from the main event.
Ok so just as 12noon struck on the clock the main event kicked off. T9B are often told that the handicapping used in there events is very accurate and the best around, again there was proof in the pudding with over half of the 39 league matches ending by a close 7v5 or 7v6 score line. Showing T9B really are the best handicap events that this country has to offer.
Only two players managed to escape the league stages with a 100% win record. Those players were Aslam Abubaker and Ryan O’Neil. Aslam’s results were as follows 7v5, 7v1 and 7v5 against Michael Blatchley, David Worrow and Spanish player Manuel Montejo respectively while Ryan posted the league stages best results of 7v1, 7v6 and 7v1 these wins came against Tom Staveley, David Worrow and Jay Davies. Joining Aslam and Ryan as seeded players with two out of three winning score lines were… Jamie Bryan, Steve Davison and Terry Challenger. The seeded players results are shown below:-
Jamie Bryan Steve Davison Terry Challenger
Lost 6v7 Paul Taylor Won 7v6 David Worrow Won 7v5 Alan Bell
Won 7v3 Phil Wildman Lost 6v7 Manuel Montejo Won 7v5 Jason Rosser
Won 7v6 Steve Chick Won 7v2 Del Sim Lost 6v7 Lionel Brown
So with the seeded players just one win away from qualifying for the Deurne City Classic they watched on as the next 10 players in the league contested a playoff to join them. All 15 players who made it through won at least two out of three matches and all the players who did win two matches made the cut, so there were no unlucky non qualifiers with two wins which was great.
The unseeded players were random drawn and were now just two matches away from qualifying. The results of the play off matches are below:-
Ashik Nathwani 7v3 Lionel Brown– Ashik is on a solid run of results and that continued against Lionel
Rich Fullwell 7v1 Del Sim – Rich takes the battle of friends
Paul Taylor 7v4 Ian Cherry – Injured Paul ends Ian Cherry’s debut
Phil Wildman 7v3 Vesilin Papramdanov – Phil powers past the unpredictable Veso
Rodrigo Quarinte 7v3 Manuel Montejo – Philippines player defeats Spanish talent
SO HERE WE GO, five matches all kicking off together and in just under one hours’ time we would know who the five sponsored T9B players would be.
First up was the battle of Leicester as Ashik Nathwani took on Aslam Abubaker. Ashik looked to be playing very nicely in deed as he took the match 7 racks to 3. This meant Ashik had qualified twice so the money won in the breakdish of £120 was paid in cash.
Richard Fullwell from High Wycombe is a player full of talent but he was yet to produce anything of note on the main stage at T9B events however today was the day that Rich showed everyone just how good he really is. After Rich’s impressive 7v1 mega win against Del Sim in previous round he followed this with another top result to qualify this time against undefeated Ryan O’Neil of Bristol. Rich booked his result in the winners photo with a 7v4 result.
Terry Challenger hasn’t played in many T9B events in the past but in my opinion this guy has a major talent for American Cue sports. I have known Terry for many years from our snooker days but Terry is now a very keen 9baller and has carried his ability over from the green baize as he now dedicates to 9ball. Terry’s ability was proved as he held his nerve in a tense qualifying encounter with Paul Taylor. Terry took the match 7v3 and looked delighted to have achieved his days goal of making sure he was on the flight to Holland at the end of May.
Jamie Bryan took on Phil Wildman for the second time in this event. Jamie earlier in the group stages took the match 7v3 but could Wildman reverse the form in this more important match??? The answer was… NO!! Jamie appears to play like Niel Feijen whenever he takes on Phil Wildman. Phil prior to be match said ‘Jamie is a talented player who is learning with every event, I have to make a good start and catch the handicap up quickly to stand any chance of defeating the Jinja Ninga’. Phil did exactly that as he broke and dished his first 5 racks on the alternate break format but it was all in vein as Jamie at times played the perfect match. End result Jamie Bryan 7v5 Phil Wildman.
The final qualifier was contested by Steve Davison and Rodrigo Quarinte. This was the last match to finish and with many players still in the venue there was a brilliant atmosphere. Steve has been working really hard on improving his game by practicing hard, having some coaching and regular attending T9B events. The improvement in his game was there for all to see as at 6v6 Steve held his nerve and potted the last 4 pressure balls to achieve his best ever result and booked his place in Holland. When the final 9ball was potted there was a roar of applause as many players cheered and clapped for Davison. Everybody loves an underdog doing well and a lot of players were really proud of Davison’s achievement as he has been one of Total9ball’s most supporting players. This should be a massive confidents boast for Steve and I really look forward to seeing him mix it with the world’s best players in Deurne, what an experience that will be for Steve and all of the qualifying players. This event goes to show if players work hard on their game and attend the events with a winning mentality players of any standard can do well. Out of the 5 qualifiers only Ashik Nathwani qualified on a minus handicap. Well done to all players.
I really enjoyed today’s event win or lose there was some brilliant 9ball played and I’m pleased to say there are a lot of players improving their games through regularly attending T9B events. T9B are fun events while still producing a tournament atmosphere and environment. The event was played in fantastic spirits and it was nice to see players staying on to cheer on their friends. Well done to all the qualifiers T9B are proud that you are the players representing us in Holland and also I’m pleased to say through the promotion of this event there are a lot of Brits heading over to Holland to compete anyway, so it will be great to all be on tour together. If anybody would like any details about The DCC event please contact Martin Sawicki on Facebook or myself for more details. If you don’t have plans I heavily recommend this event, The T9B players will be flying out on the 27th May and back on the 1st of June, if any players would like to join us please let me know.
Thanks to Hurricane Room for the use of their brilliant facilities. We are proud to have such a brilliant relationship with Hurricane Room as this is a major part of T9B’s success. Other events don’t get the tables sponsored or have the use of the quality clubs like we do so we really are in a great position. Thanks to Nicole Hansen for running the desk, to Mark Parker for his work behind the camera and to all the T9B players who competed and made this event the success it was.
If improving your game and having fun whilst playing American cue sports is important to you then look no further than Total9ball events. Below are some future dates of events for your diary
Saturday 11th April – T9B Euro Tour Qualifier Event 3 sponsored by Dynamic Billard – St Albans Hurricane Room (Spaces still available)
Saturday 25th April – T9B Dynamic Amateur Series Event 3 – St Alabns Hurricane Room (Limited spaces remaining available on first pay first play basis)
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