Hotel Torrequebrada
Benalmádena
Málaga
Spain
Tel: 00 34 678 274 552
www.confederacionpool.com
Saturday-Monday 6-8 December 2008
Trophy winners Darren Appleton, Oliver Ortmann, Bruno Muratore & Marcus Chamat.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
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9TH CEP ANNIVERSARY TOURNAMENT
Another great event in the December sunshine on the Spanish Costa del Sol.
Following the last Eurotour of the calendar year, 100 foreign players decided to stay on for the annual CEP 8 Ball event.
The entry was limited to 192 players as time was short and several people including some top Spanish players, ended up on the waiting list.
This is becoming the norm in December, in the Eurotour, over 70 players were disappointed as that too was full some weeks before the event.
For the 3rd time in 9 years, German Oliver Ortmann carried off the spoils, a beautiful trophy and 4000 euros.
Oliver had been looking strong all through the event, he was taking no prisoners and won 61 of the 83 games he played.
“Daz” Appleton also had a largely uninterrupted run through the tournament, because of a walkover in the first round he didn’t have to play as many games as Oliver but with only 22 losses in his 72 games, Daz also impressed the large crowd of spectators.
"Read More..." for the details.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Throughout the six days of the two tournaments the public, from the banked seating in the main room, enjoyed pool of the highest quality and were quick to show their appreciation of the skills of the best of Europe’s pool players.
The final 32, playing in a straight knockout format saw 12 countries involved. Spain with 10 players had the largest group while Great Britain and Germany were each represented by 4 players.
In the first round, Spain lost 6 players including top cueist, David Alcaide who, for the second time in three days was eliminated by Oliver Ortmann.
Unsurprisingly, Appleton cruised into the second round with a 7-1 win over Swede, Thomas Mehtala, Burford just managed to hold off David Alcoberro in a tight match that finished 7-6.
In the British encounter between Andy Appleton and Karl Boyes, Karl came out the winner by a clear 7- 3 victory.
The way the draw came out, people were talking about a possible Appleton final or a repeat of last year’s final between Daz and Karl.
The third round started with 2 Germans, 2 Brits, and one each for Sweden, Italy, Spain and Greece.
Appleton, always looking good saw off top Spaniard, Carlos Cabello by 7 games to 3. Chamat, also looking strong, didn’t hang around and finished the hopes of Marco Schmidt with a win of 7 - 2. A good match between Ortman and Boyes saw the eventual winner of the tournament go through by 7 games to 5, and in the other quarter final, Muratore crushed Greek player Georgopoulos with a win of 7 - 1.
The semi final between Muratore and Ortmann was a formality and the Italian was given few chances as Oliver strode on towards the final with a fine victory of 8 racks to 2.
Appleton didn’t find it so easy as Chamat, who had looked dangerous throughout the week finishing second in the Eurotour, was looking forward to a second final. It wasn’t to be however, Appleton was going for the double after winning this event last year and it was to be a battle of two giants, maybe not in stature but two world class players.
Daz came out the winner after his 8-6 victory.
The prospect of the final between Appleton and Ortmann was mouth watering, two of the world’s top players saw the gallery filling up with spectators and so it began.
Ortmann with some stylish play took an early lead of 3-0. Daz had a couple of chances, missing an easy black on the way.
However, following a mistake by Ortmann, Appleton levelled the score at 3-3 but then scratched on the break in the seventh rack, letting Ortmann back in.
That was the turning point and Ortmann strode on towards his third win in this Anniversary Tournament as it ended 8-3 in his favour.
4000 euros went to the winner with 2000 euros to the second. 3rd and 4th each picked up 1000 euros each, some of which an hour later started to find its way into the coffers if the hotel bar as the winners celebrated.
All in all a great tournament, one late night for some unfortunately as slower players held up the flow of the event.
Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their stay in this southern Spain resort of Benalmadena.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
HOW THE BRITS GOT ON!
There was, once again, a great response from the British players, a total of 21 turned up for this popular event in Málaga and, after Spain, Great Britain was the country with most participants.
The system used for this tournament was 8 groups of 24 players playing a modified double elimination system where you could lose once in the first two rounds and then straight knockout after that, the top 4 from each group went on to the final phase of 32.
Unfortunately most of Brits didn’t make it through to the final phase of 32.
Those who did were,
Andy Appleton with straight wins of 6-2, 6-5, 6-1, 6-2.
Karl Boyes, WO, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5
Darren Appleton, WO, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1
Phil Burford, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2
Falling by the wayside in the early stages were:
Chris Melling who started well with wins of 6-0, 6-2, 6-3, before losing 4- 6 to Zvi Zion of Israel
Scott Higgins had victories of 6-2 and 6-0 before finding Greek player Cahrlaftis too good and crashed out of the event wit a 4-6 loss
Andy Nicholson had a 6-0 victory in the first round but faltered in the second round losing 2-6 but got the second chance and came back into it with 6-1 and 6-0 wins before he came up against young Spanish player Jonathan Orellana, 3-6 was the result and Andy was out.
Andy Appleton got through the first round with a 6-0 win but had a scare in the second round coming up against top Spanish female player Amalia Matas, double bronze medallist in the recent European Championships, however his 6-5 victory was enough and he followed that up with wins of 6-1 and 6-2 to see himself in the final phase.
Brett Armer had a nightmare, 1-6 in the first round, then a WalkOver and then a 2-6 loss to Belgian Danny Vanderstappen who lives in Spain.
Richard Lacey who hasn’t played for a few years due to business commitments in the family company, BCE decided to try his luck. Ten years ago when he lived in Spain, Richard was one of the top players and ranked equally with players like Alcaide, Tapies, Diaz etc. a win of 6-4 and losses of 3-6, 4-6 saw his hopes ended.
The player who finished his participation was 13 year old Benjamin Gomez who, a month ago was seriously ill and in a coma with meningitis, Benja went on to qualify for the final stages.
Chris Buckmaster came up against top Spanish player Carlos Cabello in the 4th round and lost 3-6.
Jason Shaw looked promising but lost in a close encounter in the 4th 5-6 to Karl Boyes
Martin Chapman had a couple of walkovers before he lost out by 4-6 to Van Rijkel of Belgium.
Paul Williams was one step away from qualifying before he met Darren Appleton, winning only one game against Daz his tournament was over.
Daryl Peach looked unstoppable WO, 6-0, 6-0 and then things went wrong and he lost 4-6 to Georgopoulos of Greece.
David Langridge also fell to Georgopoulos.
Gareth Esprit had losses in the 2nd round to Craig Osborne 1-6 and in the 4th to David Alcoberro 4-6
Anthony Ginn started well, wins of 6-4, 6.5, 6-2 then lost 4-6 to Greek player Nick Malai.
Craig Osborne, WO, 6-1 against Gareth, 6-5 and in the qualifying round found German Junior Dominic Jentsch too good and lost 3-6
Jonni Fulcher’s results were WO, 6-3, 6-2, finally losing 3-6 to Ivica Putnik
Carl Fitzsimon had only one win of 6-1 and fell out of the race by losing 2-6 to D’Orazio of Italy
Alan Bennett, 1-6. WO, and in the 3rd round, Sergio Maltes of Portugal was the victor, 6-2
Phil Burford was in fine form and qualified with four wins all with the same score. 6-2
THE CEP ANNIVERSARY 8 BALL TOURNAMENT | ||
THE LAST 16 | ||
Carlos Cabello | 7 : 4 | David Alvarez |
Darren Appleton | 7 : 1 | Oscar Capon |
Marco Schmidt | 7 : 5 | Nick Malai |
Marcus Chamat | 7 : 3 | Phil Burford |
Oliver Ortmann | 7 : 0 | Johnny Van Rijkel |
Karl Boyes | 7 : 5 | Francisco Sanchez |
Bruno Muratore | 7 : 3 | Ivica Putnic |
Micca Georgopoulos | 7 : 6 | Fabio Petroni |
THE CEP ANNIVERSARY 8 BALL TOURNAMENT | ||
THE QUARTER FINALS | ||
Darren Appleton | 7 : 3 | Carlos Cabello |
Marcus Chamat | 7 : 2 | Marco Schmidt |
Oliver Ortmann | 7 : 5 | Karl Boyes |
Bruno Muratore | 7 : 1 | Micca Georgopoulos |
THE CEP ANNIVERSARY 8 BALL TOURNAMENT | ||
THE SEMI FINALS | ||
Darren Appleton | 8 : 6 | Marcus Chamat |
Oliver Ortmann | 8 : 2 | Bruno Muratore |
THE CEP ANNIVERSARY 8 BALL TOURNAMENT | ||
THE FINAL | ||
Oliver Ortmann | 8 : 3 | Darren Appleton |
Trophy winners Darren Appleton, Oliver Ortmann, Bruno Muratore and Marcus Chamat.
Photograph courtesy of Peter Aprile.
SPANISH FEDERATION OF POOL AND DARTS | |||
ANNIVERSARY 8 BALL TOURNAMENT | |||
THE PRIZE FUND | |||
Champion | € 4,000 | x 1 | € 4,000 |
Runner-Up | 2,000 | x 1 | 2,000 |
Semi-Finalists | 1,000 | x 2 | 2,000 |
Quarter-Finalists | 500 | x 4 | 2,000 |
Last 16 | 250 | x 8 | 2,000 |
Last 32 | 100 | x 16 | 1,600 |
- | - | Total | € 13,600 |
Entry Fee: 100 Euros | |||