Rileys American Pool and Snooker
Hobs Moat Road
Solihull
West Midlands
B92 8JN
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Saturday 10 August 2019
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Benji puts the hurt on Kurt
Report by: Matt Hawthorn
Photos by: Shaun Berrisford
On Saturday 10th August Solihull 9 Ball hosted it's Cyclop Summer Challenge event at Rileys Sports Bar, Solihull. A mixture of familiar faces and Solihull 9 Ball debutants were split into 5 groups of 5 with the top 3 from each group, along with the best ranked 4th place player, advancing to the knockout phase. Group matches were alternate break, races to 5 with our new Cyclop Zeus balls present on all 10 match tables.
With 3 players all finishing with identical win/loss records the tournament directing software's racks-won average was required to determine top spot in Group A. Danny Douane, playing in his first Solihull 9 Ball event, pipped Chris Parker and Bence Varga to pole position. Both Danny and Bence were unfamiliar to most in the room and can be extremely proud of their respective performances in advancing from a tough group. Chris Parker's quality is known to most following his successes in Total 9 Ball and 3 wins from his 4 matches saw him safely qualify for the last sixteen.
In Group B Kev Simpson topped the group with a 100% record. Elliott Sanderson advanced as runner-up with 3 wins whilst Andy Lacey's 2 victories would see him progress in 3rd place. An honourable mention too for newcomer Ross Cable, whose 5-4 win over senior tournament director Daryl Garland kept him in contention until the end. Hopefully we will see more of Ross in future Solihull 9 Ball events.
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While Daryl was out of sorts due to ill health we did at least see one Garland in the last sixteen. His son Luke has only taken up 9 Ball in the last couple of months but has taken to the game like a duck to water thanks to his sound snooker fundamentals. He dominated Group C and finished top without tasting defeat. Kurt Weaver and Shane Conroy came in second and third respectively. Kurt was playing some great pool and, despite a loss to Luke Garland, his place in the last sixteen never looked in doubt. Shane Conroy bounced back from a heavy opening match defeat with 2 wins from his remaining 3 games seeing him through.
Ali Asghar Merchant and Raffy Gonzales were guaranteed last sixteen spots even before the fixtures pitted them against each other. With both men on 3 wins their match would decide who would claim first place in Group D. Raffy ran out a 5-1 winner, meaning Ali would finish as runner up. Ian McCormik, a finalist at Event 4 of the Solihull 9 Ball Series, booked his place in the last sixteen with wins over Craig Hirst and Andy Carter.
Group E opened with a shock with Zoltan Kojsza defeating Benji Buckley 5-2. Zoltan went on to win the group at the expense of just seven racks. Benji recovered to win his remaining 3 games while Gary Bullocke, making a welcome return to the tournament scene, secured qualification with comfortable wins over Matt Hawthorn and Jimmy Mole.
Now we were down to the final sixteen. A win here would see eight players guaranteed a share of the £800 prize money while those defeated at this stage would be entered in to our second chance event. Kris Kovacs was promoted in to the 16th spot as the best 4th placed player. Races were now extended to 7.
Finishing runner up in the round robin phase usually results in a tough game in the knockout rounds. That certainly proved to be the case for Benji Buckley as cuescore paired him against Elliott Sanderson. Benji advanced by a 7-3 scoreline before extracting revenge against Zoltan Kojsza (7-1) in the quarter finals. Benji completed his route to the final with a 7-0 win over Shane Conroy. Despite the defeat Shane should take a lot of confidence from his performance in this event. In a field stacked full of talent his semi final run was certainly no fluke. In the bottom half of the draw, Kurt Weaver advanced to the final with wins over Ali Asghar Merchant (7-2) and Danny Douane (7-3) before defeating Ian McCormick (7-4) in the other semi.
In Benji Buckley and Kurt Weaver the final would feature two of the day's best players competing in a race to 9. The match would prove to be a fitting conclusion to a great day of pool. While some of our previous finals have ended in landslide victories this one went to the wire. Neither man could pull away from their opponent, the game reaching an 8-8 scoreline. Benji Buckley eventually clinched the deciding rack to claim the £300 first prize.
So another great tournament despite a smaller field than normal. We were encouraged to see so many new faces at this event but it was a familiar name who took the crown. Well done Benji. Commiserations to Kurt Weaver who played superbly well all day. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we see Kurt win one of our events. Our second chance event was won by Elliott Sanderson who defeated Luke Garland in the final (7-2).
Thanks to all the players who supported this tournament. Our next event takes place on 7th September and will be the first of our Cyclop Pool Series. The series will combine 9 & 10 ball tournaments with our handicapping system in place throughout. Visit www.solihull9ball.com for further information.
We would like to express our deepest thanks to Cyclop Billiards for sponsoring us going forward. We appreciate the contributions of all of our sponsors : GO Customs, Taom Billiards, Supreme Shark Rack, Cyclop Billiards, Rileys Sports Bar and to www.pro9.co.uk for continuing to feature our reports on the front page of the website.
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