Majid Winner Of Total9ball Shootout Event
Saturday 17th December was the date for the final event of the Total9ball 2011 tournament calendar.
The Event use a new format named The Shoot-Out. All players were put into one league table with each player playing 9 random matches - race to 3 racks. After all matches were completed players ranked 1st-4th were seeded into the Quarter Final and players who finished 5th-12th had to win a play-off match to also reach the Quarter Finals.
The draw was completed by Ramesh Gokhul at approx 10.30am but before any matches were played there was to be a tribute to Mark Lovell who passed away last Friday. T9B asked all players to line up one by one and sink a 9Ball in honour of Mark.
The matches began and the sprint race to 3 format took some getting used to, as each shot was a pressure shot. Nicole Hansen again T9B Tournament Director for the event had to be on the ball as the results flew in. Dean Mazerel made a fantastic start winning his first three matches only droping 1 rack, Chris Buckmaster started his day off well wining 3-0, 3-0 against Wayne Rooke and Phil Wildman.
Shaun Storry and Imran Majid ended the first stage positioned 1st and 2nd on the league table, both only losing one match. Shaun was the hill-hill specialist winning five matches 3v2 where as Imran 'The Maharaja' Majid had four 3-0 wins.
There was an unexpected play-off match that had to be played as Darren Saxby and James Welch after nine matches had won the same amount of games, had the same racks won and matched each other on number of 3-0 wins. This wouldn’t have mattered normally but it was for the final qualifying spot. James Welch held his nerve and won the playoff.
So the league stage was complete and a total of 81 race to 3 matches had been played and a total of 315 racks had been completed. The qualifiers final league positions were as follows:
1 Shaun Storry
2 Imran Majid
3 Chris Buckmaster
4 Ramesh Gokhul
5 Dean Mazerel
6 Phil Wildman
7 Alex Kontaroudis
8 Chris Parker
9 Mark Parker
10 Alan Bell
11 Lionel Brown
12 James Welch
The Draw for the final stages was completed by Shaun Storry. The preliminary stage matches for payers ranked 5th to 12th were race to 4.
Dean Mazerel continued his fine form defeating Chris Parker 4-0, Phil Wildman overcame James Welsh 4-3, Lionel Brown played some top pool beating Mark Parker 4-1 and Alan Bell concluded this round winning 4-1 against Alex Kontaroudis.
Now the seeds were back involved, the race was increased to 5 and they all won their matches. Professional player Imran Majid had the biggest win of the Quarter Finals 5-1 against Dean Mazerel.
Shaun Storry was at it again winning a nervy hill-hill match 5v4 over Phil Wildman. Ever consistent Ramesh Gokhul knocked out Lionel Brown 5v2 and Buckmaster was on the winning side of a 5v3 result against snooker and pool coach Alan Bell.
There were two close games in the Semi Finals. Shaun Storry... you guessed it, was involved in another hill-hill match but this time lost 5-4 to Majid. Chris Buckmaster showed his class defeating T9B's most successful player Ramesh Gokhul 5-3.
The final stage was set, with two of the pre tournament favourites involved - Imran and Chris. It was to be Imran's day as he ran out a 5v2 winner and was crowned T9B Shoot-out 2011 winner.
The Format seemed to work well and the general census was that the players enjoyed it. The format will be used again in 2012 and will be run yearly. The amount of matches each player plays though may be slightly reduced depending on the number of entries.
Thanks to all players who attended, to St Albans for again hosting the event and to Nicole Hansen for running another successful event. We at Total9ball hope all players enjoyed the format and will continue to support T9B in 2012. We wish everyone a Merry Crimbo and fantastic new year. See you all in 2012.
