The Total9ball Rookie double chance event held at St Albans on the 24th March 2012 was a great success. T9B Rookie Champion was run as a double chance event meaning each player was entered in the competition twice, once in the top half and once in the bottom half This meaning each player is guaranteed a minimum of two matches and also the chance of getting into the prize money twice given this tournament unbeatable value for money. T9B trialled a new breaking system at the event which was loser breaks this added a new pressure for players as it was so important to hold your break.
There were a total of 32 players competing travelling from as far as Penzance and Rotherham to be involved in this fantastic Total9ball event. In the weeks leading up to this event we asked players to predict who would win the event, Mark Singleton lead the prediction table going into the event and showed throughout the day just why he was one of the favourites to win this event.
The first matches began on the newly re-clothed tables at the Hurricane Room St Albans at 10.15 and it wasn’t long till the results came flying in and some shock ones at that. Paul Taylor in his first T9B event beat fancied James Welch 6v3, local player Paul Summerfield knocked out a pre comp favourite Neil Craycraft by a 6v4 scoreline and Mark Hughes defeated Tom Staveley 6v2. Mr Singleton got off the a flyer beating ex GB9 player Colin Rennison 6v0, Chris Stocker dusted off his 9ball stick to beat Lee Hersey from Bristol 6v1. The next matches played were round two of the top half of matches, races were increased to 7. There were wins for Chris Stocker, Mark Parker Mark Singleton all by a 7v4 result. Ciprain Dandu produced win of the round defeating Chris Parker. New player to the game of 9ball pool Ross Fredrick won his first ever match against Shakz Islam but was then defeated by Dean Reeve 7v2.
We then moved over to the first round of the bottom half of the draw. Colin Rennison after bad start to the comp turned his day around beating in form Jaspal Bamotra 6v4. The biggest win of this round was 6v1 and this went to Robin Cripps against another well fancied player Chris Stocker. Jamie Bryan also won by the same score against Ken Ng.
Moving on to the money match round and there were still 4 players involved in both sides of the draw they were Ciprain Dandu, Dean Reeve, Robin Cripps and Tyler Trew although after this there would only be one player with a remaining double chance the other all won one and lost won. Ciprain Dandu defeated St Albans own Paul Summerfield 7v5 but lost to the eventual winner Mark Singleton by the same score line. Dean Reeve steam rolled Colin Rennison 7v1 but then lost out in a hill-hill battle against Robin Cripps, the other result in this round for Robin was a 7v2 victory against Ant Illingworth making him the only player in the Quarter Finals twice. Tyler Trew beat Mikko Tuomi 7v6 but was then beaten on the 3 foul rule against Mark Parker 7v6.
In the Quarter Finals the question was could Robin Cripps keep going in both sides of the draw? Unfortunately for him the answer was no, but other question was how would he fair against Dean Reeve for the second time in the Event and the answer was the same result as earlier a second hill-hill victory 7v6 heartbreak for Dean Reeve all Quarter Final Results below.
Mark Parker 7v5 Paul Wensley
Mark Singleton 7v3 Robin Cripps
Robin Cripps 7v6 Dean Reeve
Ciprain Dandu 7v4 Tyler Trew
The Semi Finals began with an all Mark affair as Singleton showed class to beat frustrated Parker 7v4. Ciprain Dandu was not about to be added to the list of Robins hill-hill wins for the day as Ciprain gave him a taste of his own medicine beating him 7v6.
The Final began at around 8.15pm so in perfectly good time and seemed to be over in a flash I don’t recall seeing Singleton missing a ball in an impressive 7v3 win.
There was a lot of fantastic feedback from the players about Total9ball events and the club at St Albans which was nice to hear and it was a fantastic day of pool. Thanks to Nicole for running the comp with myself, to St Albans for again playing excellent hosts and to all the players who entered the event.
The next T9B double chance event is The Championship Of The South won in 2011 by Craig Osbourne this will be again held at St Albans on Saturday 19th May and is open to all players Professionals and Amateurs.
[ This message was edited by: wildman147 on 2012-03-25 17:13 ]
