Van Boening Maintains Wide Margin over Strickland in Action Challenge II

Posted by admin as Billiard Tour News - Pool Tour News

Van Boening Maintains Wide Margin over Strickland in Action Challenge IITwo of three days in 10-ball race to 100 completed, $20 grand at stake tomorrow

by Paul Berg, InsidePOOL Magazine Staff
At 46, Earl “The Pearl” Strickland doesn’t quite have 24-year-old Shane Van Boening doubled in the age category. After two days of 10-ball between the two, the reigning World 10-ball and U.S. Open 9-ball champ doesn’t have Strickland quite doubled in games won either, but Sioux Falls’ Van Boening has opened up a commanding 60-40 lead in The Action Challenge II.
It’s the second such race to 100 produced by TheActionReport, in which “The South Dakota Kid” has participated as the de facto home team, the first a 100-70 win over Corey Deuel in Van Boening’s hometown pool room.
After the first day, Strickland trailed 30-17 and stayed afterwards firing balls in seemingly on the cusp of catching a gear. After rallying with three consecutive break and runs on his way to closing the gap before Van Boening reached the designated 60-game mark to close this second night of play, Strickland was in another familiar mood to longtime observers of the five-time U.S. Open 9-ball winner and BCA Hall of Famer.

Van Boening does not look like he will let off the gas anytime soon. With a devastating break, and clearly smarter and more polished safety play than Strickland, Van Boening’s mistakes have been incredibly rare, and he has gotten the best of the rolls when he makes the occasional error.
There won’t be a cutoff score tomorrow, as one of these amazing players will reach the 100-game-finish line and claim the $20,000 prize, made up of a ten-grand entry per man. Mike Gulyassy of Sledgehammer Cues and Baby’s Pro Shop fame is backing Strickland, while Van Boening has staked himself.
Like the previous two nights, TheActionReport will offer the match pay-per-view and will also undoubtedly collect the footage onto a DVD set as the have with The First Action Challenge.
Stay tuned to InsidePOOLmag.com for results from the last day Van Boening’s battle with Strickland, as well as final results from the BCAPL events at the Qlympics in Louisville.

Martinez Breaks Through for Straight Pool Gold

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Martinez Breaks Through for Straight Pool Gold
Defeats Owen in U.S. Open 14.1 Championship final at Qlympics

by Paul Berg, InsidePOOL Magazine Staff
Rafael Martinez-Chavez and Gabe Owen are respected cue-sporting professionals, but neither was known for straight pool prowess prior to this trip to Louisville. The only two players to cash in as many as three of four U.S. Open events at the Qlympics over the past two weeks, it would be Martinez taking the only gold medal between the two, escaping from a long stretch of spotty play for both with a 29-ball-and-out run that concluded an extended 200-164 final match. Owen was undefeated until today, including a previous 150-95 victory over Martinez in the winners’-bracket final, while Martinez would start Friday in a semifinal match against Huidji See.
Runner-up at this year’s World Straight Pool Championship, See opened scoring with a two-rack run of 28, but Martinez responded, running 43 and then playing a safety with no fruit from his side-pocket break shot attempt. Martinez ran 40 more from the resulting opportunity to take a commanding 83-28 lead but yielded a shot to See there. The recent émigré to Florida from Holland wasn’t able to overtake Martinez, getting as close as 134-130 before missing a break ball with the bridge. Martinez reached 149 from that error but, only a ball away, was forced to play a sequence of safeties that included an intentional foul. See attempted a long combination from there and missed, yielding the two balls Martinez would need to wrap up a 150-130 win and earn a chance at revenge facing Owen.
Initially, it seemed that Owen would control the match, as Martinez won the dance for a shot from Owen’s opening break but only claimed the first group of 14 balls, missing the first break shot and ceding a four-rack run. Owen returned the favor after taking those 42, however, and Martinez regained the upper hand, jumping out to a 72-42 edge before trying to force a break of the pack out of a too-straight 14 ball and blasting it out of the pocket and off the table. The foul allowed Owen to grab a tenuous 82-71 lead with a couple of clearances. Each began to make positional mistakes and miss outright with abnormally high frequency, Owen holding his last lead at 151-149.
A final skidded miss from Owen of the 9 ball up-table left Martinez an open look with a 171-164 lead, and bridging across three racks. Martinez slowly worked his way through the last 29 balls for the 200-164 victory. With the conclusion of the straight pool event, U.S. Open play has ceased at the Clarion Conference Center, but there is still more pool to finish out the weekend. BCAPL Singles 9-ball events are near conclusion, and tomorrow will bring play for juniors and 9-ball teams.
The marquee event remaining is The Action Challenge II, where Shane Van Boening held a first of three-day lead over Earl Strickland. The two will wind up a race to 100 in 10-ball Saturday, the winner claiming $20,000. Strickland is sponsored by Mike Gulyassy Cues and Baby’s Pro Shop, while Van Boening has put himself in the box to try to duplicate his victory over Corey Deuel 100-70 in The First Action Challenge. Check back with InsidePOOLmag.com for more from the Qlympics in Louisville.

See Takes US Open 10-Ball Gold

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See Takes U.S. Open 10-ball GoldMurphy awarded Qlympics bronze; straight pool closes U.S. Open play tomorrow

by Paul Berg, InsidePOOL Magazine Staff
Holland import Huidji See claimed top honors in the U.S. Open 10-ball Championship tonight with an 11-9 victory over Shannon Murphy in the winners’-bracket final and a comeback win over Louis Ulrich. That 11-9 result in the third of four U.S. Open finals at the Qlympics in Louisville was a second win for the occasional Floridian over Atlanta’s Ulrich, and capped an undefeated run through a small field filled with potentially dominant players.
The two U.S. Open 9-ball champions in the field were unable to reach the final day, ’06 winner Schmidt rousted by See 11-9 and ’04 titlist Gabe Owen bumped early by all-around monster Jason Miller and taken down in a tie for fifth place by Rafael Martinez-Chavez. Another threat at all games, 22- year-old Shannon Murphy from Cincinnati was undefeated at the start of the evening, having come back for double-hill wins in dramatic fashion against Chris Bartram and Martinez. Facing See, Murphy played the familiar role of trailing, but this time his opposition pulled away. While he has had moderate success in Kentucky, tying for 27th place in this year’s Derby City Classic 9-ball event and making top quarter of the other sprawling events as well, See has no finishes to herald this strong a 10-ball showing to match his runner-up at the World Straight Pool Championship supporting his remaining contention in the other event he entered here.
Ulrich has recent history to support his strong play here, and while his initial 11-10 loss to See sent him to the one-loss ranks, Ulrich came through the semifinals with Martinez 11-7, holding off a mid-match rally from the fourth-place finisher in both events today. Martinez also joined Owen as the only players to make the cash in three of four divisions.
Murphy played an unfamiliar frontrunner’s role in the semifinals against Ulrich, taking the first five games in the alternate-break format by capitalizing on early misses. While strong all-around DCC9 finisher Murphy maintained that lead 7-2, his break went dry for the remainder of the set, leaving a combination and a run-out for Ulrich around a scratch on the 4 ball that cost him three games. With another clearance from an empty Murphy break and one from his own fruitful smash, Ulrich drew to within 8-7 and three-fouled Murphy in the next with imprisoning defense to draw level. Ulrich took his first lead, clearing from a successful 2 ball safety, and Murphy took the next. Jumping to skim the 1 ball and caroming the 10 ball straight in the side to take the hill, Ulrich closed the match 11-9 after out-moving Murphy for the 5 ball and running out.
It would take two race-to-11 wins for Ulrich to unseat See, and with leads of 3-0 and 8-5 Ulrich seemed on pace to force a second set, running out immaculately with most of his opportunities. See roared back, capitalizing on few good breaks and taking a 9-8 lead on a run-out from a missed 2 ball slice by Ulrich that rolled along the rail to rattle and hang in the pocket. Another miss on the 5 ball in the next rack put See a game away from the tournament, and while Ulrich rallied to take one more from a foul kicking at the 8 ball by See, it would be his last. With a 10-8 lead, See broke and made the 1ball, then elected to swing at a 2-10 bank combination. It missed narrowly, and the two lined up for a combination on the eight for Ulrich. The Southern California native drilled it but scratched one rail in the side pocket, and See suddenly stared at a road map that he ran out with aplomb for the 11-9 win and the gold version of the three medals awarded to top finishers in these events.
See will receive at least a bronze tomorrow when he tackles Martinez in the U.S. Open 14.1 Straight Pool Championship semifinals, the penultimate step in the last pro event of the Qlympics. Owen has been practicing straight pool all night with Schmidt and tournament director Ken Shuman and awaits in the one race-to-200 point final.
Two consummate pros have begun a historic race to 100 in 10-ball in TheActionReport’s Action Challenge 2, available for pay-per-view on their site. Earl Strickland was slow out of the gate against The First Action Challenge winner and recent U.S. Open 9-ball champion Shane Van Boening and fell behind 9-1. Strickland later seemed to gain some of the stroke that propelled him to five Open championships over three decades, rallying to a 28-17 deficit before Van Boening ran out from a Stickland miss banking the 1 ball and broke the 10 in the side pocket to close the first of three days of play 30-17. The 10 ball does not count as a win on the break in this $10,000-a-man, winner-takes-all tilt unless it goes in the sides or the corner pockets farther away from the rack, but Van Boening managed to pot it a handful of times for wins with his powerful smash. Stay tuned to InsidePOOLmag.com as “The Pearl” attempts to rally against “The South Dakota Kid” and the last of the U.S. Open events at the Qlympics are settled tomorrow in Louisville.

World Champ Peach Completes Euro Mosconi Cup Line-up

Posted by admin as Independent Tournaments - Mosconi Cup

World Champ Peach Completes Euro Mosconi Cup Line-up
Deuel makes appearance No.4
English billiard player Daryl Peach, who last Sunday became the first ever Englishman to lift pool’s most coveted title, the WPA World Pool Championship, becomes the fifth and final player to be named in the European side for the 14th annual Mosconi Cup which takes place at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas from December 13 – 16.
Peach, the 35 year-old veteran from Blackpool, recorded a string of superb performances at the Araneta Coliseum, Manila, culminating in a magnificent 17-15 victory over Filipino Roberto Gomez in the championship match.
The World Champion will be making his second Mosconi Cup appearance and the omens are good. He was a member of the 1995 side that won in Basildon, England.
“America is a very strong side but at the Mosconi Cup it always comes down to bottle and this year we have a team to compete and take the title,” said Peach.
“I always knew I was capable of getting back in the team. I played in it in 95 and I was unlucky not to get in it a few times after that. I always knew I had the bottle which is what is needed to play in this tournament and now with my World Pool Championship victory I have proved it again,” he added.
Taking the fifth and final spot for Team USA is Ohio’s Corey Deuel who will be making his fourth appearance in the annual USA v Europe match. Deuel, 30, sports a nine wins from 13 games record in the competition and won the final match of the competition last year to allow the Americans to retain the trophy.
“It’s always a great honour to represent the United States in the Mosconi Cup. There’s something about the event that gets everyone going – players and fans alike – and I will be doing my very best,” said Deuel.
This year will see the 14th running of pool’s answer to the Ryder Cup and the current score stands at 10 ½ - 2 ½ to the Americans.

The Teams
USA
Johnny Archer (Georgia)
Shane Van Boening (S Dakota)
Rodney Morris (Hawaii)
Earl Strickland (N Carolina)
Corey Deuel (Ohio)
Non-playing captain: Kim Davenport

Europe
Ralf Souquet (Germany)
Niels Feijen (Holland)
Tony Drago (Malta)
Konstantin Stepanov (Russia)
Daryl Peach (England)
Non-playing captain: Johan Ruijsink

The official sponsors of the 2007 Mosconi Cup are Brunswick Tables, Simonis cloth, Super Aramith Pro Balls, Predator Cues and the Flexi-Rest.
The event’s official website is www.mosconicup.com (http://www.mosconicup.com)
Tickets and hotel rooms are available from info[at]matchroom.com

USA Billiards Duo Shows Heart at Korea Pro Tour Championships

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USA Billiards Duo Shows Heart at Korea Pro Tour Championships
The USA billiard duo of Rodney Morris and Charlie Williams showed how important it is to never give up as they trailed Korean team of Young Hwa Jeong (KPT #1) and Geun Jae Lee (KPT#5) 0-3 before making a comeback to win 9-7. But in their next match they showed even more heart as they were tested by the Filipino Team of Joven Bustamente and Jundal Mazon. Morris and Williams were down 6-0 before they even had an opportunity to win a game. The Rocket and The Korean Dragon were laughing and joking despite being in dire straits and stayed upbeat. The attitude paid off as they got their first open chance in Rack 7 and proceeded to display perfect pool and synchronization of play and team strategy and won the next 9 games straight for a 9-6 victory.

After the match was over I just turned to Rocket and laughed saying, how did we win that match? said Charlie Williams. And Rocket says, Positive thinking.

Both players are seasoned veterans when it comes to team play with Morris a 4 time Mosconi Cup veteran and Williams a 5x Mosconi Cup player as well as numerous MVP records for playing for Team Korea and USA in Asia.

The Japan/Korea pairing of Hayato Hijikata and Hee Chul Kim continued their fine play with a 9-7 upset of Japanese Champs Goh Takami and Hiroshi Takenaka. Interestingly Kim and Hijikata cannot communicate through language so they use hand gestures.

Jasmin Ouschan lost a close 9-8 match to men’s Filipino Jundel Mazon but then overcame a 6-3 deficit to win 7-6 against Japan’s Miyuki Sakai in the Womens Division. Yu Ram Cha continued her rampage on the ladies side defeating KPT #2 Yun Mi Lim 7-0. Cha has shut out all her opponents thus far without dropping a game since her return from Germany working with Coach Michael Wahl, who also trains Thorsten Hohmann.

The Filipino trio lead by Joven Bustamente with Ricky Zerna and Jundal Mazon continued their undefeated run thus far in the event. Japan’s Takenaka and Hijikata also remains undefeated as well as Korea’s Young Hwa Jeong. Charlie Williams pulled another come back from behind victory over KPT #6 Jinhyuk Jung trailing 6-2 and then eventually winning 9-6. Morris crushed KPT #4 Ham Won Shik 9-2.

Play continues tomorrow with marquee matches Bustamente vs Williams, Jeong vs Hijikata, and Mens Doubles Finals with Morris/Williams vs Hijikata/Kim .

The event is produced by Dragon Promotions hosted at Lotte Department Store and aired on MBC ESPN. The official sponsors are Min Table, Predator Cues, and Ra Beauty Salons.

For more info goto www.dragonpromotions.co.kr (http://www.dragonpromotions.co.kr/) or www.dragonpromotions.com (http://www.dragonpromotions.com/)