Gray wins GB9 British Grand Prix Billiard Event

Posted by admin as Billiard Tour News - Pool Tour News

“Granite” Mark Gray wins GB9 British Grand Prix

2008 British Grand Prix winner, Mark Gray.

“Obviously I’m well happy to win the last one, and to beat Imran for a change” said Mark Gray from Peterborough after he won the GB9 British Grand Prix - the final event of the GB9 Ball Tour season, beating Tour supremo Imran Majid 11-6 in the final of the Main Event at Mansfield.

“It’s a shame it’s the last one for me now, because it’s my first victory this season, I’m usually one of the winners but the standard this year now on the English circuit is getting so tough, I’m just one of 12 or 14 players capable of winning The Pro Cup and the Main Event.”

Gray, a former snooker player who has relatively recently converted to full-time American pool, rose to the top of the game at a meteoric pace, and has now “ruled the roost” on the European Rankings seemingly forever!

It’s a strange phenomenon that some players can play well on one tour, and not achieve the same standard on another, just like there are good “money players” who struggle to perform well in tournaments, but this isn’t the case with Gray. Majid’s supreme dominance of the GB9 tour has stifled everyone’s ambitions this year, and Gray admits to Majid being his nemesis in pool only beating him once in the last 13 meetings.

The future for Gray however, is bright, as he is hoping to be selected for the European Mosconi Cup Team after staying ahead of Italy’s Bruno Muratore in the Euro Tour rankings (Gray is ranked No.1 on the Euro Tour, and has been number one for many months, but is now only 5 points ahead of Muratore).

It’s a busy time for “Granite” now, he will shortly be leaving for the Philippines and the World 10 Ball Championships, then he will fly from there straight to the Netherlands for Matchroom’s World Cup of Pool, and then after two days at home he will be off to the next Euro Tour event in Switzerland, but Gray says he loves the travelling as there wasn’t so much travel when he played snooker, as Gray says, “it’s all a great adventure really!”
Maharaja crowned 2008 British Champion after final ranking event of season

2008 British 9 Ball Champion, Imran "Chicken Dinner" Majid.

Despite losing to Gray in the final event of the season Imran Majid was without doubt the most successful British tour player in 2008.  Majid, from West London, won the first four consecutive events of the 128 player, six event season, and was also a semi-finalist and runner-up in the last 2 events sealing his position at the top of the British Rankings by some considerable margin.

The final weekend of the year is the most important for the UK’s professional pool playing fraternity. The rankings after this event determine which 8 players will be relegated from the elite 32 player Pro division, as well as selecting the top 8 for promotion from the 96 player Challenge division. The bottom ranked 24 players from the main rankings will also be relegated, and will now need to enter the open qualifiers in November along with other hopefuls attempting to gain entry into Europe’s most prestigious national 9 ball tour.

Howard wins GB9 Mansfield Challenge Cup

2008 GB9 Mansfield Challenge Cup Winner, Jason Howard.

Jason Howard, a quietly spoken gentlemanly player from Bournemouth modestly accepted his victory in the Challenge Cup event at Mansfield, whilst his friends and well wishers roared their very vocal support and congratulations from the overlooking raised tier bar area!

This was the first final for the modest 29 year old, who is a Safety Officer for a Solar Energy company, and the 15 ranking points accrued have boosted his ranking into the vital top eight on the Challenge Cup Division and therefore qualifies him for automatic promotion into next season’s elite Pro Division.

The eight promoted players are Thomas Ainsworth-Smith, Brad Parker, David Walsh, Andrew Nicholson, Christopher Robson, Jason Howard, Andy Barnett, and Scott Higgins ranked 1-8 respectively.

2008 GB9 Mansfield Pro Cup Winner, Darren "Dynamite" Appleton.

“Dynamite” wins GB9 Mansfield Pro Cup

A delighted Darren Appleton won the GB9 Pro Cup event for the second time of the season, beating Imran Majid with a comfortable 11-5 in the final.

The timely win promotes the Yorkshireman to the top of the Pro Division rankings, displacing Junior player Phil Burford from the pole position that he had held since event 2.

Karl Boyes and Tony Drago finished the season ranked 3rd and 4th in the GB9 Pro division rankings, with Imran Majid, Kevin Uzzell, James Kay, Daryl Peach, Mark Gray, Jayson Shaw, Craig Osborne, Raj Hundal, Paul Williams, Damian Overton, Pat Holtz and Michael Valentine filling out the top 16 respectively.

Heart-breaking tears of sadness, but tears of joy too!

It was with a heavy heart that Tour Chairman, Lee Rigby, took the microphone after the usual “housekeeping” announcements and began to explain his absence from the playing table at the last two events.

Affectionately known to the players as “Riggers”, he explained that nerve damage from an extremely painful and very rare condition has paralysed his upper-right arm from the shoulder to the elbow, effectively making playing pool impossible for the foreseeable future. The nerve will take up to two years to repair, and even then the condition might not be sufficient to ever play pool again.

With his voice cracking with emotion, and stopping to compose himself several times, he assured everyone that nothing would stop him from continuing to run the tour, and vowed that the 2009 season would be better than ever.

Ironically, despite not playing in the last two events and therefore only receiving ranking points from four events, Lee had already secured sufficient points to secure his spot in the elite Pro Division for the 2009 season.

Later on there was another tearful event, but with a much happier tone, as the players awarded gifts to the Tour Chairman, Lee Rigby, and Tour Director, Shirley Ang.

Shir came to the microphone and “blubbed” continuously for thirty seconds, and the only comprehensible words were “thank you” in between the flood of tears… Bless!

All Photography by Big Dave Knight at www.Pro9.co.uk

Van Helmond and Gerard Set for World Cup Glory

Posted by admin as Billiard Tour News - Pool Tour News

Van Helmond and Gerard Set for World Cup Glory

Holland B Qualifying Event Concludes

Holland B, made up of Gijs van Helmond and Roy Gerard, will be ready for the PArtypoker.net World Cup of Pool.

Gijs van Helmond and Roy Gerard will represent Holland B at the forthcoming PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool after they won through a tough qualifying event in Rotterdam last Sunday 21st September.

The dynamic duo overcame the experienced pairing of Alex Lely and Rico Diks 8-5 in the final to make their way into the 32 team event which takes place from 7-12 October at Outland Nightclub in Rotterdam.

There they will face a tough opening round match against the Taiwanese side consisting of 2005 World Champion Wu Chia-ching and Wang Hung-hsiang on the evening of Wednesday 8th October.

With the host nation allowed two teams in the competition, current World Straight Pool Champion Niels Feijen and European No.5 Nick Van Den Berg will also fly the flag for Holland A as they face off against bitter rivals Belgium on the opening night of the event.

With just eight teams taking part in the qualifier, the emphasis was firmly on quality rather than quantity with the likes of Hudji See and Gilliano Smit competing as well as the multi-titled Lely and Diks.

Taking place at the Capelle Pool and Snooker Centre, Rotterdam, the format was double elimination, race to 8, scotch doubles.

Considered outsiders in the event, van Helmond (Nijmegen) and Gerards (Maastricht) overcame Uytenbogaardt and de Vries 8-7 in the semi-final match before taking care of Diks and Lely 8-5 to secure their spot in the World Cup.

With a total prize fund of $250,000 including $60,000 going to the winning pair, van Helmond and Gerard will have nothing to lose and everything to gain when the action gets underway on October 7th.

Taking place over twelve sessions over six days, tickets for the 2008 World Cup of Pool are priced as follows:

All weekday afternoon sessions: FREE

Weekend afternoon sessions: €3.00

All evening sessions: €5.00

An event-long pass is also available for only €25.00

All tickets are available from the Official Website of the Dutch National Pool Federation

http://knbb.bsid.nl/kaarten/

5th Annual Asia 10-Ball Championships

Posted by admin as Billiard Tour News - Pool Tour News

International billiard stars Immonen, Morris, and Hohamnn will aim for the Asia 10-Ball Championship Title.

Dragon Promotions is pleased to announce The 5th Annual Asia 10-Ball Championships which will take place November 10-14, 2008 at the Hamilton Hotel, Seoul Korea. The event will be broadcasted on XTM and XPORTS, two of the top channels in South Korea.
 
Top names in the field so far include Mika Immonen FIN, Rodney Morris USA, Thorsten Hohmann GER, Raj Hundal IND, Lee Chenman HK, and Young Hwa Jeong KOR. The event will pay a guaranteed $10,000 to the winner of the men’s division and $3500 to the winner of the women’s division. 
 
All players from all countries are welcomed to come join the event and should contact Dragon Promotions at koreaprotour@yahoo.com for information on Stage 2 of the event beginning November 11.  All other players are welcome to join Stage 1 with 4 qualifying rounds on November 10.
 
Players wishing to visit and compete in Asia in November will find it convenient as there are three back to back events including The All Japan Championships November 19-24 and Puyat Sports Bacolod Open November 27-30 in the Philippines.
 
Dragon Promotions is one of the leading producers of billiard programming in the world today. Dragon produces over 40 events a year airing on networks in USA, Korea, India, and Europe such as ESPN, MBC ESPN, XTM, XPORTS, and Euro Sport. Events include The World 14.1 Championship, The Predator International 10-Ball Championship, King & Queen of Carom, Empress Cup, Pro Pool Schools, Women’s Trickshot Challenge, World Junior 10-Ball Championships, Korea vs USA, and many more.  Dragon also manages some of the world’s best players including  Rodney Morris,  Mika Immonen, Shanelle Loraine, Charlie Williams, Jeanette Lee, Mike Davis, Yu Ram Cha, Raj Hundal and many more. 
Visit Dragonpromotions.com  or Dragonpromotions.co.kr

Photo credit Bullit Marquez