Pool Resurrected in Yorkshire
The excellent venue of Riley's Doncaster saw the re-birth of 8 ball pool in the CSSC Yorkshire calendar.
A somewhat disappointing turn out of 21 players arrived to do battle. I recall that Revenue and Customs Sports and Leisure pool events started out the same and now attract 70+ players each year. Out of little acorns...The 2010 event will also be a national qualifier so I expect lift off next year!
The relatively few competitors didn't mean that competition was less intense as the competitors were split in to four groups from which we would have 16 qualifiers for the main event KO stages, with the remaining five going in to the plate.
There were no notable shocks arising from the group stages, but special mention goes to Dave McCrystal who finished with a 6 and 0 record in Group A as did Adam Robinson in Group C. Both players looked like they were going to be there at the shake up.
Kerry Costello started the plate event with a real shock, knocking out Sheffield's Chris Taylor.
Her amazing run didn't continue as she succumbed in the semi final to Gavin Mullen, who went on to win the plate, pipping Sanjay Thukral 4-3 in the final.
The Last 16 of the serious stuff threw up some incredible results. Cindy Rapinczuk put in an amazing performance to beat Paul Buck 3-2 from 2 frames down and Adam Robinson continued his fine run of form, blitzing Richard Buckby 3-0. Dave McCrystal did the same to Zahid Khan - they had still not conceded a single frame!
McCrystal continued his fine run of form in the Quarters by thrashing Andy Davidson 3-0. Incredibly, Dave was now 12 and 0! Robinson had a much tougher test against Dave Oram, but just managed to come through by winning the odd frame in five.
Home town hero Darryl Price, more recognised for his 9 ball skills, had crept through stealthily in the bottom half of the draw. He eased past Adam Grimmer in the quarters. Rapinczuk had clearly had her final in the last 16 as she couldn't reproduce the amazing display. She went down 3 1 to the Italian Stallion - Nino Albanese.
In the semis, on form, you had to fancy Messrs McCrystal and Robinson, who had only conceded two frames between them all day - an incredible record.
But that's where this game is so brilliant as the form book was ripped up by Messrs Albanese, beating McCrystal 4-3 in a fantastic battle and then by Dynamite Darryl Price who disposed of Robinson by a similar scoreline.
I had the pleasure of refereeing the final and it was absolutely breathtaking stuff as both players went for it hammer and tong - there were probably about six safety shots in 9 frames!
It's an old cliché, but no one deserved to lose this match and it was fitting that it went all the way to a deciding frame. Darryl missed a couple of opportunities on the black before Nino calmly cleared his last two balls and the black to take the title.
Unlucky Darryl - at least you didn't have far to go home! And well done to the likeable Nino, who won it for Italia!!!
Thanks to everyone who made this such a great event and, as I said at the start, I really hope for lift off for CSSC 8 ball pool in 2010.
Paul Buck
Yorkshire Region Pool Organiser