GB9 Ball Tour Honors Majid, Kicks Off Billiard Season

The GB9 Ball Tour is constantly receiving plaudits from it’s players for the outstandingly professional manner in which it is run, and it’s clear to see the unflagging effort that the organisers take to make sure that the events run as smoothly as a well oiled machine.

It could be expected that these tributes would be a rare thing when dealing with 128 discerning player’s who pay between £500 and £700 ($700 – $1,000 USD) a year membership fees for the privilege of playing on the tour, 96 of whom are attempting to qualify for promotion to the elite Pro Division of 32 players – and the proof that they are doing something very right and very well is that applications to join the tour have always been over-subscribed.

Mark Gray presented with the GB9 Midlands Classic trophy by tour sponsor Klaus Zobrekis, who travelled from Germany to represent his Z9 Billiard Cloth company at this event.

So it’s heartening to see that they have decided to start the 2009 season with a hark-back to the previous one, by rewarding last year’s stand out player with a truly beautiful trophy.

Imran Majid’s domination of the tour in 2008, winning no less than four of the six main events put him at the top of the rankings with an unassailable points lead, and because of the rolling six event system utilised by the tour, each new event now means that he has to try to defend his maximum points at each of the events he won, knowing that even the slightest slip will see the rest of the pack closing the gap.

The ceremonies kicked off with Majid being presented with this truly magnificent 2008 GB9 Player Of The Year trophy for his incredible domination of the 2008 season.

Mark Gray beats Daryl Peach in final of GB9 Midlands Classic

The final of the GB9 Midlands Classic, the main event of this three day tournament, saw an out of sorts World 9 Ball Champion Daryl Peach convincingly beaten by a slick Mosconi Cup potting machine named Mark Gray with a one-sided 11-6 margin.

Both Peach and Gray hail from the same region of the country and are good friends off the table, and even teamed up as partners in Matchroom Sports “World Cup of Pool” event, and the match was played with good humour thoughout, despite Peach being on the receiving end of some particularly frustating rules, dutifully enforced by the GB9 Ball Tour referee Mel Harley.

The tour has adopted a 3 point rule for all breaks to force players to use skill and power on their break, and despite Peach sinking two balls on his well aimed thunderclap break, he was penalised with loss of turn after failing to gain a third point by getting another ball to pass the “head string”.

Despite this, the rule is the same for both players and Gray, who also finished top of the European rankings last year, was a graceful and worthy winner as always, and even more pleased to take the title as his parent’s had come to support him and had front row seats for the final.

Michael Valentine wins Solihull Pro Cup.

Scotland’s Valentine triumphs over reigning Ten Ball Champion Appleton

Saturday evening saw the first two events played to completion – in the Pro Cup semi-finals Darren Appleton beat Imran Majid and Michael Valentine beat James Kay creating a mouth-watering Appleton vs Valentine final.

Appleton had only just returned from the Philippines where he had been getting plenty of match practice and went into the final as the strong favourite. However Valentine knew he had a tough match ahead, and as he has frequently shown before, he rises to the tougher challenges and often plays his best pool under those conditions – and this was the case today as he eventually beat Appleton 9:6.

Freshman beats veteran to take Challenge Division title

Steven Petty overjoyed with Challenge triumph.

Forty new faces appeared on the Challenge Tour and at the end of the season the top ranked player will earn promotion into the Pro Cup. One of these new players has made his mark by winning the Solihull Challenge Cup and is now well on his way to the top of the rankings.

The Challenge Division semi-finals saw Steven Petty beat Matt Ford and Anthony Ginn triumph over Gareth Steele setting up a Petty versus Ginn final.

Once again there appeared to be a strong favourite, and once again the tables were turned as experienced veteran Ginn was edged at the finish line with an 11:9 scoreline from fellow Londoner and GB9 newcomer Steven Petty.

CueSport TV to Broadcast British Professional 9-Ball in 2009

Majid dominated the GB 9-Ball Tour last season.

CueSport TV, the Internet Pool & Snooker Channel, have today announced that the company will be once again offering recorded broadcasts of all of the GB 9-Ball Tour events in 2009.

The coverage provided by CueSport TV in 2008 was unprecedented for a national 9-ball pool tour with 9-ball pool videos being available in the main schedule and on-demand. Throughout the course of the 2008 season viewers were able to watch 9-ball pool matches featuring a host of professional pool players including Darren Appleton, Daryl Peach, Tony Drago, Imran Majid, Karl Boyes, Raj Hundal and Pat Holtz, the majority of which are returning for the 2009 season.

Managing Director of CueSport TV Ltd, Pete Williams had this to say, “The GB 9 Ball Tour, through the hard work and dedication of Lee Rigby and Shirley Ang, has become a recognised tour throughout the world due to the quality of the organisation, the star players on offer and the coverage that my company has been able to offer. 2008 saw us serve video to 11,000 unique viewers per month from 110 different countries. It made massive sense for us to continue to cover the GB 9 Ball Tour for 2009 and drive both the tour and it’s standing within the International pool community forward. Especially due to the fact that the tour and the UK have two reigning World Pool Champions in Daryl Peach and Darren Appleton.”

Changes to the coverage will occur in 2009 with CueSport TV planning on providing multiple camera coverage of the main match table and live 9-ball pool action through the live function of the channel player.

The first tournament of the 2009 season, The Midlands Classic, takes place over the weekend of the 9th-11th January at Rileys, Solihull. Viewers can watch 9-ball pool matches from this tournament during the course of the following week.

About CueSport TV Ltd

Launched in October 2007, CueSport TV is fast becoming an internationally recognised Internet broadcast platform specialising in Pool, Snooker and Billiards. The company has rights to exclusive programming from across the UK and Europe. In 2009 the company will be working towards offering more live events from international broadcasters as well as the current events in it’s portfolio.

The channel player that the company serves Windows Media video through is unique in that it serves multiple bit rate files allowing individual users to control the quality of the video they are watching dependent on their own Internet connection.

Gray wins GB9 British Grand Prix Billiard Event

“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

Winners Crowned on GB9 Ball Tour

Winners Crowned on GB9 Ball Tour
GB9 Northern Masters / Manchester, UK

Appleton receives the trophy from Michelle Law after winning the GB9 Northern Masters in Manchester, UK.

Imran Majid’s incredible winning streak of 29 consecutive matches, including 4 tournament championship victories, has come to an end in Manchester at the hands of Darren Appleton , former English 8-ball pool champion, in the semifinal stage of the main event.

Appleton then defeated reigning World Pool Champion Daryl Peach in the final and appeared particularly determined throughout the tournament, taking extra time at the start of every rack, planning the route of every run-out.

This was the first event that the GB9 have implemented the higher rack position—placing the 9 ball on the foot spot—forcing many players to adopt a more powerful break and putting a stop to the virtually guaranteed “wing-ball-on-the-break” that came with the old “tapped” rack position.

The fabulous Phuong Pham models the official 2009 season GB9 Ball Tour shirt.

Of the finals against Peach, Appleton said, “It’s been a long day and we didn’t really focus as good as we can do, but I probably played a little bit better than him, on the day, and that was the difference I think in the end.

“It’s a frustrating game sometimes—you can play very well and lose, and you can play average and win.”

Appleton paid tribute to semifinalist Imran Majid, saying, “To beat Imran in the semis was a massive win. I felt a lot of pressure to beat him because obviously he hasn’t lost this year, so that was a massive thing.”

Unlike the rest of Europe, which takes a summer break from pool (even some of the warehouses and manufacturers take a six-week break from production), the British pool season is a relentless twelve-month affair, possibly due to the unpredictable nature of the weather.

The GB9 Ball Tour forges ahead with its fifth event, the Northern Masters at Manchester, hosted by Rileys American Pool and Snooker Clubs, Europe’s largest operator of pool, snooker, and poker clubs.

Each event consists of three individual tournaments, the 96-player “Challenge Cup”—the division for players attempting to gain promotion—the 32-player “Pro Cup” for the elite top 32 national ranked players, and the 128-player “Main Event,” featuring the full field of 128 players from both divisions.

All matches are single elimination, race-to-nine, except the finals which are race-to-eleven. Matches start late on Friday afternoon and on Sunday evening the Main Event final is over by 9.30pm.

It’s a Shaw Thing!

Jayson Shaw receiving his hardware from Pro Shop manager Andy Watts.

Proud Scotsman Jayson Shaw has managed to win the GB9 Manchester Pro Cup at only his second attempt. On his route to the finals he bested former Pro Cup champion and current number-two-ranked European player Imran Majid in the first round of the UK’s elite player event.

In the final, the youngster from Glasgow toppled the Euro Tour number-one-ranked player, Mark Gray, with an 11-8 score.

Shaw actually missed the start of the tour and has managed to get a reserve spot filling the vacancy because of Tony Drago attending the 2008 World Snooker Shanghai Masters Qualifying, and Shaw certainly made the most of the opportunity. He has now joined the GB 9 Ball Tour permanently, so the extremely tough pro division has just become even tougher.

In an interview after the finals Shaw was asked if there was anyone on the tour that he feared. He replied, “When I’m playing I don’t really fear anybody, but to be honest with you, there could be easier draws—I’d rather play someone instead of Imran, who has won the last four events.” He also admitted to practicing five hours every day, thanks to his sponsors, The New Archway snooker club in Glasgow.

No Surprise as Robson Wins Second Consecutive Challenge Cup

Christopher Robson receiving his trophy from Pro9.co.uk editor Big Dave Knight.

Chris Robson was regarded as the underdog in the final at the last event, but he proved himself to be a bit of a giant-killer with his win over Scott Higgins, and once again he has shown that he’s made of stern stuff with a thrilling 11-10 win over London’s David Walsh.

In fact, Walsh was the only player to take Robson to the hill at this event, and Walsh and Robson now sit side-by-side on the Challenge Cup rankings at third and fourth, respectively, both in with a fair chance of topping the end-of-season rankings.

All will depend on the final event of the season, the GB9 British Grand Prix to be held at Rileys American Pool and Snooker Club, in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on 19 September 2008.