3 players in the strong field arrived at the Escape Pool Club in Barnsley for the 2019 Predator Cue GB 9-Ball Championships, with a chance of taking the end of season no.1 ranking position and the Predator £1,000+ Ikon 3-2 cue that came with it.
They were in order of ranking coming into the event, (1) Roy Kimberley, (2) Dan Lee and (3) Fred Dinsmore. Kimberley was top based on his win at the same event this time last year, but he knew that those 100 points would be dropping off his total at the end of the event.
If Lee made the final, irrespective of who wins the event, he would take the top spot on countback. For Kimberley to top the rankings he had to win the event, and hope Lee does not make the final, and the same applied for Dinsmore.
This event saw the final running of the triple elimination format for this season, which guarantees all players at least 3 matches for their entry fee, and also the chance to play for a guaranteed prize pot of £700.
We welcomed Koji Nagasaki who had made the 14-hour flight from Japan to attend the event, and he had a very good event, with some impressive performances.
The early stages through up some good matches. Adam Pearson beat Nagasaki 7-4, before recording a career best win over a strangely out of sorts Kimberley by the closest possible margin 7/6.
Other early action saw Dinsmore beat Darren Taylor 7-6, after Taylor had beaten Matt Lester 7-2, Tony Southern lost heavily to a resurgent Dave Beaumont (complete with new Cuesports glasses and fresh from practicing on his newly installed table at home) 7-2, after they had both had 1st round byes, and Lee beat Frankie Gillen 7-2, after Gillen enjoyed a 7-2 win over Ifakhar Hussain.
In the winner’s qualifiers for the 1st time, Pearson was whitewashed 7-0 by Beaumont, and Dinsmore took out Lee, in a closer encounter, 7-5, from 4-1 behind.
In the losers’ side later stages, Pearson qualified for his first ever semi-final and Kimberley went out with what we think is his first ever 2 straight losses 6-1 to Southern, who then went on to eliminate Lee from the event with a 6-5 win, the no.1 spot was now in Dinsmore’s own hands.
The semi-final draw for the main event took place late on the Saturday evening.
Dinsmore reached yet another final with a hard fought 7-4 win over Pearson, who was delighted with his highest ever finish, and in the other semi-final, Beaumont overcame Southern for the 2nd time in the event, this time 7-5.
It was to be a Beaumont v Dinsmore v final.
The first 2 racks were shared, as the match started out fairly even before Beaumont went on a 4-rack winning streak to storm 5-1 into the lead. Dinsmore pulled one back, and then Beaumont reached the hill at 6-2, and maybe saw the winning line as he spurned a great chance to take the match 7-2, by missing a makeable 7-ball. This was the chance that an out of sorts Dinsmore was waiting for, and he pounced and took 4 straight games to be just one behind at 5-6, which included a brilliant back double on the 8-ball at 2-6 down, and 2 combos to pot the 9-ball at 4-6 and 5-6 down respectively.
Beaumont showed his tactical awareness by taking a time out at this point to refocus. In the final rack Dinsmore had the early edge when he missed a long 4-ball, however, he had the good fortune to hook Beaumont right behind the 5-ball. Beaumont escaped from the snooker, but had his own slice of luck as the cue ball hit the middle jaw and hooked Dinsmore, who escaped with a great hit. After a bout of safety, Beaumont was faced with a difficult pot, but made it and cleared the table for his maiden win, he was obviously delighted having lost in several previous finals.
Dinsmore’s loss put Lee back to the top of the rankings, and with it the beautiful £1,000 Ikon 3-2 from our fantastic sponsors Predator Cues. 2nd Place for Dinsmore earned him a £550 Predator BK3, and a £500 Predator Sneaky Pete cue was the reward for Kimberley finishing 3rd.
As well as the £250 1st prize for the event, Beaumont took home a beautiful Predator Urbain Case, as did Southern for finishing 5th.
In the 3rd loss side (Challenge event) final, Taylor beat Gillen 5-2, in a rematch of the previous event. In the semi-finals Taylor whitewashed Matt Lester 5-0, whilst Gillen scored one of the wins of his career with a 5-4 win over Kimberley, completed with a fluked bank on the 9-ball and a very vocal ‘Come on !!’ from the victor.
This enabled Taylor to pip Gillen to the top spot of the challenge rankings on countback and with it the Predator Poison Cue worth £400.
During the event all players were presented with a pack contacting (Chalks/tips/burnishers etc) worth over £150 each from our good friends at Kamui.
A video of the main event final is available to watch here.
The final 2019 BWPPA ranking lists can be found here.
Pictures of the event can be found here in the BWPPA gallery.
The uncertainty over the future of the Cue Sports Academy at Stoke Mandeville and also the Escape club in Barnsley, mean we are unable as yet to publish dates for 2020, however we are in talks to return to Riley’s Clubs and maybe hold 3 American Pool events and 2 English Pool (blackball) events next year. Details will follow in due course, we would welcome any player feedback on this by email to tonysouthern@bwppa.com or via our Facebook Group.
The BWPPA would like to thank all of our sponsors:
We are all making a difference (formally Gentlemen’s Night Out), Predator Cues, Simonis cloth, Aramith billiard balls, Kamui, Cuescore, Escape Pool Bar in Barnsley, World Pool Series and our patron Dynamite Darren Appleton, Tiger Cues of Warrington and Fred Dinsmore Billiards.
We would also like to thank long time BWPPA supporter Big Dave Knight from www.pro9.co.uk for his great support including providing our event posters.
We also are always looking to expand the sponsorship side of the tour, so if you or your company would like to become one of our sponsors, please visit our contact us page.
For next season we are seeking a new trophy sponsor, if you or a company would be interested please contact the BWPPA chairman at tonysouthern@bwppa.com.
You can be a part of the world’s largest wheelchair pool tour; please keep checking on http://www.bwppa.com and http://www.pro9.co.uk for further information. In addition to our national tour stops there is also the possibility of representing Great Britain in international tournaments such as the EPBF European Championship and WPA World 9-ball Championship for wheelchair players.
In 2020, the Malmo Open returns, this is a 8 and 9 ball event with great prize money and it’s a great event, further details can be found by clicking the link above or contacting:
| Henrik Larsson | henrik.larsson@fifh.com |
