The GB Team consisting of Roy Kimberley, Craig Welsh, Danny Luton and captain Tony Southern, arrived in Slovenia, with high hopes of winning a hatful of medals at these prestigious championships. Matt Duffy had to pull out of the event because of illness.
The team came home with 3 medals, a silver and bronze for Southern and a silver for Kimberley, but Luton and Welsh were ultimately left disappointed as neither made the podium.
Fred Dinsmore from Ireland who also plays occasionally on the BWPPA tour, had his best ever event as he took home both the 8 ball and 9 ball gold medals.
High quality matches and dramatic decisions characterize the wheelchair competition, with many outstanding players, but the men to beat it seemed was multiple gold medalist Jouni Tahti (Finland), and current world 9 ball champion Henrik Larsson who started as favorites, but neither went home with a gold medal !!, for the first time in over 10 years.
10-ball
In the 10 ball division, there was the first of many battle of the Brits, with GB and Ireland, being drawn against each
other on many occasions throughout the 10 days, Kimberley whitewashed Welsh 6-0, the same score Southern beat Kokoszka (Poland), Luton lost 6-5 to Brajkovic (Slovenia), Dinsmore also had a 6-0 win. Luton and Welsh went out in the losers round 2 and Dinsmore went out to Larsson in losers round 3.
Southern and Kimberley went into the winners qualifying round, Southern losing 6-4 to Deklerck (Belgium), then Southern lost to Larsson to go out in 5th Place.
Kimberley went through, with a 6-5 win over Volkmer (Germany). In the semi finals Kimberley beat Brajkovic, whilst Deklerck edged out Larsson 6-5.
In the final, Kimberley just missed out on a 3rd EPC gold medal losing to Deklerck 6-4.
8-Ball
In the 8 ball Division, in round 1 Southern, Welsh, Luton and Dinsmore all won, but Kimberley lost
6-0 to Larsson, but Kimberley recovered to make the losers qualifiers but lost again to Larsson this time 5-3. In the middle of the 7th rack Kimberley’s phone rang (which he thought was switch off). Larsson won that rack then the referee came over and informed Kimberley that he also has the next rack taken of him due to his phone ringing, which lost him the match.
Southern then thumped Dinsmore 5-1 in the next round, in the first of 4 meetings, and then had his first ever win over Larsson 5-4 to make the semi final.
Welsh went out in the losers 2nd round, and Kimberley and Luton lost in losers qualifying round.
Southern and Dinsmore met again in the semi final, and this time it was Dinsmore who edged it 5-4 in a titanic battle. Southern had to settle for bronze. This set up a final with Larsson who took out Tahti 5-4.
Dinsmore gave a battling performance in the final in what is Larsson’s favourite discipline, and ran out a 5-3 winner.
9-Ball
Onto the final discipline, 9 ball, and there was time to celebrate again as Southern and Dinsmore made it to the semi finals
 For the 3rd event running, Southern won his first 2 matches to advance to the winners qualifying, and beat Dinsmore 7-4 to guarantee a 2nd medal.
Kimberley won his first match 7-0 against Serbia’s Karamatic, but then suffered a shock loss to Brajkovic. He finally went out of the event loosing to Deklerck. Luton and Welsh met in the first round, which saw Luton come through a 7-5 winner. Welsh then lost his next match 7-2 which put him out of the event. Luton’s seconds match saw him pair up against another Brit in Tony Southern, Tony won this match 7-2, then Danny lost his next match which also put him out of the event.
In the first semi Dinsmore destroyed Brajkovic 7-2, whilst Southern had a career best win over Tahti 7-5 to advance to the final.
In the final, Southern had a nasty kick on the 9 ball in rack 1, and was soon 3-1 down, but dug in to go 4-2 up. He had a great chance to make it 5-2, but missed a simple run out, and Dinsmore pounced. At 6-5 down Southern was again in the balls and had a great chance to go hill-hill, but played a poor positional shot, which allowed Dinsmore the chance he was waiting for, and he cleared up to take a 2nd Gold medal, becoming the 2013 European 8 & 9-ball champion, Southern was left to reflect on what might have been.
The Dynamic European Championships have drawn a huge amount of media attention throughout the entire 10 days. Many media representatives from TV, radio, print and Internet media have covered the European Championships. The highlight was the live coverage on the web from www.kozoom.com.
To view all of the pictures taken at this years European Championships please click the link below.
Picture gallery of BWPPA Players
The BWPPA raised the curtain on the 2013 season on the 23rd/24th March 2013 with the GNO Midlands 9-ball Open held at Riley’s Birmingham, this is named after the main tour sponsor the Gentleman’s Night Out Charity.
Last year the first event of the season was held at Barnsley in February and was severely disrupted due to poor weather conditions. The decision was made to delay the start of this year’s tour till the better weather in late March, but the snow jinx struck again in some of the worst weather seen in March in the UK for fifty years.
Although at least 6/7 players either did not travel or started their journeys but had to turn back, there was still a strong field of 13 players entering the event, including Fred Dinsmore making the trip again from Ireland, and we also welcomed 2 players from Russia, Aleksandr Prokopiev, Aleksei Grigorev, and their coach and assistant Aital Efremov. Although they did not record a win in the main event, Alekski did record a fine 5-4 win over BWPPA stalwart Gary Swift in the Quarter Finals of the challenge event many thanks to them all for coming over and we hope to see them in future events
The tour got off to a great start with some excellent pool on show as usual at these events. “The Sandman” Roy Kimberley was keen to hold onto his number 1 spot which he has regained from Tony Southern at the final ranking event of last season.
As the final 9-ball of the weekend was potted it was Southern who took home the spoils with victory in the Main Event and jumping above Kimberley to regain top spot in the rankings. This year the players battle for a superb prize of a Ikon cue from one of our main sponsors Predator, which will be awarded to the no.1 ranked player at the end of the season.
Following his bye into round 2 as no.2 seed, Southern started off with a hard fought 7-6 win over Swift, and then followed this up with a more comfortable 7-4 win over European 10-ball Champion Danny Luton. This sent Southern into the semi-final.
The other half of the draw was loaded with talent, Kimberley hammered Dinsmore 7-1, then dispatched Aslam Abubaker 7-5 to reach the semi-final, Abubaker who has recently been in good form in Total 9-ball events, had earlier won a hill-hill battle with Phil Hendrickson, and would be a force to be reckoned with on the losers side of the draw.
Other notable results including Matt Lester winning his first ever main event match wins with victories over Prokopiev and Peter Dawson, before losing to Craig Welsh. Abubaker then defeated Welsh to make the semi-finals, where he was joined by Dinsmore who beat Hendrickson and Luton to advance in style.
In the first semi-final there was a rematch as Dinsmore again faced Kimberley, this time the result was reversed, as Dinsmore won by a very convincing 7-2 scorline.
In the other semi-final it was Southern against Abubaker, both players make early uncharacteristic errors, and Abubaker tried twice in the match for low percentage combos on the 9-ball, and the last one he tried was to prove his downfall as he missed it and conceded frame and match to Southern 7-4
The Main event final between Southern and Dinsmore was a fast paced match, with some excellent clearances mixed with some good safety and kicking. In the end it was Southern who took the title with a 7-5 victory.
After the final Southern who had earlier been presented with the ‘Players player of the year award for 2012, voted for by his peers’ said of his win “I am delighted to retain my title and win the first event of the season and regain top spot. I was struggling on Saturday, switching between cues and shafts, but I was determined not to let myself down, especially after losing in so many tight matches at the end of last season, and with my home club Riley’s Wavertree closing this week, I was not really expecting anything thing weekend, and once I got to the semi-finals, I still considered myself 4th favourite as the other 3 (Abubaker, Dinsmore and Kimberley are so talented).” I had more than my fair share of the rolls this weekend, but felt that it was about time the pool gods smiled on me !!.
I would like to thank my main sponsors Crabbies Ginger Beer via the John Halewood Foundation, HASSRA, CSSC and Predator Cues, and of course all the BWPPA tour sponsors, especially Gentlemen’s Night Out, and Kamui whose Black medium tip has really made a difference to my game.
Thanks to the manager of the club for presenting the trophies, which are provide for the tour by AB Wallace Trophies of Leicester.
Southern is now 20 points ahead of Kimberley at the top of the rankings, and with the best 4 of the last 5 events counting, Kimberley will be back to challenge at the ‘Escape Pool Bar’ in Barnsley in May.
In the Challenge Cup Craig Welsh beat Peter Dawson 5-4.
The BWPPA team head to Slovenia in mid April for the European Championships, the team captained by Southern also consists of Kimberley, Luton, Welsh, Matt Duffy and honorary Brit Dinsmore.
The 2013 BWPPA tour is scheduled to continue in May in Barnsley. If you would like to be a part of Europe’s largest wheelchair pool tour, and second largest in the world please keep checking on www.pro9.co.uk and http://www.bwppa.com. If you need any more encouragement to join the BWPPA you could represent Great Britain in international tournaments, plus all new BWPPA players enter their first event for free!
All of the BWPPA would like to extend our gratitude to all of our sponsors The Gentlemen’s Night Out, Simonis Cloths, Predator/Poison Cues, Talisman Billiards, Kamui tips, Magic Racks, Escape Pool Bar, AB Wallace Trophies, and Riley’s snooker & pool clubs.
THE BWPPA EVENT NO.1
THE MAIN TOURNAMENT
THE SEMI FINALS
Roy Kimberley 2 : 7 Fred Dinsmore
Tony Southern 7 : 4 Aslam Abubaker
THE FINAL
Tony Southern 7 : 5 Fred Dinsmore
To watch the final click on the link below
http://youtu.be/mphuQJVILdw
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Top 8 Rankings All GB unless stated
1. Dave Beaumont
2. Tony Southern
3. Fred Dinsmore (Ire)
4. Danny Luton
5. Gary Swift
6. Darren Brook
7. Roy Kimberley
8. Joe Burns
BWPPA Patron
“Dynamite”
Darren Appleton
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The team came home with 3 medals, a silver and bronze for Southern and a silver for Kimberley, but Luton and Welsh were ultimately left disappointed as neither made the podium.
Fred Dinsmore from Ireland who also plays occasionally on the BWPPA tour, had his best ever event as he took home both the 8 ball and 9 ball gold medals.
High quality matches and dramatic decisions characterize the wheelchair competition, with many outstanding players, but the men to beat it seemed was multiple gold medalist Jouni Tahti (Finland), and current world 9 ball champion Henrik Larsson who started as favorites, but neither went home with a gold medal !!, for the first time in over 10 years.
10-ball
In the 10 ball division, there was the first of many battle of the Brits, with GB and Ireland, being drawn against each
For the 3rd event running, Southern won his first 2 matches to advance to the winners qualifying, and beat Dinsmore 7-4 to guarantee a 2nd medal.
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