NZPA North Island 8-Ball Champs
May 19th, 2009
Hosted by the Auckland Pool Association at the ACBS Clubrooms : 08-10 May 2009
“This year held the smallest field I can ever recall”, said Malcom Beehre, “But never the less, it was a strong field in the men’s event.
Gordon Dong arrived late and started on frame down to Jimmy Henry. Jimmy went out to a 4/1 lead, but Gordon finsihed strongly to win 6/5. Top qualifier in section play was Jon Grimley, winning all of his matches and with a differential of +23. Other players to qualify for post section play unbeaten were Sean Stevenson and Mark Mitchell.
The last match of the day went right to the wire, and newcomer Ken Puckey from Kaitaia lost 6/5 in a game that was to determine who qualified for post section play. Unfortuantely Ken had three foul shots in the final frame.
In the first round of post section play, Gordon Don and Matt Edwards were 5-all with Matt to break who decided to play a soft safe break which resulted in a long safety deal with each player taking on a pot but calling safety each time. Eventually Gordon won 6/5.
Jon shot out to a 4-nil lead over Gordon in the next round but Gordon fought back to 5-all then in the 11th frame fouled and Jon potted. Jon broke in the 12th, got a ball off the break and cleared to win 7/5.
Nick Pera had a seemingly easy win over Sean in one semi-final winning 7/3 but Jon and Phil Wilkinson had a long tactical battle with Jon getting through 7/5. Jon, who was defending his title did appear to be getting fired up for the final, but it was Nick who got out to a 5/1 lead. A 7/3 Nick looked like he was going to pot out but snookered himself on his last ball. He did hit it, but Jon potted out to make it 7/4. Nick got the rubs in th4e next frame to take the 2009 North Island Men’s title 8/4.
Men’s Last Sixteen:
J Grimley bt T Nguyen 6/3, G Dong bt M Edeards 6/5, J Henry bt J Taylor 6/3, P Wilkinson bt J Cook 6/1, S Stevenson bt C Keach 6/3, A Shaw bt D Laai 6/2, N Pera bt N Wilkinson 6/2, M Mitchell bt J Walker 6/3.
Men’s Quarter-finals:
J Grimley bt G Dong 7/5, P WIlkinson bt J Henry 7/3, S Stevenson bt A Shaw 7/3, N Pera bt M Mitchell 7/2.
Men’s Semi-finals:
J Grimley bt P Wilkinson 7/5, N Pera bt S Stevenson 7/3.
Men’s Final:
N Pera bt J Grimley 8/4.
In the women’s event, it was once again a smaller field than normal for a North Island tournament. I have head some talk about weaker players not wanting to play in some tournaments due to the domination of the high calibre of three or four of the Ladies (and also the same in the Men’s event). Apparently in Australia they are trialling a scaled Entry Fee system based on your ranking, so this may be something we could look at adopting here.
Denise Wilkinson was the top qualifier, only losing two frames in section play. The semi-finals were very one-sided with Denise beating Lucinda Prescott 6/0 and Lorna Frost beating Wendy Cook 6/1.
The final went to the wire, Denise did seem to miss a lot of easy and crucial balls, but it was Lorna who missed an easy black in the 13th frame to let Denise pot out to take the 2009 North Island Women’s title 6/5.
Women’s Semi-finals:
D Wilkinson bt L Prescott 6/0, L Frost bt W Cook 6/1.
Women’s Final:
D Wilkinson bt L Frost 6/5.
Individiaul Player Profiles have been updated.
