Report by Malcolm Beehre : Disappointingly, only 12 players entered this tournament and I think it was probably because many players did not realise they were eligible.  The only condition of entry of this event is that a player must have never won a ranking event.  Also there was once again a clash of dates with a Valley Pool event.  However, all entrants had a good day with fairly long matches.

Quarter-finals : D Breen bt L Zi 7/4, R Alfonso bt C Cao 7/4, M Tomita bt K Cullen 7/6, A Arlidge bt A Singh 7/3.
Semi-finals : R Alfonso bt D Breen 7/2, A Arlidge bt M Tomita 7/2.
Final : A Arlidge bt R Alfonso 7/5.

Men’s event : (frame scores not supplied)

Last Sixteen : C Worts bt M Padrigo, K Zhang bt M Hatab, R Wang bt D Sadumiano, M Edwards bt A Ran, W Wen bt G Croudis, R Bennett bt B Wells, M Baabad bt C Bowman, N Pwera bt C Yang.
Quarter-finals : C Worts bt KK Zhang, M Edwards bt R Wang, W Wen bt R Bennett, M Baabad bt N Pera.
Semi-finals : C Worts bt M Edwards, M Baabad bt W Wen.
Final : C Worts bt M Baabad.

Women’s event : (frame scores not supplied)

Semi-final : M Kasemchaiyanan bt K Cullen, D Wilkinson bt M Godinet.
Final : D Wilkinson bt M Kasemchaiyanan

Men’s Event Last Sixteen : S Liu bt N Tupu 8/1, C Bowman bt C Keach 8/6, K Zhang bt A Alnaztia 8/2, W Pera bt J Walker 8/4, M Hatab bt N Yang 8/7, R Wang bt C Hoggart 8/7, C Worts bt T Cockle 8/2, L Jones bt D Breen 8/3, V Adams bt J Pera 8/6, J Grimley bt Z Lin 8/3, N Pera bt N Piahana 8/2, M Edwards bt L Zhu 8/0, M Baabad bt C Yang 8/4, M Padrigo bt S Reddy 8/1.
Men’s Event Quarter-finals : B Wells bt J Pologa 8/6, S Liu bt C Bowman 8/2, K Zhang bt W Pera 8/3, R Wang bt M Hatab 8/6, C Worts bt L Jones 8/3, J Grimley bt V Adams 8/3, N Pera bt M Edwards 8/3, M Baabad bt M Padrigo 8/5.
Men’s Event Semi-finals : B Wells bt K Zhang 10/7, C Worts bt N Pera 10/9.
Men’s Event Final : B Wells bt C Worts 11/7.

Women’s Event Quarter-finals : M Ksemchaiyanan bt L Everett 8/1, C Hobbs bt K Cullen 8/7, L Frost bt G Bullmore 8/2, D Wilkinson bt J Guest 8/3.
Women’s Event Semi-finals : M Kasemcaiyanan bt C Hobbs 9/2, D Wilkinson bt L Frost 9/7.
Women’s Event Final : M Kasemchaiyanan bt D Wilkinson 10/8.

Tournament Reports by Malcolm Beehre : In the Men’s Championship eventit was almost the same field as the Oceania 8-Ball Champs, and Will Wen, Brent Wells and Steven Liu all had 100% better performances than the 8-Ball.

Wells qualified #2, Wen #7 and Liu #5.  Top qualifier was No 1 seed Louis Condo from Australia and No 3 seed, also from Australia, was Brad Richmond.

In the Last Sixteen, Wells beat Cliff Keach 9/5, Nick Pera beat Kevin Zhang 9/3, Liu beat Chris Bowman 9/6, Ceri Worts beat David Rothall 9/8, Richmond beat Kelvin Tu 9/2, Jon Grimley beat Mathew McInnes 9/6, Matt Edwardsbeat Wen 9/8 and 15th qualifier Ryan Wang beat Condo 9/8.

In the Quarter-finals, Wang carried on to beat Edwards 9/6 after he shot out to a 7-nil lead, Worts beat Liu 9/5, Wells beat Pera 9/7 and Richmond who was trying his hardest to keep the Aussie flag flying, lost to Grimley 9/8.  Grimley beat Wang in the Semi-final 10/8 and Worts beat Wells 10/9.  Worts ran away in the Final not really giving Grimley many chances, conviningly winning 9/3.

Men’s Last Sixteen : B Wellsbt C Keach 9/5, N Pera bt K Zhang 9/3, S Liu bt C Bowman 9/6, C Worts bt D Rothall 9/8, B Richmond bt K Tu 9/2, J Grimley bt M McInnes 9/6, M Edwards bt W Wen 9/8, R Wang bt L Condo 9/8.

Men’s Quarter-finals : B Wells bt N Pera 9/7, C Worts bt S Liu 9/5, J Grimley bt B  Richmond 9/8, R Wang bt M Edwards 9/6.

Men’s Semi-finals : C Worts bt B Wells 10/9, J Grimley bt R Wang 10/8.

Men’s Final : C Worts bt J Grimley 10/3.

Denise Wilkinson proved she’s the one to beat in New Zealand Women’s pool by winning the double when she took out the Oceania 9-Ball after she won the Oceania 8-Ball.  She did lose one match in Section Play to Molrudee Kasemchaiyanan 6/5, and had a close game against Hazel Cook, winning 6/5.  She beat Cook in their Semi-final match. Kasemchaiyanan beat Lorna Frost 9/6 in the other Semi-final and although Kasemchaiyanan won the first three frames of the Final, Wilkinson never seemed to be in much danger and won 9/6.

Women’s Semi-final : M Kasemchaiyanan bt L Frost 9/6, D Wilkinson bt H Cook 9/2.

Women’s Final : D Wilkinson bt M Kasemchaiyanan 9/6.

Trans Tasmen 2011 Teams 8-Ball Scoresheet

Trans Tasmen 2011 Teams 9-Ball Scoresheet

Nick van den Berg had one of those days where everything seemed easy, great breaks, unmissable potting, and the confidence of a champion – producing some epic matches with one-sided results in his favour, and a couple of matches that went to the hill – on Saturday Imran Majid took him all the way, and today it was Raj Hundal’s turn to test the man from the Netherlands.  Despite these oh-so-close single elimination matches going to the wire, van den Berg’s game grew and grew as the final approached, resulting in a penultimate drubbing of his fellow countryman Niels Jeijen 9/3 in the Semi-finals, and a solid 11/8 victory in the Final against a tricky customer by the name of Tony Drago.

The more intensely you study the player list, the more familiar names you notice – a very popular event with players from these shores, and it’s not just the usual big guns who have made the trip to Paris this weekend.  A tribute to the organisers, David Bare and Gael Yard, who invited players to attend the brilliant Paris Open at the elegant Cercle Clichy Montmartre.  Despite no celebrity players receiving free invitations this year, there were plenty in attendance – all vying for a share of the 18,000 euro + prize fund on offer.

Surprising results were plentiful, as last year’s winner of this event, home favourite Vince Facquet was knocked out comparatively early in the Last 16 stage by Greece’s Nikos Oikonomopoulos, and New zealand’s Matthew Edwards has cut a swathe through the best of the field into the Semi-Finals only to be stopped by the speedy play of the other finalist – Malta’s Tony Drago.

Men’s Event Last 32 :  G Coutts bt C Zhang 9/0, J Pologa bt S Liu 9/3, D Johns bt J Cook 9/8, M Edwards bt R Averill 9/5, C Bowman bt N Wilkinson 9/3, S Chin bt A Tamehana 9/1, J Grimley bt T Putu 9/0, P Hutchings b R Bennett 9/3, W Wen bt C Hoggart 9/1, M Padrigo bt G Croudis 9/3, A Marlow bt A Bain 9/5, B Wells bt J Walker 9/4, R Wang bt N Yang 9/5, L Pologa bt C Yang 9/4, W Belmont bt K Mizumo 9/4, C Worts bt C Keach 9/5.

Men’s Event Last 16 : J Pologa bt G Coutts 9/7, M Edwards bt D Johns 9/6, S Chin bt C  Bowman 9/5, J Grimley bt P Hutchings 9/8, W Wen bt M Padrigo 9/7, A Marlow bt B Wells 9/6, R Wang bt L Pologa 9/3, C Worts bt W Belmont 9/3.

Men’s Event Quarter-finals : M Edwards bt J Pologa 9/4, S Chin bt J Grimley 9/6, W Wen bt A Marlow 9/8, C Worts bt R Wang 9/4.
Men’s Event Semi-finals : M Edwards bt S Chin 9/2, C Worts be W Wen 9/7.
Men’s Final : C Worts bt M Edwards 9/1. 

Women’s Event Quarter-finals :  L Frost bt B Pologa 6/2, M Godinet bt W Cook 6/0,  M Vujanic bt C Hobbs 6/2, L Nenewale bt A Black 6/3.

Women’s Event Semi-Finals : L Frost bt M Godinet 7/5,  M Vujanic bt L Nenewale 7/5.

Women’s Event Final : M Vujanic bt L Frost 8/3.                                   

This was the largest field we’ve had  event for a number of years, with 43 men and 13 women.  This did mean that there were quite a few sections with different numbers of players in them which also meant a lot of calculation had to be done because there were 32 qualifiers in the men’s section and 8 in the women’s.

It was only last year that the NZPA changed the scheduled number of days for the North and South Island Champs from three days down to two.   Section play didn’t finish until 9.45 pm on the Saturday night.

In the Men’s field there were six junior players who all performed well.  In particular Louis Chand, the youngest in the field and only 4 foot something in height, who won four out of his five matches, losing only to Brent Wells 5/6.  Probably the only real surprise in the non-qualifiers was Allen Bain who only won one match.

Post-section saw some very quick games with most of the junior players drawing senior players ranked in the top 8. Then there were a lot of close games in the later stages of post-section play.

The Semi-final match between Tim Putu and Jon Grimley was a nail-biter.  Grimley was 8/4 down, he went on to win the next three frames with very determined clearances and was looking like making it 8-all but he hit the 7-ball a bit hard and it jawed.  Putu cleared up to win 9/7.

The final, between Putu and Glen Coutts, was a great match, Coutts went out to a 7/4 lead and Putu came back to lead 8/7.  Coutts went on to win the next three frames and taking out the title, for the third time, 10/8.

The women had a section of six and one of seven, with four from each section qualifying for post-section play. Aimee Black had good wins over Brooque Pologa and Lorna Frost to make her first major tournament final but Molrudee Vujanic proved to be too strong overall, winning her matches 6/2, 7/2 and 8/4 to take the Ladies North Island title.

Men’s Last 32 : G Coutts bt D Lihou 8/1, C Keach bt N Wilkinson 8/5, R Wang bt J Tialata 8/2, C Bowman bt R Korewha 8/1, B Wells bt J Taite 8/1, R Alfonso bt L Chand 8/5, W Pera bt R Bennett 8/3, W Win bt L Jones 8/3, J Pologa bt J Pera 8/4, T Putu bt J Walker 8/3, M Padrigo bt N Yang 8/4, S Robertson bt M Hatab 8/3, L Pologa bt R Luo 8/2, M Edwards bt J Pairakana 8/2, S Liu bt C Yang 8/4, J Grimley bt C Hoggard.

Men’s Last 16 : G Coutts bt C Keach 8/2, R Wang bt C Bowman 8/6, B Wells bt R Alfonso 8/3, W Wen bt W Pera 8/2, T Putu bt J Pologa 8/6, S Robertson bt M Padrigo 8/5, L Pologa bt M Edwards 8/4, J Grimley bt S Liu 8/7.

Men’s Quarter-finals : G Coutts bt R Wang 8/3, W Wen bt B Wells 8/4, T Putu bt S Robertson 8/3, J Grimley bt L Polohga 8/4.
Women’s Quarter-finals : M Vujanic bt M Perese 6/2, W Cook bt J Guest 6/4, A Black bt B Pologa 6/5, L Frost bt C Cook 6/4.

Men’s Semi-finals : G Coutts bt W Wen 9/6, T Putu bt J Grimley 9/7.
Women’s Semi-finals : M Vujanic bt W Cook 7/2, A Black bt L Frost 7/5.

Men’s Final : G Coutts bt T Putu 10/8.
Women’s Final : M Vujanic bt A Black 8/4.

Men’s Last 16 :  R Wang bt J Han 7/4, M Padrigo bt R Bennett 7/4, W Wen bt K Zhang 7/5, C Bowman bt R Alfonso 7/3, J Pologa bt G Coutts 7/3, L Pologa bt J Grimley 7/3, M Edwards bt S Liu 7/5, B Wells bt C Keach 7/4.

Men’s Quarter-finals : R Wang bt M Padrigo 7/6, W Wen by C Bowman 7/4, J Pologa bt L Pologa 7/2, B Wells bt M Edwards 7/3.

Men’s Semi-finals : W Wen bt R Wang 8/7, B Wellbs bt J Pologa 8/1.

Men’s Final : W Wen bt B Wells 9/8.

Women’s Semi-finals :  M Vujanic bt D Noble 7/3, L Frost bt A Black 7/5.

Women’s Final :  M Vujanic bt L Frost 8/7.

8-Ball Semi-finals : A Tamehana bt A Black 3/0, J Tait be L Chand 3/1.
8-Ball Final : A Tamehana bt J Tait 3/0.

9-Ball Semi-finals : A Tamehana bt L Chand 4/3, A Black bt J Tait 4/1.
9-Ball Final : A Black bt A Tamehana 4/3.

Individual player profiles have been updated.