World Pool Magazine 3rd Edition

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CONTENTS

Chairman of EPA – Geoff Wilson Page 2

Editor’s Message

European Eightball Championships Page 4-12

Inter-County Finals Page 14-16

Aussie 8-Ball Page 17

News from Ireland Page 19

Pool in Wales Page 20

France Report Page 21

Scotland Scene Page 23

UK POOL TOUR

Welcome to Tour Two Page 29

British Lions on Tour Page 30-31

World Amateur Masters Page 32-33

Tour One Report Page 34

Introducing the Premier League Page 36-37

Report on Challenge One Page 38

Coaching Skills with Steve Daking Page 42-43

Tour Rankings Page 44

Challenge Rankings Page 45

World Championship Qualifiers Page 46

Diary of Events Page 48

Administration Office20 South View, Bamford, Rochdale, OL11 5HU Tel: 01706 642770Email: [email protected]

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A SAD LOSSI have to start this column on a sad note forthe world of pool. Alan Pointer, one of ourtrue friends and colleagues, recently passedaway following several years of illness.

Alan was a true stalwart to the English PoolAssociation and had been involved in EssexCounty Pool for more than 25 years; some-times running the County set up on hisown. He was ever present at our Nationalevents at Great Yarmouth, either captain-ing, playing or just spectating with one ofhis beloved Barking sides.

He always made time to speak to me, eithertelling me what the EPA had done right or-in his opinion- what we had done wrong.Alan was a true gent who will be dearlymissed and all our condolences go to his allfamily and friends at this sad time.On a happier note, the launch of the UKPool Tour couldn’t have gone any better.Entries for the Tour exceeded what the or-ganisers had hoped for, enabling the Pre-mier League to start a year earlier. Andwhat a weekend the first event was.The atmosphere, the quality of play, the or-ganisation and the camaraderie of the play-ers was exceptional. Then to top it all off,’Mr EPA’ himself, England captain LeeKendall, won the first event beating ChrisGill, another England player in a great final.The Challenge was won by Simon Wardbeating Lee Pickard. Both Chris and Leehave joined the Premier League for their ef-forts. Congratulations must go to all con-cerned with the Tour and here’s lookingforward to the rest of the year.

At the recent EPA AGM several motionswere debated that could have changed theAssociation drastically. But it was the truereflection on what our members want andthe direction in which we are going, thatstood out.A motion was put forward that ID Cardholders could have the opportunity,

without ramification, to play both Worldrules and Blackball rules at Interleague andabove. This was massively defeated.The overriding message was, ‘you do havea free choice to play which rules you like.However, you must make the choice forWorld Rules if you wish to be part of theEPA.

There were also motions to alter some ofthe World Rules. Some of these ideas didn’teven get a vote and were thrown out. Thisis testament that our members like theWorld Rules, and as the governing body for8-ball pool in England we fully supportwhat the WEPF and EEPF are doing. Whymend something when it isn’t broke.The new format for the Inter County finalsat Vauxhall Holiday Park was a tremendoussuccess. Although you always get a fewteething problems with new formats, thewhole event was just superb. Being in themain arena on Saturday evening at 10pmwith 600 people in there either watching orplaying pool was a fantastic buzz and thiswas replicated on Sunday morning. Thegeneral feedback from players was excel-lent and we look forward to the tourna-ment again next year.Whilst on with Vauxhall Holiday Park, itgives me great pleasure to announce that anew three year deal is ready to be signed tokeep EPA at the home of 8 ball pool. Weare delighted for the continued support ofVHP.Finally, the World Championships are justaround the corner, and our team of organ-isers led by Alan Benton and George Har-wood are putting the final details intoplace. A record number of teams will be at-tending and I am delighted to say that theChampionships will once again be broad-cast on Sky Television.To be back on the screens is fabulous newsnot only for the event but Pool in general.A tremendous amount of hard work anddedication goes into the organisation of theChampionships, and may I personally thankall those individuals that make it possible.See you in Blackpool.

Report from Geoff Wilson - English Pool Association

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WELCOME BACK!WELCOME back toWorld Pool. It seemslike an age since our last edition buthappily we’re back in business withplenty to report.

Most people will be aware of the majorchanges that have taken place in the gamesince our previous editions.

And I don’t intend to re-hash an old story.However, despite the split in domesticranks, the sport still looks in rude health.

Certainly the new UK Pool Tour, plus theadvent of the exciting Premier League, havebeen major successes since it was decidedto go down this particular route.

Any fears there may not be a take up ofTour places were soon dispelled. Indeed, itbecame apparent the original target wastoo low and quickly the Tour became over-subscribed.

“We thought we would achieve 128entries but to get to 155 was more than wedared hope,” said a Tour spokesman.

“The fact everyone has a chance to winprize money coupled with an open drawand no seedings has made the Tour reallyinviting.

“It’s been noticeable a number of playerswho dropped off from previous Tours havenow returned to the game. As a result, theoverall playing strength is exceptional.”

England captain and former WorldChampionship finalist, Lee Kendall, madethe Tour switch and was rewarded with afinal victory over Chris Gill.

Internationally, the game continues toexpand. Elsewhere in these pages you will

read about Jack Pople’s success at theEuropean Championships in Ireland and theground breaking trip to Australia by theinaugural British Lions. Interest in Scotlandand France is also on the increase.

These events have only whettedthe appetite for this year’s WorldChampionships in Blackpool. The Lionsreturned from Down Under with a historicseries win to their name.

They then journeyed to Malta and defeatedthe former European champions on theirown tables. And plans are well advanced totake the Lions into Africa next year for a se-ries of momentous matches.

Certainly, Africa remains a massiveuntapped market of talent. And the Lions,with backing from the World 8-Ball PoolFederation, are keen to spread the 8-Ballgospel.

Indeed, it’s hoped several new nations fromEast Africa will be represented at the 2012World Championships. Despite the successof the Lions - ably led by Wayne Smith -there will be changes to the squad forfuture tournaments. And this is only addingto the desire of players to become involvedwith the new UK Pool Tour.

We hope to reflect all that’s good in poolwithin the pages of World Pool. As I alwaysstate, this is the players’ magazine andwe’re open to ideas and suggestions(polite ones, please) to make it even better.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Trevor Baxter - EditorEmail: [email protected]: 07768 846839

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POPLE CROWNED EURO KINGJACK Pople added his name to the Euro-pean Championship roll of honour with astunning victory in the men’s singles final.

The 22-year-old London born playerachieved the best result of his career withan 8-3 victory over Ben Flack.

“The only previous time I had played in themain Euro singles was when I was 18,” heexplained. “I lost in the first round to NeilDavey. So, my first target when I went overto Ireland was to get past the opening hur-dle. “So, when I did that I just went fromstrength to strength and to win the tour-nament is a massive achievement for me.

“I had Lee Kendall in my half of the drawand I reckon he was probably favourite towin it. “So, I wasn’t too unhappy when helost in the quarter-finals. It was a massiveincentive for me though Tommy Morrow isno mug.”

Pople dispatched his Irish rival 7-5 in thesemi-finals to face Bristol’s Ben Flack for thetrophy. “When I got to the final I justthought to myself ‘it’s only one morematch.’ Former World Masters championFlack was pre match favourite but Poplesoon took command and finished an im-pressive 8-3 winner.

“It’s the biggest title I’ve won,” agreedPople, who only took up the game at theage of 17. “Now, I can’t wait for theWorlds. “But there are plenty of other tour-namentsto go at before I get to Blackpool. And I’vegot plenty of confidence from the Euros.”

Pople, who plays at Jordan’s Pool andSnooker Lounge in Rainham, Kent, also has

university studies to fit into his life. He’sstudying for a Sports Science degree at theUniversity of Kent. “My end goal is to be-come an osteopath,” he explained.

“I’ve got one more year left at uni and thenanother 12 months at an osteopathicschool. Obviously, when my exams comeround they take priority.

“But I try to play or practice as much as Ican during the week. If I manage at leastonce a week then that’s not too bad. “I tryto give my course work and pool an evenbalance.”

Ben Flack - Euro Runner-up

European Championship Report

For the full results see our website on www.ukpooltour.com

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AMY Beauchamp (right) upset theform book to add her name to theEuropean Championship roll ofhonour in Dublin.

The 25-year-old fulfilled her previouspromise with victory over Kent and Eng-land team mate, Jackie Baker. ForBeauchamp, it is the biggest title she’swon since taking up the game at the ageof 15. For Baker, champion in 2004, it wasfinal agony after beating hot favourite,Emma Cunningham in the semi-finals.

However, as so often happens after such ahuge result, it proves difficult to back it upin the next game. Welsh star Sharon Dick-son defeated defending champion SueThompson in last season’s World Champi-onship quarter-finals. But with hopes highof replacing Thompson as title holderDickson lost in the semi-finals to Aus-tralia’s Renata Delahunty.Baker suffered a similar fate after a historic6-4 win over world champion Cunning-ham. Beauchamp, at the time of writing aMcDonalds manager in Ashford, held hernerve to win 7-3.

“I think because I know Jackie so well Ididn’t feel the pressure I might have ex-pected to,” explained Beauchamp, shortlyto move to Leicester.

“Obviously, we have played each otherquite a few times and know each other’sgame very well.”

Beauchamp’s only anxiety in the final camewhen Baker had an opportunity to squarethe match at 4-4. Instead, Beauchamptook the frame and never looked back.“It could have been a different story had itgone 4-4,” agreed the new championwho survived a greater scare in the last 16.

“I was 4-2 down to Jo Kent and she had a

chance to finish. But I got back to 4-all andthen win the decider.

“I’m pleased with the victory. It’s a nicetitle to have and I won it from a high qual-ity field. Hopefully, it will give me the con-fidence and go on to win other titles.“It’s certainly the biggest thing I’ve won. Ibeat Rachel Tucker to win the Championof Champions in 2010 but the Euros aremuch bigger. “Needless to say, I had a fewdrinks to celebrate.”

Defending champion Cunningham lookedunbeatable as she powered past 2009champion Carly Smith, Linda Thompsonand Michelle Rooney (in a repeat of lastseason’s final).

However, the course of the championshipswas to strike the Newry born star. OnlySmith has won the ladies singles morethan once and no title holder has returnedthe following year to retain the trophy.Can Beauchamp re-write the record booksin 2013?

BEAU-CHAMPAMY CLAIMS LADIES TITLE



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NO ORDINARY JOE

GREATWEEK FOR GUISEPPE



Joe O’Connor again showed why he’s oneof the country’s top prospects by regaininghis junior singles title.

The 16-year-old from Leicester beat FrankCostello to win the championship in 2010 andhas also been a winner of the World Mastersjuniors. So, it didn’t come as too much of a sur-prise as O’Connor got his hands on the trophyagain.

“I fancied my chances of doing well but I stillknew it was going to be tough,” he said afterhis 7-4 final success over England rival JackSmithers. “I have been in three Euro finals nowso it’s quite a good record to have. Hopefully, Ican have a good run at the World Champi-onships in Blackpool. “That’s my next aim.”

O’Connor, from Wigston, is currently in his lastyear at school. “It can be hard doing homeworkand finding time to practice,” he admits. For-tunately, I have got a table at my dad’s houseso it isn’t too bad.” On the way to the final,O’Connor also defeated Dylan Fitzpatrick 5-2,Luke Bowry 5-2, Jordan Doyle 6-1 and CarlMartin 6-3.

Smithers, perhaps unfortunate to come upagainst one of the game’s top teenagers in theshowpiece, defeated Kieron Wood 5-1, EvanKavanagh 5-3, Joe Maguire 6-2 and LouisHeathcote 6-3.

Guiseppe D’Imperio will never forget hisEuropean Championship debut in a hurry.

The 18-year-old from Whitton, London won theUnder 21 title for the first time, topped the av-erages in the round robin section of the teamevent without dropping a frame and alsoreached the quarter-finals of the men’s event.No wonder happy Guiseppe said:”I had a bril-liant week-probably more than I could havehoped for.

“However, I knew I had a chance in the singlesas most of the England team were in the op-posite half of the draw.“So, I thought if I could get past Ashley Rad-ford, who was in my section, then I had a goodopportunity. So, I probably felt more nervous inthat match.”

D’Imperio won his quarter-final against Radford5-2, hammered Ireland’s Adam McMakin 6-1 inthe semi-finals before beating English teammate Lee Shepherd 7-4 in the final.

“It’s definitely the best title I have won so far,”he enthused. “And because I am only 18 I willget a chance to defend it next year.“But I was pleased with the whole week. It wasgreat experience playing in the main singles andto get a win over Chris Gill was pleasing.”

Gill was beaten 6-5 in the last 16 before D’Im-perio went down 7-4 in the quarters to even-tual runner-up, Ben Flack.“I put in a lot of practice for the championshipsand it paid off,” added D’Imperio, an account-ancy student.

“My stats in Dublin mean I have qualified forthe World team so hopefully I can do as wellthere.”

Joe O’Connor European Junior Champion

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7For the full results see our website on www.ukpooltour.com

Player Played Won Frames Pts

1 Andy Rigby (Wal) 8 7 22 142 Theresa Sheridan (Eng) 8 6 21 122 Tom Hynes (Ire) 8 6 19 124 Kevin Flynn (Ire) 8 5 18 105 Eddie McGowan (Ire) 8 4 16 85 Gary Simpson (Sco) 8 4 13 87 Johnny Quaid (Ire) 8 3 11 68 Thomas Cliffbyrnes (Ire) 8 1 8 28 Stephen Casey (Ire) 8 0 1 2

Wheelchair


FARE ENOUGH! CABBIE BILLSTEERS HIS WAY TO PRIZEIt was anything but ‘taxi for Rigby’ in theOver 50’s competition at the Green IsleHotel.

Cab driver Bill was in the driving seat from hisopening match to ensure he retained hiscoveted title.

“The standard in the Over 50’s is gettinghigher and higher so to win again is a goodachievement,” says the 54-year-old potter.“I only dropped five frames all tournament soI have got to be pleased.“I had a bit of a sticky patch in the semi-finalwhen I felt a bit nervous. But overall I think Iplayed better this time than I did when I wonin Malta.”

Dad of six Rigby, who beat Bob Love 6-2 in2011, was outstanding in the final as heswept aside Ireland’s Patrick Farrelly 7-2.Earlier, he defeated Scotland’s Derek Ahern 5-0, fellow England A player Roger Hunt 5-1and in the semi-finals, England B’s Ian Turner6-2.Rigby, 53, has played pool ever since hewalked into the Avon pub on his 18th birth-day. A former BAPTO member, he’s woncountless Nottinghamshire singles titles andreckons to have amassed more than 50 titlesthroughout his career.

His last unfulfilled ambition is to becomeWorld Over 50’s champion at Blackpool inJune. I have lost in the quarters and the semi-finals but I feel confident I can go further thistime.“But we’ve got Keith Brewer eligible for theOver 50’s now and he’s no mug, is he. As I say,it’s a great standard at this level now andyou’ve got to play well to win things.”

Bill Rigby Over 50’s Champion

Welsh star Andy Rigby remains theman to beat in the Wheelchairevent. He retained his Euro crownwith a 5-2 victory over Ireland’sTom Hynes and has already beeninstalled as favourite for thissummer’s World title.

See also Welsh pool news on page20.

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Over 1200 people gathered atVauxhall Holiday Park for the EnglishPool Assoc iat ion’s Inter CountyChampionships.

The weekend commenced with the K.O.Cup, a new event which involved theteams from each of the 44 counties whoended as runner-ups in the eight regionswhich form the E.P.A. inter-countystructure.

Competition in the new event is as fierceas the main Inter-County finals withteams from all areas of the countrydetermined to take the silverware back totheir region. Categorises are Mens “A” &“B”, Ladies & Youth. After a verycompetitive quarter-final section thesemi-final line-up was:

Mens “A” sect ion semi- f ina l sNottinghamshire beat Merseyside 23-17with Leicestershire winning 23-18 againstBristol.

Mens “B” section semi-finals hadLeicestershire defeating Hertfordshire 23-17, and Derbyshire beat Northants 23-18.

Semi-F ina ls of the Ladies hadNottinghamshire beat Somerset 23-20,and South Yorkshire beat Norfolk 23-13.

In the Youth, last years championsStaffordshire were beaten 23-13 byBristol, and Surrey beat G.M.C. 23-16.

In the final Leicestershire “A” made asteady start, but turned the match intheir favour at the third leg winning 9-2,and went on to retain their title with a23-15 victory over Nottinghamshire , their“B” team also retained their title in acomfortable 23-12 win over Derbyshire.

In the Ladies section Notts took the firstleg 6-5, but South Yorkshire came backto take the second 7-4, the match waswon in the third leg which SouthYorkshire won 8-3, just needing 3frames in the final leg to win the match23-15 and take the trophy back toYorkshire.

In the Youth final Surrey took a 6-5 lead,but Bristol reversed that score in thesecond leg to level the scores, Surrey thentook the third leg 7-4, winning fivegames in a row to win the final 23-17.

MEN’S SINGLESLast 16: Jack Pople bt Mario Brincat 6-1, ClintAzzopardi bt Neil Toms 6-1, Lee Kendall btMarc Fleming 6-4, Thomas Morrow bt PatMcAnally 6-3, Guiseppe D’Imperio bt Chris Gill6-5, Ben Flack bt Russell Burgess 6-3, JordanChurch bt Ashley Radford 6-4, John Roe btRyan Fleming 6-3.

Quarter-finals: Pople bt Azzopardi 7-3, Mor-row bt Kendall 7-3, Church bt John Roe 7-2,Flack bt D’Imperio 7-4.

Semi-finals: Pople bt Morrow 7-5, Flack btChurch 7-6.

Final: Pople bt Flack 8-3.

UNDER 21’sLast 16: Ashley Radford (England) bt SeanSharkey (Ireland) 5-4, Guiseppe D’Imperio(England) bt Ricky Clyde (Northern Ireland) 5-1,Adam McMackin (Ireland) bt Dean McAlease(Northern Ireland) 5-4, Eamonn Moore (Ireland)bt Aaron Mullen (Northern Ireland) 5-1, LesShepherd (England) bt Gary Steele (Scotland)5-2, Michael Curley (Ireland) bt Michael Hope(England) 5-4, Conor O’Boyle (Ireland) bt NigelClarke (England) 5-2, Ryan Fleming (Scotland)bt Steve Chambers (England) 5-3.

Quarter-finals: D’Imperio bt Radford 5-2, Mc-Makin bt Moore 5-2, Shepherd bt Curley 5-2,O’Boyle bt Fleming 5-3.

Semi-finals: D’Imperio bt McMackin 6-1,Shepherd bt O’Boyle 6-3.

Final: D’Imperio bt Shepherd 7-4.

JUNIORSLast 16: Jack Smithers (England) bt EvanKavanagh (Ireland) 5-3, Joe Maguire (Ireland)bt Ciaran Fay (Ireland) 5-1, Louis Heathcote(England) bt Daragh O’Shea (Ireland) 5-1, KevinMcSweeney (Ireland) bt Jack Andrew (Scotland)5-2, Joe O’Connor (England) bt Luke Bowry(England) 5-2, Jordan Doyle (Ireland) bt ScottGardiner (Scotland) 5-1, Jordan Gorman (Ire-land) bt Callum Singleton (England) 5-4, CarlMartin (Ireland) bt Sam Hirst (England) 5-4.

Quarter-finals: Smithers bt Maguire 6-2,Heathcote bt McSweeney 6-3, O’Connor bt

Doyle 6-1, Martin bt Gorman 6-4.

Semi-finals: Smithers bt Heathcote 6-3,O’Connor bt Martin 6-3.

Final: O’Connor bt Smithers 7-4.

OVER 50’S:Last 16: Philippe Cots (France) bt DidierHirschenhahn (France) 5-1, Mike McHale (Scot-land) bt Shane Robinson (England) 5-2, FrankWright (Northern Ireland) bt Nick Burton (Eng-land) 5-4, Patrick Farrelly (Ireland) bt Paul Mc-Gowan (Scotland) 5-4, Dave Minister (England)bt John Hay (Scotland) 5-2, Ian Turner (Eng-land) bt Malcolm Marriott (England) 5-4, BillRigby (England) bt Derek Ahern (Scotland) 5-0,Roger Hunt (England) bt John Elliott(Scotland) 5-3.

Quarter-finals: Cots bt McHale 5-4, Farrelly btWright 5-4, Turner bt Minister 5-4, Rigby btHunt 5-1.

Semi-finals: Farrelly bt Cots 6-0, Rigby btTurner 6-2.

Final: Rigby bt Farrelly 7-2.

WHEELCHAIRSemi-finals: Andy Rigby (Wales) bt Kevin Flynn(Ireland) 4-3, Tom Hynes (Ireland) bt TheresaSheridan (England) 4-2.

Final: Rigby bt Hynes 5-2.

LADIES SINGLESLast 16: Barbara Taylor bt Mathilde Bouvy(France) 5-0, Collette Henriksen bt ValerieBayet 5-1, Amy Beauchamp bt Jo Kent 5-4,Mary Cunningham bt Sharon Wright 5-2,McKellar bt Lisa McGirr 5-2, Jackie Baker btCatherine Buckley 5-0, Emma Cunningham btLinda Thompson 5-0, Michelle Rooney btMichelle Brown 5-3.

Quarter-finals: Henriksen bt Taylor 6-4,Beauchamp bt M Cunningham 6-1, Baker btMcKellar 6-2, E Cunningham bt Rooney 6-0.

Semi-finals: Beauchamp bt Henriksen 6-4,Baker bt Cunningham 6-4.

Final: Beauchamp bt Baker 7-3.

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS



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TEAM IRELAND ARE KING OF CUES AGAIN


Semi-finals:Wales A bt England A 8-6Ireland A bt Malta A 8-6

Final: Ireland A bt Wales A 8-7

Semi-finals:England bt Northern Ireland 8-5Ireland C bt Ireland B 8-5.

Final: England bt Ireland 8-2

So much for the formbook! Just when Eng-land and Malta were thinking of a place in theEuropean team final, along came Wales andIreland to upset the odds.England won all seven matches in the roundrobin stage while Malta won six, losing to Eng-land only by a deciding frame.However, the semi-finals produced several sur-prises. Wales, who lost three games in theround robin stage, ran out 8-6 winners.At the same time, Malta played third placedIreland and were sent packing by the samescore line.In the round robin matches the hosts defeatedthe defending champions 8-7 and anotherclose encounter was predicted.The crowd wasn’t to be disappointed. Thereis a full report of the final on page 18 of themagazine.But as a taster-it was a classic head-to-headand the Irish, roared on by a partisan crowd,clinched the game by a single frame. Theynow hold both World and European titles.Stephen Dempsey of Ireland “A” was playerof the tournament with 15 wins out of 21played.

IRISH EYES ARE SMILINGAFTER TEAM GLORY England won the “B” team title with an easy

8-2 win over Ireland “C” in the finals. Thismirrored their performance in the round-robinstage when they took all eight matches, win-ning 83 frames.

In the semi’s, England defeated Northern Ire-land by 8-5 while their opponents in the finalwent through by the same score against theirfellow countrymen. The two Ireland teamshad a great tournament each winning six ofthe round-robin games to end second andthird place in the final table.

With nine teams in the championships, therewere some great matches. It was good to seeBelgium defeating two of their opponents tocontinue with the steady improvementsshown by their players.

Niall Doherty of Ireland “B” and Neil Toms ofEngland shared player of the tournament,each with 19 wins from 24 frames played.

MENS “B” TEAMEuropean Championship Report

Men’s Teams A Men’s Teams B

England B - Men's B TeamWinners

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England

LadiesTeam

EuropeanChampions

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11For the full results see our website on www.ukpooltour.com

Republic of Ireland - World Men’s Team Champions

Team Played Won Frames Pts

1 England 6 5 61 101 N.Ireland 6 5 52 103 Ireland A 6 4 49 84 Scotland 6 3 45 65 France 6 2 38 46 Ireland B 6 1 38 26 Belgium 6 1 32 2

Ladies Teams

Semi-finals:England B bt England A 5-3Scotland A bt Ireland 5-2

Final: England B bt Scotland A 5-2


Final: England bt Ireland A 8-2


ENGLAND AT THE DOUBLE

With an identical record in the round-robinstage, it looked odds on that England andNorthern Ireland were heading for a repeat oftheir titanic battle in last year’s World Cham-pionship final.

On that occasion, England took the title by thedeciding frame. This time, however, it wasNorthern Ireland who started favourites, hav-ing already won the earlier match in theround-robin stage against the world champi-ons.

However, when the going gets tough thetough get going, and England reversed theearlier result with an 8-5 win to become dou-ble champions, European and World.

England had a solid win in the semis beatingIreland by 8-4 while Northern Ireland defeatedan emerging Scotland 8-6.

Amy Beauchamp, the European Individualwinner, was top team player with 15 winsfrom 18 played.

LADIES TEAMEngland’s juniors also became double Euro-pean and World champions with an 8-2 winagainst Ireland “A” juniors.

The margin of victory was not expected as Ire-land had six players in the top 10 of theround-robin ranking system.Five teams contested the round robin phasewith the top two competing in the final stage.However, only four countries entered the jun-ior competition which was disappointingthough that did not deter the players fromturning in some excellent pool during theevent.

And it was good to see France back in the jun-ior set-up. They used to be one of thestrongest junior teams in the championshipsand hopefully will return to their former gloryin the near future.At present, England have a great crop ofyoungsters coming through with Luke Bowrytop player of the event with 22 wins from 24played.Joe O’Connor, the European junior individualchampion, gained 20 wins and the fast devel-oping Jack Smithers had 19 wins from 24frames.

JUNIOR TEAM EVENT

Junior Teams

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12 For the full results see our website on www.ukpooltour.com

Semi-finals:England A bt England B 5-0Ireland A bt Ireland B 5-1

Final: England A bt Ireland A 5-2


Final: England B bt Scotland A 5-2

Remember the name...Guiseppe D'Impe-rio. Hard name to forget but a fantastictalent on the evidence of his performancein Dublin.

Beaten 7-2 in the last 16 of the WorldChampionship, D’Imperio, went away andpracticed. As a result, he achieved arecord breaking 18 frames out of 18played and followed up by winning theUnder 21’s Individual title.

To complete his week, he also helped Eng-land win the team title, defeating Irelandin a closely contested final.

This section is aimed at players, recentlydeparted from the junior section but notquite ready for the seniors. With playerssuch as Scotland's Ryan Fleming andAdam McMackin from Ireland plus Eng-land’s Steve Chambers and Michael Hopein the ranks, it looks likely that the futureof the game is guaranteed.

No fewer than 10 players had over 50%wins in the team event in a fiercely con-tested event.

However, no prizes for guessing who wasplayer of the Under 21 event-step forwardGuiseppe.

IMP-RESSIVEGUISEPPE IS RECORD BREAKER

The Over 50's competition is the biggestdeveloping area of the sport, particularlyin England and Scotland.

So, it's not surprising this was the final ofthe Over 50’s team championship afterboth finished on identical points after theround-robin stage with five wins from sixmatches.

However, what was surprising was a winfor England “B” who took the titleagainst Scotland “A.” This reversed the re-sult of the earlier match when Scotlandwon 5-4 in the round robin stage.

Ireland and England “A” were beatensemi-finalists. With France now also de-veloping the Over 50 section it looks like agreat world championship in prospect asthe European nations look to taking thetitle away from the holders Australia.

Mike McHale of Scotland was player of theevent with 14 wins from 18, closely fol-lowed by Oliver Curran of Ireland with 13from 18. Scotland had four of the top sixplayers in the competition rankings.

OVER 50'SBUT NOT OVER THE HILL


Under 21’s Teams

England A - U21 Champions

Over 50’s Teams

England A - Over 50’s Champions

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The World Eightball Pool Federation are de-lighted to announce that Barcelo Hotels andResorts are again sponsoring the sports pre-mier event, and the final stages will berecorded for Sky Sports.

This will be the 19th year out of the last 20,that the WorldEightball Pool Championshipswill be available to the many thousands ofplayers who cannot make the trip to the fi-nals but are keen to watch the proceedingson Sky Sports.

We are equally delighted that SGTV, withmany years experience working with SkySports, are producing the transmissionwhich will be a minimum of seven pro-grammes featuring the Mens and Ladiesevents at the championships.

There will also be “live streaming”, a newproduct at last year's championships butone that allowed enthusiasts from aroundthe globe to watch the proceedings as theywere taking place.

This was particularly beneficial to the South-ern Hemisphere players who do not have di-rect access to our transmissions on SkySports. However, organisers do ollow upwithD.V.D ‘s which are available after thechampionships have appeared on television.

“SGTV Managing Director Simon Goldingsaid:"Just like millions of Sky Sports viewersI remember the World 8 Ball Pool Champi-onships being amongst some of the earliestsports covered on the channel. “It is very ex-citing to be involved with a sport that hassuch an established history with Sky.

“SGTV has produced a whole host of pro-gramming for Sky over the last 10 yearsacross sports like: golf, beach volleyball,triathlon and ten pin bowling plus variousmajorcuesports events. 8 Ball Pool is a verywelcome addition to our production portfo-lio.

“Working on this year's WorldChampi-onships represents a very positive move forSGTV and the World 8 Ball Pool Federa-tion”.

Following the recent European EightballChampionships in Dublin, at one of the bestinternationals pool competitions ever held,the individual players and national teams arenow eagerly looking forward to the WorldChampionships which commence Sun-day,24th June with the televised finals onTuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th July. In ad-dition to the countries at the Europeans,applications from: Australia, New Zealand,South Afica, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mor-roco, West Indies, India and Malta havebeen received.

This will make this year's event the largestever held. It is not only the established cat-egories of Mens, Ladies and Juniors who areattending, competitions for wheelchair,under 21’s, over 50’s have become an im-portant part of the event, with the over 50’sone of the fastest growing sections of thechampionships.

Australia have increased their squad and willbe represented in all categories. SouthAfrica will also be returning this year instrength along with squads from otherAfrican nations.

On the UK home front, there will be addi-tional opportunities for our players to com-pete with the best nations in the world viafurther development of the World Champi-onship qualifiers.

These were introduced last year and were amajor success story, giving thousands of“Grass Root” players the chance to play inthe sports top event. Details of when andwhere to enter this years qualifiers areshown in this publication on Pages 46 and47.

SKY THE LIMITFOR WORLD 8-BALL POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS

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STAFFORDSHIRE SUCCESSFOR only the third time since 1996, themen’s A and B team titles at the All-Eng-land Inter County finals have been wonby the same county.

So, take a bow the Staffordshire pottersafter their successes at Vauxhall HolidayPark in Great Yarmouth.

The A team last lifted the trophy adecade earlier. But bolstered by worldchampion Adam Davis and former three-time winner, Gareth Potts, they defeatedSuffolk 23-15 to avoid a hat-trick of finaldefeats having lost to London in 2010and 2011.

It was their sixth A team final triumph.Staffordshire B succeeded Lancashire aschampions-their fifth win since 2003 andseventh in total.

Nearly 1300 spectators watched the ac-tion at Vauxhall Holiday Park in GreatYarmouth with the youth teams gettingthe event underway.

Bedfordshire, Bristol A, Cleveland, War-wickshire, Kent, Lancashire, West Mid-lands, and Leicestershire all won theiropening matches.

In the men’s B team event, Kent and Bris-tol upset the form book but there werevictories for Region winners: Stafford-shire, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Cleve-land, Essex, and London.

It was the turn of the big guns on Satur-day morning plus the start of the ladies

tournament where Kent were defendingthe trophy.

In the A section, Suffolk, London,Northamptonshire and Leicestershire allwon while the eventual winners neededa play-off to progress. Potts and Davisproduced the goods and Staffs were onthe march.

Ladies Day brought wins for: Lancashire,Somerset, Kent, Nottinghamshire, Buck-inghamshire and Staffordshire.

Cleveland were indebted to EmmaWilkinson, and Louise Etherington forseeing them through a play-off.

Surrey also progressed by the same routeat the expense of Suffolk thanks to Deb-bie Barthrop and Louise Elvin. But fewwho sat through a record five hours con-test wanted a quick repeat of the experi-ence.

In the Men’s A winners matches Suffolkbeat London 23-18, Staffordshire beatShropshire 23-12, Lincolnshire defeatedNorthamptonshire 23-17, and Leicester-shire got the better of Wiltshire 23-12.

In the B section: Bristol knocked out Kent23-14, Staffordshire accounted forLeicestershire 23-13 while Lancashirewho trailed 21-18 in their game, won thelast five frames to snatch a 23-21 victory.Essex beat London 23-16.

World champion Emma Cunninghamwas in form for Buckinghamshire in their

English Inter-County Round-up

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play-off with Nottinghamshire. Alongwith Victoria Griffith, she helped hercounty progress along with: Lancashire,Kent, Staffordshire and Surrey.

However, the Bucks girls eventually lost23-14 in the semis to Lancashire whileKent beat Staffordshire 23-17.

Hot [pre event favourites, Kent dulythrashed Lancashire 23-8 for a sixth winin the last eight years.

The Youth final brought togetherBedfordshire against Cleveland. TheNorth Easterners never looked in dangeras they ran out 23-15 winners.

In the Youth section, Chris Wells won thelast frame for Bedfordshire againstBristol A. Cleveland beat Warwickshire23-16, Kent beat Lancashire and Leices-tershire knocked out West Midlands,champions for the previous two years.

In addition to the main competition, theKnockout Cup was held, resulting in a23-18 victory for Lancashire over winnersof the last two years West Midlands 23-

21. Northamptonshire and Shropshirewere beaten in the semi-finals.

In the B section, Kent reached the final atthe expense of Northumberland whileLeicestershire progressed by beatingDerbyshire 23-16. Kent then took thetitle with a 23-21 success.

Sarah Day and Rachel Tucker won a play-off to put Nottinghamshire through tothe ladies final. However, their side’s luckran out in the final as Cleveland won thelast three frames for a 24-22 victory.

In the Youth section, GreaterManchester, who only got into thecompetition at the last minute, were upagainst local rivals Lancashire.

The Red Rose side made a flying startonly for GMC.to fight back to level at22-all.

In the play-off, Aaron Davies, and GaryFrederick took GMC through where theyscored a 23-13 victory over Warwick-shire.

Ladies - Kent - Inter-County Winners


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Men’s A - Staffordshire - Inter-County Winners

Men’s B - Staffordshire - Inter-County Runners-up


Juniors - Cleveland Inter-County Winners

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AUSSIES NAMEWORLD SQUADNothing beats good organisation and theAustralian 8-Ball Pool Federation hasalready named its team for this summer’sWorld 8-Ball Pool Championships inBlackpool.

And after losing to the British Lions on theirown tables in Sydney last year the men, es-pecially, will be out to exact some revenge.

Win or lose, the attitude of the Aussies toreturn each year for the championships iscommendable given the distance and costinvolved.

The men’s squad contains some unfamiliarnames so a step into the unknown couldprove daunting for their rivals. Mick De-lahunty-a familiar visitor in the past-andJohn ‘Rusty’ Wheeler are two of the bestknown players in the team.

The full squad is:

Men: Wheeler, Delahunty, Alan Brown,Dean Welsh, Chris Forsyth, Adam List,Marcus Jackson, Dane Beeton. Teammanager is Damien Smith.

The women’s squad includes last year’sladies singles finalist, Renata Delahunty(right). She came so close to becoming thefirst Aussie to win the crown only to missout against Northern Ireland’s EmmaCunningham.

So, with hubbie’s support this year, she’llbe looking to go one stage further. The fullladies team is: Delahunty, SuzanneBussanich, Nicole Welsh, Ana ChristinaSarmento, Fiona Plummer, Cindy

Blackmore. Team manager is CherylCongram.

Under 21’s: Anthony Adams (captain), PaulHancock, Gary Proctor. Team manager -Chris Rusk.

Luke Foster (Western Australia) and AdamBleumink (Victoria), who contested theNational Under 18’s final, form part of theJunior squad. Foster, a 6-2 final winner,captains a group including: Ian Hinton,Cale Barrett, Michael Cacciola and StephenKaine. Warren Ross captains the squad.

The Masters squad is: Cranne Wrigley, PaulHancock and Gary Proctor.

*In the National Under 15’s singles, JordanMitchell from South Australia defeatedScott Brownrigg (Western Australia) 6-5.

The Under 12’s final was an all Queenslandaffair between Hayden Goode and NikolasBurnett. And it was Goode who ran out a6-3 winner.

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IRISHMEN CALL TEAM SHOTSHaving added the title of 2012 EuropeanPool Champions to their 2011 Worldcrown, the Irish Men’s team is abuzz atthe moment. Simultaneously holdingboth major international titles is not anexperience Irish pool players have had todeal with before, but after an incredible12 months that is exactly where the cur-rent crop of Irish players find themselves.

The recent European Championships wasa real success from the perspective ofIreland. All eyes were on the host countryto see if they could follow up their 2011Blackpool exploits. Many seasonedobservers contend that the EuropeanChampionships format is such that theevent is more difficult to win than theWorld Championships. Shorter matchesensure that mistakes are punished moreseverely, and the smaller team sizesusually result in a more open field.

The semi-final line up consisted of the 4most consistent teams at European levelover the last number of years. Englandtopped the group and met Wales, thedefending Champions. Ireland took onMalta in the other semi. Both matcheswere extremely tight affairs and theIreland v Malta game in particular enjoyeda terrific atmosphere. The home crowddid what they could and Ireland squeezedinto the final, their first in a number ofyears. The second semi was also a closematch, but Wales made it through to thefinal after getting the better of a valiantEngland team.

It was fitting that the final broughttogether the defending European and

current World Champions, and the twoteams contrived to throw up a match thathad it all. Superb finishes, tactical battlesand a couple of misses brought about byhaving to play under the most intensepressure, all combined to make this aclassic match. Almost predictably thematch went the full distance andalthough Wales had first chancefollowing an in-off on the break, it wasIreland’s Ronan Fay who held his nerve toclear the decisive balls. Cue pandemo-nium among the home players and fanswho had waiting a long time to finallyland the elusive European Champions tag.

The event itself was a tremendoussuccess, both on and off the table, andreflects the continued ability of the EEPFto deliver high-quality events in attractivelocations.

The Irish Pool Association goes fromstrength to strength and is constantlytweaking its structures and Tour to ensureplayers get the level of competition thatallows them to compete at the highestlevel, both domestically and on theinternational scene.

The final event on the Irish tour calendaris over the May Bank Holiday weekendand will see 22 County teams battle it outfor the most prestigious team titles in theIrish game. This year is expected to be thebiggest ever, with huge entries in theMen’s, Ladies, Juniors and Under 15events. County Cavan are the defendingMen’s team champions and will again bethe team to beat.

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Ireland AMens Team Champions

IrelandA

Men’sTeam

EuropeanChampions

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Team Wales reach their 5th European“A” Team final in 6 years …………Dublin’s Green Isle Hotel was this year’sdestination for Wales to defend their Eu-ropean Crown.

Once again the final went down to a decidingframe. However, this time it was Ireland whoavenged their defeat in Malta in 2011.

A large crowd built up throughout the gameand the scene was set for another nail biter.

Up stepped Tom Price (Wales) and Ronan Fay(Ireland ) in the final frame. Price cleared thetable down to the black but just missed thepocket, allowing Fay to produce a great underpressure finish.

Wayne Smith (captain), said: “We only have asmall nucleus of players but we are delightedto be part of the 5th European final in the lastsix years. Our team is getting stronger by theyear and we will be back

“Having beaten England in Malta the previousyear, our hopes for this year were high. How-ever, Team Wales will not lie down and can ex-pect to make a significant impact at this year’sWorld Championships in Blackpool at the endof June.

The wheels are still on ….Andy Rigby proved to everyone one thewheels are still on for him to add anotherWorld 8-Ball Pool title to his ever growing tro-phy cabinet.

Indeed retaining his European crown at thesecond time of asking in the wheelchair event(see Right) was a fantastic achievement.

Andy is without doubt the most successfulpool player Wales have ever produced. Henow holds the World and European titles andis getting prepared for this year’s return atBlackpool in July.

With the full support of Kim ( Andy’s partner) and a few strong helpers, Andy has provedthat disability doesn’t need to prevent youachieving your dreams.

For more information about the PFW (PoolFederation of Wales) visit their new websitewww.pfw8ball.co.uk and get involved in join-ing one of Europe’s and the World’s most suc-cessful Pool teams.

Wales Mens ”A “ TeamBack Paul Hawkins, Wayne Smith (Capt.) & Russell Burgess

Front Tom Price and Oly Bale

Andy Rigby pictured with Connor O’Boyle( Chairman Irish Pool Association )

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CLUB FRANCE N° 4 : LA BAULE

This competition is itself deroulee has La Baulethe 14 and 15 January 2012. Eddy Mahe (Holyjoachim 1) wins tournament “Club France”against Tony Ricolleau (The Pecq) on the scoreof 7-6 in final. The semi-finalists are: PhilippeTouroux and David Benatre.

CLUB FRANCE N° 6 :CROISSY-SUR-SEINE

The last tournament of the season took placeat Croissy/Seine on the 3 and 4 March, 2012. Itis a local player who triumphed in the personof Jean-Christophe Ouaknine (Le Pecq). The fi-nalist is Felix Vicente ( Saint-Brevin 1). The semi-finalists are: Charly Verwaerde and AnthonyGouraud shading.

CLUB FRANCE N° 5 :ST-MALO-DE-GUERSAC

The fifth open of the season took place hasSaint-Malo-de-Guersac on the 4 and 5 Febru-ary 2012. The final saw Anthony Gouraud (Pro-vide) to impose against Arnaud Viard histeammate of equipe. The semi-finalists are:Tony Ricolleau andLudovic Heise.

A Look Around France

Team France At Dublin 2012

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SCOTTISH SCENESHARP SHOOTERSA total of 23 teams took part in the SEPFScottish Interleague at Pettycur Bay withall fancied sides making it through thegroup stages.

Aberdeen A were knocked out by neighbours,Stonehaven, with top snooker player, MarcDavis, winning the all-important decider aftera Martin McIntosh hit and hope forced a de-cider for the Aberdonians.

Elgin were beaten by last year's winners, Styx.The semi-finals saw Shooters (Aberdeen)knock out a talented Lockerbie team whilstStonehaven edged out Fraserburgh.

A cracking final saw Shooters win a tightgame to take home the silverware.

MCHALE’S THE MAN

Paul McHale won player of the tournament inthe senior section of the European Champi-onships in Dublin.

The Scots sent a large travelling party to thetournament and though the men's resultsweren't as good as expected there were high-lights in other categories.

The Senior A team, featuring Ian Moffat, PaulMcGowan and McHale, romped their way tothe final where they were beaten by EnglandB.

Perhaps the surprise of the tournament sawScotland Ladies miss out on a place in the finaldespite leaving several top players at home.

Close games in the group stages saw Scotlandnarrowly lose to England but defeat Irelandbefore being knocked out in the penultimateframe of the semi-finals against a talentedNorthern Ireland team.

Special mention must go to Audrey Beckett(Dundee) as arguably the most improvedplayer in the entire squad!

POLLOCK’S FIRST CLASS DELIVERY

‘Potting Postie; Jimmy Pollock produced a bril-liant display to win the Scottish Open againstanother first time finalists, Darren Matthew.

Pollock’s 6-1 win to pocket a £1,000 first prize,completed a superb tournament that includeda number of top players from south of the Bor-der including: Marc Farnsworth, Geoff Camp-bell and Matt Brannan.

Shooters and Rileys played host to the firstday’s action as the starting line-up was whit-tled down to eight players for the final day.

First up on the live streaming table wasFarnsworth (Houghton-Le- Spring) againstDundee’s Marc Fleming.

Farnsworth took a 3-0 lead and though Flem-ing levelled at 3-3, Farnsworth rattled off thenext three frames to advance to the semis.

Pollock (Dundee) cruised to a 6-1 quarter-finalvictory against Neill Simpson (Elgin). In the bot-tom half of the draw, Colin 'Dawg' Brown(Aberdeen) faced Philip Craig (Aberdeen).

Craig dropped only one frame en route to thelast eight defeating players of the calibre ofRyan Fleming (Dundee) and Adam Wood(Lossiemouth).

For Craig though it wasn't to be as Brown ranout a 6-2 winner. Pre-tournament favouriteand British Lion, Matthew had a tough taskahead against in-form Ian Daniel (Ellon).

Not to be outdone by team mate Brown,Matthew matched his 6-2 score line and sentDaniel packing. Brown and Matthew sharedthe first six frames of their semi-final beforeMatthew produced a stunning break- dish topoke his nose in front.

There was no looking back and Matthew, whosurprisingly has never won the Scottish Openbefore, took the game 6-4.

WORLDPOOLOOOOOOO

23

Farnsworth was hot favourite in the secondsemi-final after playing some astounding poolin the earlier rounds. At one point, he rattledfive dishes in a row to win 6-0 in under 10minutes.

It was clear it would take something special tobeat him. Pollock made his way to the semi-finals quietly but those who had seen him de-stroy Brannan on the streaming table knew-onform- he'd give anyone a run for their money.

The match went to the wire but it was Pollockwho had the eight ball clearance to take theall-important deciding frame and reach thefinal.

Matthew probably started favourite and no-body predicted the demolition job that fol-lowed.There haven't been many winners aspopular as Pollock, or many who have playedas well as he did over the course of the week-end.

The Ladies Open was won by Karin Burt (Ab-erdeen) who faced Susan Collins (Elgin) for thethird major final in a row.

The previous two competitions had seen themexchange 6-1 title winning victories in the Sin-gles and Masters.

Collins knocked out one of the pre-tourna-ment favourites, Lyndsay McKellar (Redcar), inthe quarter finals before defeating AudreyBeckett (Dundee) in the semis. Burt edged outpromising Angie Tidball (Keith) in the decidingframe of the quarters before beating EmmaRaeburn (Aberdeen) to reach the final.

In the final, Burt opened up a 3-0 lead beforeCollins battled back to take the lead herself.However, it was Burt who pulled a good finishout the bag in the deciding frame to end a 90minute marathon and regain the ScottishOpen title from Lynette Horsburgh.In the inaugural Scottish Senior Open, WorldSingles quarter finalist Paul McGowan (Kirk-caldy) defeated international team mate andEuropean Championships player of the tour-nament, Mike McHale in the final .

The combined Men's, Ladies and Senior'sOpen Tournaments were a great success withmany players travelling from all corners ofBritain to take part.

The furthest distances travelled were by WillieAnderson (Kent) and Mark McGauley (MiltonKeynes) though there was late interest fromFrance who spotted our posters at the Euro-pean Championships!

Karen Burt - Ladies Open Champion & Men’s Scotish Open Champion - Jimmy Pollock

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ANY opening night nerves for organiserson the eve of the new amateur UK PoolTour were quickly dispelled as players de-clared the venture a resounding success.

With a great atmosphere and large audi-ences for the weekend’s action, it provedone of the best Tours ever staged.

So, congratulations to the players whowere successful in the Tour events-namelyLee Kendall and Simon Ward- and to thePremier League cueists for a magical tour-nament.

But there will be no resting on laurels asTour Two promises to be even better. In ad-dition to the Tour, Challenge and PremierLeague, there is the ever popular Festival ofPool at Hinckley.

This will include the Barcelo Open- for nonTour players- the three-man team eventplus World Championships qualifiers. Putthem altogether and there is a £25,000prize pot to go for.

But first a quick re-wind to Blackpool. Theopen draw format for the Main Tour eventwas well received with everyone on anequal footing without the benefit of aseeding slot. This allowed potential for ashare of the cash plus valuable points for apossible place in the 2013 Premier Leaguewhich will have an increased prize fund.Details of how to enter the 2013 PremierLeague are shown on page 36 with playersrewarded for their good performances in2012 events.

The format and draw at next year’s Tourswill not alter: no seeded places and opendraws at each Tour.

Word clearly got around after the successof Tour One as there will be new entrantson this weekend’s Tour with further places

available at Tour Three in June. For thosewanting to join see details on our website-www.ukpooltour.com.

An alteration to the playing format hasbeen agreed for 2012. This will take placeon the Challenge event as some partici-pants at Tour One found problems under-standing when their matches had beenscheduled.

Thanks to the feedback this situation hasbeen easily rectified. The Challenge drawwill be the same as for the main event.Everyone will be in the draw, other thanPremier League players, and times ofmatches will be clearly shown from thestart of the Tour.

Such has been the success of the Tour thatwe are already discussing next year’s datesand venues with Barcelo. This will almostcertainly lead to an even larger series ofamateur only events. Any player on thisyear’s Tour is guaranteed a spot on the2013 tour.

In addition, we have agreed with organisersof the World Amateur Masters that allmembers of the UK tour will be granted di-rect entry to the finals in Blackpool, ( June29 to July 1). There will be an entry fee of£40 for an event which carries an £18,000prize fund, second only to the WorldChampionships.

Entry forms are on Page 32 as well as ourwebsite (www.ukpooltour.com), plus allplayers will be posted an entry form.Sky Sports are again transmitting the finalstages of the World Championships in a se-ries of weekly programmes plus we may beable to include the final of the World Am-ateur Masters in the series.

Have a great time at Hinckley Isle Hotelwith the second round of the UK Pool Tour.

TOUR DEBUT “RESOUNDING SUCCESS”SAY ORGANISERS

LIONS IN AUSTRALIA

Captain Wayne Smith hailed the success ofthe first ever British Lions 8-Ball Pool Tour toAustralia.

After a losing start to the five Test series in Sydney,the Lions roared back to snatch a dramatic sevenframe shootout to claim victory. Welshman PaulHawkins was the hero as he sank the all-impor-tant black ball against Barry Kitchener for a 4-2play-off triumph. Smith, who won 10 of his 16frames, including four break and clearances,agreed:”It was the best trip I have ever had inpool.

“We were all a bit wary at the start as we did notknow each other that well. “However, we startedto bond from the minute we got to Australia. Wespent a day together in Sydney before we playedour first game and from that point we just gotstronger and stronger.

“We had meals together, drank together, wentout together and all got behind each other. That’swhy we did so well.

“Don’t underestimate what we have done here.This is massive for pool, and we were the firstteam to do it. “It was a pleasure to captain andmanage this team and I will hold those memoriesfor many years. “Each and every one of youbrought the best out of all of us. That’s why weachieved the biggest prize in pool.”

Australia, desperate to gain bragging rights ontheir own tables, started the series well with a 16-8 win thanks to fine play by WEPF World Cham-pionship semi-finalist, Ben Nunan, and singleswinner, Steve Woods. But with jet lag starting toclear from their systems, the Lions hit back todraw the second Test 12-all. It could have beeneven better had Hawkins not missed a vital blackwith victory in sight.

Smith, Malta’s Clayton Attard and Scotsman Dar-ren Matthew all produced some fine pool as JakeMcCartney and Ron Kelly proved unbeatable forthe Aussies. Getting stronger with every game,the Lions levelled the series thanks to a 15-9 suc-cess. Gavin Lomax was the star performer, win-ning two frames in double quick time from thebreak. Solid performances from Jason Murgatroydand Liam Stanley helped secure the victory.

Once again McCartney won all his frames for Aus-tralia. McCartney proved outstanding for the‘Green and Gold’ and another unblemishedrecord helped the Aussies regain a series advan-tage with two Tests to go. So with the pressureback on, the Lions, needed a big performance inthe penultimate Test to force a shootout. And thatis exactly what happened. Lomax again won allthree of his frames, backed up by solid perform-ances from Smith, Hawkins, Waring and Matthewwho all won two frames each. A 14-10 triumphlevelled the series at 2- 2.

And so to the decider which started well for theLions. Ben Nunan cleared the table but missed along black. Up stepped Jason Murgatroyd whoplayed solidly to control the frame and give theLions a 1 – 0 lead. It became 2-0 when Matthewwon a nervy game against Aussie skipper RonKelly. Dependable McCartney then pulled a frameback against European champion Attard and afterLomax missed a long black, Justin Sajich compiledthe easiest of clearances to square the contest at2-2.

Next up was the battle of the captains; Woodsagainst Smith. Woods went for game early butbroke down to leave Smith a tricky but ultimatelysuccessful run out for a 3-2 lead.

It was then Hawkins who grabbed the headlinesin a scrappy and tense frame. After Kitchenermissed his chance, Hawkins ran out with one dif-ficult yellow ball to manoeuvre. He played all theright shots and split the yellow to leave the easi-est of shots on the black to clinch a landmark vic-tory for British 8-Ball Pool.

McCartney was voted Australia’s player of the se-ries for 11 wins from 16 frames while Lomax tookthe honours for the Lions. Smith achieved a totalof four run outs from nine frames.

Team Averages

Wayne Smith 16 / 10 Break and clear x 4Darren Matthew 16 / 10Clayton Attard 16 / 9 Break and clear x 1Liam Stanley 15 / 6Paul Hawkins 16 / 6Gavin Lomax 16 / 10 Break and clear x 2Jason Murgatroyd 16 / 6Scott Waring 15 / 7

WAYNE’S WONDERS ARE PRIDE OF LIONSHISTORIC WIN DOWN UNDER FOR BRITISH POOL STARS

30

LIONS IN MALTA

31

AFTER a historic series win in Australia lastOctober, the British Lions were anxious tomaintain their winning form during a weeklong trip to Malta.

And they did just that, rounding off an excellentstay on the George Cross Island with a 17-7 Testwin over their hosts. It was another great per-formance by Wayne Smith's squad who alsoplayed warm-up games against local representa-tive sides. And while the Lions defeated Top Guns15-9, they started their stay with a 16-8 defeat toa strong team from St Georges.

However, both fixtures were great preparation forthe game against former European champions,Malta. And despite split loyalties local hero Clay-ton Attard represented the Lions as he had donewith distinction Down Under.

Maverick Zammit gave the hosts the perfect startbefore Attard, Jason Murgatroyd and Smith de-feated Antoine Aquilina, Johan Attard and ClintAzzopardi. A 3-1 scoreline became 6-1 as GavinLomax, Paul Hawkins and Liam Stanley playedsolidly to beat Marjus Catt, Mario Brincat andChrist Mills.

Ivan Rizzo, who famously knocked out Mick Hill atthe 2002 WEPF World 8-Ball Championships,pulled one back for the home side, defeatingScott Waring. The second session started with theLions roaring to the opening seven framesthrough: Attard, Murgatroyd, Smith, Matthew,Lomax, Hawkins and Stanley.

Marjus Catt defeated Waring to reduce thearrears to 13-3 going into the final session.Mathew made it 14-3 over Rizzo, Azzopardi beatMurgatroyd (14-4) while Attard continued hisgood form against Zammit. (15-4).

Malta won the next two frames through JohanAttard and Mills, beating Smith and Lomax beforeHawkins and Stanley won both their games. Thelast word, however, went to Malta with MarioBrincat defeating the unlucky Waring for a 17-7final score.

Player of the week for the Lions was Jason Mur-gatroyd who won seven of his nine frames. In ad-dition to the Test, a 32-man singles competitionwas won by Johan Attard beating Smith 8-5.

Future plans for the Lions includes a tour to SouthAfrica later this year and potentially games againstseveral emerging East African pool playing na-tions. Indeed, the presence of the Lions wouldgive the game a major shot in the arm in Kenyaand Uganda.

Certainly talks are well advanced for South Africawhere it's envisaged playing internationals in Jo-hannesburg and Cape Town. This will be the thirdvisit by a UK side but the first by the Lions. Full de-tails of how to qualify to be part of the lions tripto South Africa will be available shortly.

Indeed, Iinterest is certain to be high as in 2013the Lions will return to Australia to mark the 20thanniversary of the forming of the World 8-BallPool Federation.

LIONS CONQUERMALTA NOW FOR SOUTH AFRICA?

British Lions Squad with the Australian Team

PLEASE DETACH AND RETURNCOMPETITION ENTRY FORM2012 World Eightball Pool Amateur Masters

NAME ………………………...............………….. SIGN ……….………........…………………..(BLOCK CAPITALS)

ADDRESS ……………………………………………………………………………......................

………………………………………………......................…………………………………………

COUNTY ……….........................…………… POST CODE …………...........…………………

TEL. NO.……………….......……………. EMAIL …....................………………………………

Complete the entry form and send with a Cheque/Postal order for £40 (payable to the E.P.A.) send to:-Tournament Office: 20, South View, Bamford, Rochdale, Lancs. Tel. 01706-642770

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES – MONDAY 14th MAY 2012.

WORLD EIGHTBALL MASTERS£19,000 PRIZE FUND

29th JUNE & 1st JULY 2012

WORLD EIGHTBALL MASTERS£19,000 PRIZE FUNDFINALS – IMPERIAL HOTEL, BLACKPOOL

ENTRY FORM FOR THE USE OF UK POOL TOUR MEMBERS ONLYCLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: FRIDAY 24th May 2012

This is your opportunity to gain direct entry 29th June & 1st July 2012.

Entry: This entry form is for the use of UK Pool Tour members only, Open to Amateur player onlyEntry forms to be sent, with a cheque/postal order, made payable to EPA, to the address below.Direct entry to the Grand Finals starting on Friday 29th June (7 p.m.) – ENTRY FEE £40.

Rules: Played to World 8-ball Pool Rules.Play: Grand Final limited entry, play commences 7 p.m. on Friday 29th June with the Final stages on

Sunday 1st July.No denims or trainers please. E.P.A. Dress code will be enforced.

Venue: Imperial Hotel, Blackpool, North Promenade, Blackpool, Lancs. England.Regulations: All players must agree to abide by the Rules and Regulations of the event. The Tournament

Directors decisions will be final.Members of the UK Pool Tour can only enter through the UK Pool Tour.

Prize Fund: Champion £5,000 – Runner-up £2,000 – Semi-finals £1,000 each – Quarters-finals £500 eachLast 16 £300 each – last 32 150 each – Last 64 £80 each --- PLUS Plate event £1,100.(optional entry)

AMATEURAMATEUR

WORLD MASTERS 2012

33

BUMPER PAY OUT FORMASTERSA RECORD entry is guaranteed for the2012 World Masters taking place duringthe World Championships at Blackpoolthis summer.

A bumper prize fund-with £5,000 on offerto the new champion-plus an amateuronly format has guaranteed such a greatresponse from the grass roots scene.

With a level playing field guaranteed thishas encouraged many more players totake a shot at the big money available inone of 8-Ball Pool’s major competitions.Masters qualifiers will be staged in 16venues throughout the country so lookout for details on the websites on how toenter.

With the World Championships andWorld Masters played at the same venue -Blackpool’s Imperial Hote l- the total prizemoney for the two tournaments is over £45,000.

In addition to a £5,000 first prize, there is£2,000 on offer to the runner-up; £1,000for losing semi-finalists, £500 for losingquarter-finalists, £300 for the last 16,£150 for the last 32 plus £80 for playersbeaten in the last 64. So far, more than400 entries have been received.

A large proportion of Masters’ entriesclearly originate from the UK but there isalways much interest from the rest of theworld with South Africa and Australia al-ready booking their places.

All players travelling to the World Cham-pionships are entitled to participate in the

Masters which will be played over theweekend of June 29 to July 1.

To re-iterate, the World Masters, won in2011 by Neil Raybone, is open to anyamateur level player with four optionsavailable to gain direct entry to the finalstagesa. All amateur players playing for theircountry at the World Championships teamevents are eligible to enter. There is no agerestriction and players from all categoriesof events at the Championships can enterthe Masters event.

b. Through the English Pool Association.The EPA has allocated places through theircounty structure and card holdingmembers of the EPA should contact theircounty officials for details of entry.

c. All amateur members of the UK PoolTour. See entry form on page 32 or onwebsite-www.ukpooltour.com

d. Entry into new regional qualifiers whichwill played during May, with a total of 32finalists from the 16 venues throughoutthe UK.

Details of the venues will be published onthe EPA and UK Tour sites during April.

In addition to the World Masters, there isalso a Ladies’ World Masters-holder EmmaCunningham- to be played on Sunday,July 1 and Monday, July 2. Further entrydetails to this event will also be publishedon the EPA and WEPF sites during thecoming month.

34

LEE-P OF FAITHTOUR ONE REPORT

LEE Kendall opened a new era for 8-Ball Poolby winning the first ever title on the new UKPool Tour at the Barcelo Blackpool ImperialHotel.

And no one could deny veteran Kendall is suc-cess after a long and distinguished career.

Indeed, having twice finished runner-up toGareth Potts on the 2011 IPA Tour, it was acase of third time lucky for the Stoke on Trentstar.

Kendall defeated Geordie Chris Gill in the final,using his vast experience to take the final twoframes of an 8-6 win after trailing throughoutthe contest.

“I expected to do well and possibly win theevent but nothing is guaranteed,” agreedKendall, a 7-6 last 16 and quarter-final winnerover Tommy Donlon and Mark Bowen respec-tively.

“After all it had been a long time since I lastwon a Tour.

“In fact, I think you’d have to go back to 2002when I beat Darren Appleton to find my lastTour win.

“To be honest it was a scrappy final. I’d playeda lot of matches on the Saturday, includingmatches in the new Premier League.

“So, by the time Sunday came round I hadstarted to wilt. Fortunately, I managed to leavejust enough petrol in the tank.”

Gill grabbed the early initiative and found him-self 2-0, 3-2 and 5-3 up. However, Kendallkept plugging away and played two excellenttactical frames to take the title.

“I was disappointed to lose those two finals toGareth last year. But` I was always secondfavourite going into those games.

“This time I was favourite to win so the pres-sure shifts. So, I was glad to get over the line.

“It was hard playing extra games on the Sat-urday. But you go away for the weekend toplay pool, not sit in your hotel room.

“I think the Premier League is a great additionto the schedule and hopefully next year it willbe televised,” added Kendall, a quarter-finalistat the recent European Championships.

The England skipper certainly showed his classin the League and is currently top of the tableon frame difference from former World Juniorchampion, Jordan Church.

The highlight of his three games was an 8-0victory over Steven Kane. And Kendall tookfull advantage of the new ‘winner breaks’ for-mat, running seven successive frames.

Winning the lag in his next match againstChurch, Kendall took his run to nine ‘dishes’ ina row before the sequence was broken.

“I practiced really hard before that first Tourand I knew I was in good form,” he explained.“So, I’ll be doing the same before Tour two toprove it wasn’t a fluke!”

UK Tour One Results

Last 32:ee Pickard bt Lee Smeed 7-2, Jack Pople bt Ben Larson7-5, Gavin Lomax bt Mark McGauley 7-4, Chris Gill btPaul Riley 7-1, Andy O’Hara bt Jason Murgatroyd 7-2,Russell Burgess bt Mark Brannan 7-4, Chris Back bt NickPhillips 7-1, Jason Taggart bt Carl Rowe 7-6, Lee Kendallbt Craig Kendall 7-0, Tommy Donlon bt Steve Bridge-wood 7-3, Mark Bowen bt Keith Brewer 7-6, Oly Bale btShaun Brearley 7-5, Andy Cross bt Ian Ali 7-3, SteveThompson bt Jonathan Bushnell 7-4, Liam Stanley btJamie Morray 7-2, Rich Mallard bt Neil Wren 7-4.

Last 16:Pople bt Pickard 7-2, Gill bt Lomax 7-3, O’Hara btBurgess 7-5, Back bt Taggart 7-5, Kendall bt Donlon 7-6, Bowen bt Bale 7-5, Thompson bt Cross 7-5, Stanley btMallard 7-0.

Quarter-finals:Gill bt Pople 7-4, Back bt O’Hara 7-1, Kendall bt Bowen7-0, Thompson bt Stanley 7-3.

Semi-finals:Gill bt Back 8-5, Kendall bt Thompson 8-6.

Final: Kendall bt Gill 8-6.

Chris GillUK Tour 1 Runner-up

When discussions took place on the struc-ture for the new UK Tour, organisers in-tended 2012 would only comprise a MainTour event and a Challenge tournament.

The intention was then to promote the top16 players from the Main Tour to form theprestigious Premier League to become ourthird event of the 2013 UK Tour.

However, such was the superb response tothe Tour’s formation; it was decided to im-mediately inaugurate the Premier Leaguewith eight players, previously in the profes-sional ranks, plus a further four from thewinners of Tour One.

As a result the eight former pros would notplay the Challenge event.

And once we have completed the openingseason, it will be top players from the previ-ous year who will form the Premier Leagueas their reward for doing well.

So, the leading 14 players from the mainevent will automatically enter the PremierLeague in 2013. They will be joined by theleading Challenge event player in 2012 whois not already in the Premier League by virtueof being in the top 14 on the Main Tour.The final place for 2013 will go to the win-ner of this year’s Premier League. If that per-son is already chosen, then we will take the

15th placed Tour player as the replacementfor the Premier League champion. No othercurrent Premier League player will be con-sidered other than the champion.Our first matches in the Premier League,starting on Tour One, were exceptional andjustified our decision to start the event a yearearly.

One of the rules introduced was that Winnerhas the break for the next frame to encour-age players to go for the “dish.”As an in-centive, we have offered the player with themost consecutive break and dish frames, aprize at the end of the season.Expectation was this would be won withthree to four frames. However, Lee Kendalldecided to put down a target by doingseven frames in his first match. This wasthen followed by Russell Burgess doing fiveconsecutive break/dish frames in one of hisearlier matches.

Can anyone now top Kendall’s total ofseven? Anybody out there fancy it? There isalso a prize for the player with the mostbreaks and dish wins.

Premier League matches are best of 14frames with first to eight winning the con-test. This also provides opportunity for a 7-all draw as happened between Kendall andJordan Church.

Congratulations to Chris Gill on the MainTour and Lee Pickard on the Challenge fortheir performance at Tour One. Both havewon places in this year’s Premier League.There will be a play-off at Tour Two, be-tween Ian Ali and Glyn Crook to decidethe last place in the 2012 Premier League.Early days yet, but Kendall and Church arejoint leaders after Tour One though NeilToms is only one point behind them witha game in hand.

We still have Gill, Pickard and the winnerof the play-off who might just surprise afew when they start playing PremierLeague.

36

POTTERS CUE UP FOR PREMIER LEAGUEPREMIER LEAGUE

P W D L FD Pts

1 Lee Kendall 3 2 1 0 10 51 Jordan Church 3 2 1 0 9 53 Neil Toms 2 2 0 0 10 43 Wayne Smith 3 2 0 1 3 45 Oly Bale 2 1 0 1 -1 25 Russell Burgess 3 1 0 2 -1 25 Keith Brewer 3 1 0 2 -3 28 David McQuillan 3 0 0 3 -12 08 Steve Kane 2 0 0 2 -15 08 Chris Gill 0 0 0 0 0 08 Lee Pickard 0 0 0 0 0 08 Challenge Play Off 0 0 0 0 0 0

Premier League 2012

PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES

Jordan Church 8 v 6 David McQuillanSteve Kane 0 v 8 Lee KendallChallenge Play Off v Lee PickardOly Bale v Chris GillKeith Brewer 3 v 8 Neil TomsRussell Burgess 3 v 8 Wayne Smith

Session 1 Matches for 04/02/2012

Lee Pickard v Steve KaneChris Gill v Challenge Play OffNeil Toms 8 v 3 Oly BaleWayne Smith 8 v 6 Keith BrewerDavid McQuillan 2 v 8 Russell BurgessLee Kendall 7 v 7 Jordan Church

Neil Toms v Russell BurgessWayne Smith v Jordan ChurchDavid McQuillan v Steve KaneLee Pickard v Lee KendallChallenge Play Off v Oly BaleChris Gill v Keith Brewer

Keith Brewer v Challenge Play OffRussell Burgess v Chris GillJordan Church v Neil TomsSteve Kane v Wayne SmithLee Kendall v David McQuillanOly Bale v Lee Pickard

David McQuillan v Oly BaleLee Kendall v Keith BrewerSteve Kane v Russell BurgessLee Pickard v Jordan ChurchWayne Smith v Challenge Play OffNeil Toms v Chris Gill

Keith Brewer v Steve KaneRussell Burgess v Jordan ChurchChallenge Play Off v David McQuillanChris Gill v Wayne SmithNeil Toms v Lee PickardOly Bale v Lee Kendall

Lee Pickard v Russell BurgessLee Kendall v Challenge Play OffDavid McQuillan v Chris GillWayne Smith v Neil TomsSteve Kane v Oly BaleJordan Church v Keith Brewer

Chris Gill v Lee KendallNeil Toms v David McQuillanWayne Smith v Lee PickardOly Bale v Jordan ChurchKeith Brewer v Russell BurgessChallenge Play Off v Steve Kane

Lee Kendall v Neil TomsDavid McQuillan v Wayne SmithRussell Burgess v Oly BaleLee Pickard v Keith BrewerJordan Church v Challenge Play OffSteve Kane v Chris Gill

David McQuillan v Lee PickardOly Bale v Keith BrewerChallenge Play Off v Russell BurgessChris Gill v Jordan ChurchNeil Toms v Steve KaneWayne Smith v Lee Kendall


Session 2 Matches for 04/02/2012 Session 8 Matches for 01/09/2012

Session 3 Matches for 04/02/2012 Session 9 Matches for 01/09/2012

Session 4 Matches for 04/02/2012 Session 10Matches for 17/11/2012

Session 5 Matches for 04/02/2012 Session 11Matches for 17/11/2012


Chris Gill v Lee PickardOly Bale 8 v 4 Wayne SmithKeith Brewer 8 v 4 David McQuillanRussell Burgess 6 v 8 Lee KendallJordan Church 8 v 1 Steve KaneChallenge Play Off v Neil Toms

37

CHALLENGE 1 REPORT

38

SIMONWard is ready for an assault onthe new UK Pool Tour after againproving his credentials on the sport’sundercard.

The 25-year-old South Wales potter, aqualified accountant, won his numbersgames at Blackpool’s Imperial Hotel, in-cluding a 6-3 Challenge final success overLee Pickard.

It follows on from his achievements in2011 when he made back-to-back ap-pearances in the Challenge’s predecessor,the Club Open.. “That’s two wins out ofthree now but my main goal is now to dowell on the Main Tour,” explained Ward.

“I lost in the first round to Shaun Brearleyand clearly I wanted to get further in thetournament. I decided to join the UK PoolTour because there is some decent moneyon offer and I think I am capable of get-ting my share. “But I will only do that mywinning more matches on the Main Tour.”

Ward, who first represented Wales Under16’s at the age of nine!, made up for hisearly exit by going the distance in clubland.

However, Ward, who plays out of ChampsPool Club in Gorseinon, nearly suffered anunwanted double. Such is the strength indepth of the competition, in the last 32 hefaced Gavin Lomax, a member of the allconquering British Lions squad in Australiaand Malta.

“I was 2-0 down to in the last 32 and hemissed a black to go 3-0 up,” recalledWard. “Fortunately, I managed to comeback to win 5-2. Then in the semi-final Ididn’t play very well against Ian Ali. “Hemissed a black to make it 4-4 and I

came through 5-3 in the end.”

Ward also found himself trailing Pickard inthe final. But from 3-2 down, he reeled offthe next four frames to lift the trophy.His victory gave him automatic entry intothe new, exciting Premier League, achance he generously rejected due to per-sonal commitments later in the year.

However, he was delighted by his week-end’s Challenge work. “The matches arerelatively short races so you have got totake your chances.

“So, even though I wasn’t happy with myperformance on the Main Tour, I’mpleased to win another one of these tour-naments.“And I still think I am capable of makingthe top eight on the Tour providing I playwell in the next few tournaments, startingthis weekend.”

Challenge One Results

Last 32:SimonWard bt Gavin Lomax 5-2, Jason Hebron bt SteveFinnegan 5-2, Nick Phillips bt Mark McGauley 5-3, MattBrearley bt Jason Taggart 5-3, Shaun Payne bt Rich Mal-lard 5-3, Nick Wollerton bt David Shand 5-2, Ian Ali btStuart Langford 5-1, John Sullivan bt Adam Griffiths 5-1, Tony Bayes bt Andy Cross 5-4, JJ Faul bt Tommy Jones5-2, Glyn Crook bt Jonathan Bushnell 5-4, Tommy Don-lon bt Steve Bell 5-1, Wayne Camm bt Jamie Simmons5-1, Matt Brannan bt Karl Milner 5-3, Luke Bowry btCarl Rowe 5-2, Lee Pickard bt James Murphy 5-3.

Last 16:Ward bt Hebron 5-1, Brierley bt Phillips 5-3, Payne btWollerton 5-2, Ali bt Sullivan 5-3, Faul bt Bayes 5-0,Crook bt Donlon 5-3, Camm bt Brannan 5-4, Pickard btBowry 5-0.

Quarter-finals:Ward bt Brierley 5-2, Ali bt Payne 5-2, Crook bt Faul 5-3, Pickard bt Camm 5-3.

Semi-finals:Ward bt Ali 5-3, Pickard bt Crook 5-1.

Final:Ward bt Pickard 6-3.

WARDING OFF THE OPPOSITIONSUPER SIMON UP FOR THE CHALLENGE

Simon WardUK Challenge 1 Winner

Lee PickardTour 1 Challenge Runner-up

42

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Position Name Town Merit Rank

1 Lee Kendall Stoke-on-Trent 0 162 Chris Gill Newcastle-upon-Tyne 0 123 Chris Back Sutton Bridge 0 104 Steve Thompson Sunderland 0 105 Andy O'Hara Southport 0 86 Jack Pople Sittingbourne 0 87 Liam Stanley Nottingham 0 88 Mark Bowen Ammanford 0 89 Andy Cross Ramsgate 0 610 Gavin Lomax Leicester 0 611 Jason Taggart Barnsley 0 612 Lee Pickard Nottingham 0 613 Oly Bale Bridgwater 0 614 Rich Mallard Gloucester 0 615 Russell Burgess Weston-Super-Mare 0 616 Tommy Donlon Leicester 0 617 Ben Larson Halifax 0 418 Carl Rowe Boston 0 419 Craig Kendall Willenhall 0 420 Ian Ali Stepney 0 421 Jamie Moray Stroud 0 422 Jason Murgatroyd Bradford 0 423 Jonathan Bushnell Neath 0 424 Keith Brewer Poole 0 425 Lee Smeed Harlow 0 426 Mark McGauley Milton Keynes 0 427 Matt Brannan Penrith 0 428 Neil Wren Portsmouth 0 429 Nick Phillips Highgate 0 430 Paul Riley Blythe 0 431 Shaun Brearley Northwich 0 432 Steve Bridgwood Stoke on Trent 0 433 Andrew Herriot Sheffield 0 234 Chris Rigby Nottingham 0 235 Danny Davies Glenfield 0 236 Harris Ali Bradford 0 237 Jamie Simmons Brighton 0 238 Jason Bates Bourne 0 239 Jason Toovey Liphook 0 240 John Bowkett Leicester 0 241 John Parkin Bishop Auckland 0 242 John Rimmer Southport 0 243 Jordan Church Newington 0 244 Kevin McGarry Blythe 0 245 Luke Godfrey Hastings 0 246 Mark Shepherd Clerkenwell 0 247 Martin Goddard Stroud 0 248 Matthew Evans Littleborough 0 249 Matthew Schofield Walsden 0 250 Michael Bebb Llanymynech 0 251 Michael Smout Oswestry 0 252 Mike Quinn Gloucester 0 253 Nick Wollerton Barnsley 0 254 Nigel Olding Swindon 0 255 Pat Kelley Nottingham 0 256 Paul Horner York 0 257 Paul McArdell Harlow 0 258 Richard Cairns Sherbourne 0 259 Ron Sharpe Langley Mill 0 260 Spencer Jones Great Yarmouth 0 261 Steve Finnegan Chesterfield 0 262 Stuart Harker Cleckheaton 0 263 Tommy Jones Liverpool 0 264 Wayne Camm Grimsby 0 2

UK POOL TOUR PROVISIONALTOUR RANKINGS 2012

45

Pos Name Rank

1 Simon Ward 162 Ian Ali 103 Glyn Crook 104 Matt Brierley 85 Wayne Camm 86 J.J. Faul 87 Shaun Payne 88 Tony Bayes 69 Luke Bowry 610 Matt Brannan 611 Tommy Donlon 612 Jason Hebron 613 Nick Phillips 614 Nick Wollerton 615 John Sullivan 616 Steve Bell 417 Andy Cross 418 Steve Finnegan 419 Adam Griffiths 420 Tommy Jones 421 Stuart Langford 422 Gavin Lomax 423 Rich Mallard 424 Mark Mcgauley 425 Karl Milner 426 James Murphy 427 Carl Rowe 428 Jamie Simmons 429 Jason Taggart 4

PROVISIONAL CHALLENGERANKINGS 2012

Pos Name Rank

30 Jonathan Bushnell 431 Steve Bridgwood 232 Shaun Brearley 233 Danny Davies 234 Ian Duffy 235 Luke Godfrey 236 Stuart Harker 237 Andrew Hughes 238 Dave Hughes 239 Andy Humphrey 240 Terry Humphreys 241 Spencer Jones 242 Craig Kendall 243 Rob Johnson 244 Ben Larson 245 Chris Mcmullan 246 Jamie Moray 247 Jason Murgatroyd 248 Simon Olding 249 Paul Riley 250 Ron Sharpe 251 Ryan Shaw 252 Lee Smeed 253 Jason Toovey 254 Pete Trotman 255 Luke Wassell 256 Stephen Whatley 257 Neil Wren 258 Mark Eckersley 2

46

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World Eight-ballPool Championships

WINNING PLAYER(S) WILL GO FORWARD FROM EACHVENUE TO PLAY AT THE WORLD FINALS IN BLACKPOOL

PLAY FOR THE TITLE OF

WORLD 8 BALL POOL CHAMPIONat the Grand Finals in Blackpool July 2012

Terms and conditions: (1). Over 18s only, excluding employees of this outlet, employees of the Sponosr; and anyoneprofessionally connected with this competition and their immediate families. Restricted to UK residents only. (2). ENTRY FEEOF £20 PER PERSON. Ask bar staff for Entry Forms, (or from www.epa.org.uk). Complete the form and send with acheque/postal order, made payable to the chosen venue. All entries to be sent to venue prior to the qualifier date. (3). Gameswill be played toWorld 8 Ball Pool Rules (see www.epa.org.uk ). (4). Play will commence at 11am on date given for each venueand the event will be completed on that day, with a minimum of 1 player from each venue, going to play at the World Finals inBlackpool, where they will compete on 25th June, then from 28th June to 1st July, and if they progress to the Semi-Final stages4th to 5th July. Those who win the ‘Qualifiers’ will receive an information pack about the World Finals. (5). Only 20 venues,see ‘Entry Forms’ for venue details and date played. (6). Each venue requires a minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 32players. One winner from 16-31 players will go through to theWorld Finals. In the event of 32 players entering, the final 2 play-ers from each competition will progress to theWorld Finals. Limited to a maximum 32 players per venue.Winning players fromthe ‘Qualifier competition’go forward to Blackpool and have B&B accommodation and entry fee toWorld Championships paidfor. There is no cash alternative. (7). All players must agree to abide by the Rules and Regulations of the E.P.A. – TournamentDirectors decisions will be final. (8).Winner details will be available at www.epa.org.uk within 7 days of each qualifying event.(9). The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend this competition due to circumstances outside its control.

2012 FINAL QUALIFIERS – VENUES

Venue details with contact names &phone numbers will be available from

Monday 16th April 2012 on the EPA website

www.epa.org.uk

World Eight-BallPool Championships

2012

COMPETITON ENTRY FORM

PLEASE COPYAND RETURNALL OF THIS COMPLETED FORM, INCLUDINGVENUE CHOSEN.

2012 World ChampionshipsNational Qualifier

NAME ............................................................... SIGNATURE ............................................(BLOCK CAPITALS)

ADDRESS ................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................. COUNTY….........……………………....

E-MAIL ...................................................................................................................................

POST CODE ................................................... TEL. No. …………….................………

ENTRY FORMS RETURNED MUST HAVE A CHEQUE/POSTALORDER FOR £ 20 PAYABLE TO VENUE

SEND IN THE COMPLETED FORMTO THE CHOSENVENUE, RINGVENUE FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

NOTE THAT ONLY THE FIRST 16/32 PAID ENTRIES FOR EACH VENUEWILL BE ACCEPTED.

SHOULD LESS THAN 16 PLAYERS APPLY AT A VENUE, AND THATQUALIFIER MAYBE CANCELLEDYOU WILL BE REFUNDED IN FULL

Promoter: English Pool Association, World Championship Pool Office,20 South View, Bamford, Rochdale, Lancs. OL11 5HU. Tel. 01706-642770

WORLD EIGHTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS – FINAL NATIONAL QUALIFIERS 2012

DIARY OF EVENTS

48

PROGRAMME OF EVENTSUK POOL TOUR 2012

DATE EVENT TITLE VENUEMARCH 30TH - 1ST EPA INTER-LEAGUE FINALS VAUXHALL HOLIDAY PARK

APRIL 6TH - 9TH UK POOL TOUR 2 HINCKLEY HOTEL6TH - 7TH PREMIER LEAGUE HINCKLEY HOTEL7TH - 9TH FESTIVAL OF POOL HINCKLEY HOTEL

MAY 11TH - 13TH EPA GOLDEN CUE FINALS VAUXHALL HOLIDAY PARK11TH EPA WORLD MASTERS QUAL. VAUXHALL HOLIDAY PARK

JUNE 8TH - 10TH UK POOL TOUR 3 DAVENTRY HOTEL8TH - 9TH PREMIER LEAGUE DAVENTRY HOTEL23RD WORLD QUALIFIER FINALS IMPERIAL, BLACKPOOL24TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS START IMPERIAL, BLACKPOOL29TH - 1ST WORLD MASTERS IMPERIAL, BLACKPOOL

JULY 3RD - 4TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IMPERIAL, BLACKPOOLTELEVISED FOR SKY SPORTS

AUGUST 31ST - 2ND UK POOL TOUR 4 HINCKLEY HOTEL

SEPTEMBER1ST PREMIER LEAGUE HINCKLEY HOTEL

OCTOBER 5TH - 7TH EPA INTER-LEAGUE K.O. VAUXHALL HOL. PARK

NOVEMBER 9TH - 11TH EPA CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS VAUXHALL HOL. PARK9TH - 11TH EPA LADIES TOUR FINALS VAUXHALL HOL. PARK

16TH - 18TH UK POOL TOUR 5 HARROGATE BARCELO16TH - 17TH PREMIER LEAGUE HARROGATE BARCELO

UK POOL TOUR 2013DATE EVENT TITLE VENUEFEBRUARY 15TH - 17TH UK POOL TOUR 1 IMPERIAL, BLACKPOOL

15TH - 16TH PREMIER LEAGUE IMPERIAL, BLACKPOOL17TH - 23RD EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS IMPERIAL BLACKPOOL

Strachanthe finest pool cloth in the world.

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As used by the EPA and UK Pool Tourfor the 8-ball World Championships.The short dense nap offers the player the ultimate playingexperience with unrivalled speed, consistency and control.

ENG

LIS

H

POOL ASSOC

IAT

ION8

HH

SSSSALOOP

HH

P

SSHIIS AICC

IOSSO

EI

LG

N EEN 8 NNNOO

NI

TTI

A

World Pool Magazine 3rd Edition

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Transcript of World Pool Magazine 3rd Edition