Tailgators to Host Pro & Amateur Events Next Month

By: Markus Noé

Morgan Bistrow and Curtis Houlden of Tailgators in Ottawa are hard at work once again organizing a big tournament. This time it will be the second edition of the  Eastern Canadian 8 Ball Bar Box Championships. Similar to last years format, this will be a 128 player handicap event.

The difference this year is that there will be a separate division for Professionals, this will be a
 $500 entry $2000 added 16 players max event. This past August Tailgators hosted a similar event which was a $300 entry that featured John Morra and Erik Hjorleifson.  Houlden was at the recent edition of the Turning Stone Classic and mentioned the tournament to a few of the top players there including Jason Shaw.

Hjoleifson, who won the "Summer Shootout" , has already confirmed for this upcoming event.  To sign up or find out more about this tournament contact Curtis Houlden with the information provided above.

Luc "The Machine Gun" Salvas Wins First Pro Event Of The Season

Luc Salvas with fellow Pro and friend Jared Amyot 

By: Markus Noé

This past Saturday at Dooly's Valleyfield 44 competitors came to participate in the first Professional event in the Quebec Federation. This year the Professional Circuit has 4 scheduled tournaments with a $3500 guaranteed Grand Finale for those that play in at least two tournaments.

These are non handicapped events, however there are staggered entry fees based on ones ranking. For those like myself who are AAA and under, get in for the bargain price of $30. Semi-Pro's are also getting their money in good having to only pay $30 while Professionals pay $100. This is to encourage players from all divisions to show up to hone their skills and see what it's like to play against some of the world class talent this circuit boasts.

Also new this year for maximum entertainment value, these tournaments will be seeded. This means the top ranked players get byes and the other higher ranked players are likely to play a lower class opponent first round. For me this is a bonus because for $30 I get a chance to play a very high level opponent and gain experience.

My first round match was against well known Semi-Pro Johnny Laprise. This was my first time playing him and I got off to a good start going up 4-2 early on with a couple clearances off his mistakes. To get to 4 he missed a makeable 8 in his opinion, leaving me a cut shot and then gave me the 9. Looking back, that missed 8 was the end of me because it seemed to fuel him and after a dry break I never got another good look losing 9-4. From there I went on to lose to AAA and potting machine Dominic Legault 7-1.

Danny Hewitt 

The benefit about being knocked out of a tournament such as this early on is that I now had the opportunity to rail-bird some great matches. Danny Hewitt, Alain Martel, Luc Salvas, Martin Daigle, Alain Parent and many more were all there for our viewing pleasure and I took full advantage. With the new seeding system most of the top named players did what was expected and cruised through the brackets setting up some big matches.


Luc Salvas and Alain Martel met up in the final four on the Winners side where the "Machine Gun" won. In the winners side final he went on to lose a tight match to Danny Hewitt, who throughout the day looked as if no one would beat him. Salvas then sat ans waited for Martel to knock out both Alain Parent and Dany Nguyen to set up a rematch in the losers side final. Once again Salvas put on a show in front of his legion of hometown fans beating Martel 7-4.

Alain Martel 

In the final Salvas got off to a blistering start, however Hewitt caught up at 4-4 and looked like he was going to take over the match. To me there was one shot in particular that changed the match, this is where Hewitt was forced to play a safe on the 7 ball leaving Salavas nearly frozen on the 8 ball. The 7 ball was about 6 inches away from the side pocket. If you would have blinked you would have missed Salvas stepping to the table bending over and whacking the cue ball two rails potting the 7 and clearing the rack while the hometown crowd of about 60 people erupted. From there Salvas went on to win his first Professional 9 ball tournament in a few years 9-7.

Salvas and Hewitt playing the final 

Salvas has not been competing as much these past few years and the last time I saw him play he was not the same force as I once saw on ESPN. However unknown to those outside Dooly's Valleyfield, which he owns, he has been practicing for a month in preparation for the season. At 28 years old and only competing for 7 years I never saw the form that so many have talked about when it came to Salvas. I have seen him shoot good but never great live like he did on this day, and let me tell you it is a treat.

 For me the best part of this day was sitting on the back patio with Martel and Salvas and about 10 others. It is clear to see that these two are not only some of the best talent to ever come out of Canada but they are good friends as well. We sat there for an hour or so shared a few beverages and listened to Salvas and Martel swap stories about their most clutch shots in big tournaments, and even some embarrassing misses as well. The next Professional tournament will be held Nov 1 at Le Skratch Laval, if you live in the Montreal area I recommend that everyone come to watch or play. To see all my photo's from this tournament go the Cue Sport Nation Facebook page.

Top 3 Pay Outs

1. Luc Salvas-$1000
2. Danny Hewitt-$600
3. Alain Martell-$380

England Survives Holland to Win 2014 World Cup

By: Markus Noé

Team England "A" started with a 7-6 win over Spain and ended with a come back in the final to win 10-9 over Holland, and become the 2014 World Cup Champions. Being down multiple games for the majority of the this set, the team of Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes looked out of this match for the most part.

However every time that the duo of Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg from Holland was about to stretch their lead from 2 to 3 games, an error or a dose of bad luck would keep that from happening. Compacted with the pressure of being in a World Final and being continuously denied opportunities to run away with the title proved too much in the end for Holland.

This title adds to the already impressive resume of both Boyes and Appleton who were already world title holders. Darren of course winning that thrilling hill-hill match in Qatar in 2012 and Boyes is the 2007 World 8 ball Champion.

Something that stuck out during this World Cup was how dominate the Europeans teams were. The final four consisted of Austria, Finland, England and Holland. Notice that there was no Philippine or Asian representation which adds to my argument as of late that the best players in the world are European and not Asian but that is a discussion for another day.

The main reason why the European dominance jumped out at me is that we are now only a few short months away from another Mosconi Cup, which the Europeans have won virtually uncontested the past few years. In an article last year I mention my fear that if the U.S does not find away to win or at least compete, the Mosconi Cup could lose its legitimacy as a prestigious title.

The American team has been advertising all year their youth movement plan to reestablish the team. Change in the ranks has been needed for some time in American pool. However they could be sending a heard of sheep over to some very fierce wolves this year, and potentially risk a bigger blow out than last year.

In conclusion England played an amazing World Cup and gave us a thrilling final. Match-Room Sports showed the pool community once again why they are the best promoters on the planet. With the help of SkySports they are the only ones getting cues-sports on Television and the only ones finding substantial sponsors and adding to the prize money. In comparison Boyes and Appleton each are walking away with 30K a piece for this win, which is roughly the same amount the single winner of the U.S Open will win next month.

 

World Cup Final 8: Canada Drops Nail-Biter to Germany

By Erik Hjorleifson

 The field is now down to 8 teams and most of the favourites have come through, the only heavy favorite to go down in defeat so far is Taiwan. Finland is among the teams making waves and has yet to drop a game; the team of Petri Makkonen and Mika Immonen have a good chemistry going again and will look to better their second place finish in 2012. Team China came out on fire in round two and toppled their opponents England B with a 7-0 score in a match that lasted about 30 minutes.

One of the most highly contested matches of the day was between Germany and Canada. Despite a few early errors by Canada they were able to stay close in the beginning splitting the first 4 games. Germany then took the lead at 5-2.

 After a dry break in rack 8 the Canadians took advantage of a tied up table layout and won the game on 3 consecutive fouls. The next 3 games were all Canada as a couple of strong safes and a break and run put them on the hill at 6-5.

 In the 12th game after gaining control of the rack, it was all there for the taking.  The fateful error came when Pagulayan left Morra with a funny angle on the 8, no fault of his as he was just trying to get him close to the shot and caught a bad angle on it. The unfortunate result was that Morra missed an 8 that looked like it was impossible to miss. 

To the untrained eye it would seem this way, but I was watching the match live and the problem was that if Morra pocketed the ball in the center of the pocket the cue ball would have drifted toward a frozen position on the side rail. The shot was too straight to cheat the pocket to the outside so he chose to try and cheat the pocket to the inside to hold the angle of draw. 

He just barely caught the inside rail and because of the speed of the shot it rattled the pocket. Again, to the untrained eye it would seem that he just choked, but I can tell you that definitely wasn't the case. It was a real heart breaker that he didn't have more of a natural angle for position because the nine was wide open for the win. Of course as fate would have it Germany made a tough break and run for the hill-hill victory. In closing team Canada played well this year and will be hungry for revenge in the years to come.

In other matches, the interesting pairing of Shane Van Boening and Earl Strickland advanced after a close match with a talented Russian team. The last remaining English team of Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes had a strong match advancing with a 7-1 score line against Greece. Austria squeaked by Qatar after Qatar made a routine error that would have put them ahead 6-4. They also made a fairly easy safety error in the next game, however they will draw positives from this event as they had a great first round win against Taiwan.

Here are the quarterfinal match-ups for Saturday:

China v Austria
Philippines v Finland

Holland v Germany  

England A v USA  

Canada Wins First Match at The World Cup of Pool

Play continued today at the World Cup of pool and the field is now down to 16 teams. Early round matches today featured tournament favorites Holland and Germany and a strong Canadian side featuring John Morra were also in action. 

Canada was slated to play Vietnam but due to travelling complications, Malta took their place last minute and the team of Alex Borg and Tony Drago fell short in a one sided affair that that Canadians took with a score of 7-1. 

Powerhouse Germany will be a force to be reckon with this tournament, the pairing are not only friends off the table but are both past world champions. They were in fine form in their first match posting a 7-1 victory against Malaysia. Germany will now move on to play Canada in round two. The Dutch team of Neils Feijen and Nick Van Den Berg, runners up at last years event, also began play and advanced with a 7-3 victory against Belgium.

England B vs India was the last match of round 1 and was the best match of the tournament thus far. Team India got off to a blistering start going up 5-2, before two errors allowed team England to tie this match up at 5 a piece.  Chris Melling and Daryl Peach ended up getting to the hill first however another mistake cost them that rack and for the second time in two days the UK crowd had to sweat out a double hill match. 

India had the break and made a ball however under these tournament rules 3 balls need to pass the head string. Even though they pocketed one ball, two other balls did not make it past the head string forcing a ball in hand situation, which team England took full advantage of winning the rack and the match. Round 2 begins tonight; we will be back tomorrow with more updates. 

Update: Two other matches have completed these were the first matches of the second round. The Filipinos dodged a very game Team France 7-5, and team U.S.A beat Russia by the same score. 

Canadian Women Tour First Stop

By: Markus Noé

This past Saturday another tour in the G.T.A got underway. This time it was the Canadian Women's Tour which took place at On the Snap Billiards in Stoney Creek Ontario. This is the only amateur women's handicap tour in the country. The goal here is to expand competitive pool for women in Canada outside of league play.

14 players participated in the inaugural event and by all accounts the tour got off to a good start. No arguments or issues with the handicaps and there was fair play all day in this 250$ added event. The winner of the first C.W.T stop was  Maureen Van De Ven who came back on the losers side after suffering an early loss to Hanna Kwon.

From left to right Sylvia Hadaway, Maureen Van De Ven 

In the final Van De Ven,  beat Sylvia Hadaway 9-8 who went undefeated until this point. The next tournament will be October 18 at Le Spot in Toronto. For more information on the C.W.T talk to Suzanne Peters Owner of On the Snap Billiards.

Upcoming events: Oct. 18, 2014 - Le Spot, Toronto
Nov. 15, 2014 - Petrinas, Ajax
Dec.  6, 2014 - Strokers, London
Jan. 17, 2015 - Petrinas, Ajax
Feb. 21, 2015 - Strokers, Ajax

draw sheet and pay outs 

 

Day 2 Results From The Betway World Cup of Pool

By: Erik Hjorleifson

Most of the first round matches at the World Cup of Pool are in the books and there has been one major upset so far. The Qatari team of Waleed Majeed and Bashar Hussain have defeated the Taiwanese pairing of Chang Yu Lun and Hsu Kai Lun with by a score of 7-5. I'm sure the first thing people will say is that it was only a race to 7 and there is merit to that argument but I believe the fact that there is also more pressure in a race to 7 should be considered.

Majeed has had a break through year on the international scene, with a notable win against Darren Appleton in the World Championships along the way to a top 16 finish. Hussain has been competing on the international scene for a while now with the help of sponsorship from the Qatar Billiards Federation. This is a historic and proud day for billiards in the Middle East and it looks like their investment in the sport is beginning to pay off.

Qatar now moves on to play Austria in round two; now the inevitable question will arise as to why the dynamic sibling duo of Ko Pin Yi and Ko Pin Chung were not representing Taiwan. In other first round matches the Philippines survived a close match with Chile which again was a strong statement from a country and actually a whole continent that has not had much success in the past.

Pool truly is being played at a high level all around the world now in this modern day and age. In other matches China, one of the tournament favourites, won their match 7-5 against the Czech Republic. Like the Taiwanese the Chinese pairing, although both highly accomplished players is a little surprising. This year Dang Jinhu and Wang Can are the representatives. France also advanced to round two against a highly competitive Italian team.

  The American team of Van Boening and Earl Strickland were up against a dark horse Croatian team. After getting up to a 5-0 lead, a few mistakes from Strickland gave the Croatians a glimmer of hope. However it was not to be as the Americans went on to win 7-2. Another thrilling match on this day was England vs Spain. In a surprise move the tournament directors did not think that Spain deserved a top 16 seed, thus lining up this heavy weight match-up of sorts. After being down 5-3 the team of Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes pulled out a nail biter 7-6 to move on to the final 16.

Canada will play Malta on Thursday and tournament favorites Holland and Germany are still among the last matches yet to play in the first round. The World Cup of pool carries a $250 000 total prize fund with the winners receiving $60 000. Check back on Friday to see how team Canada and the rest fair.

Thursday matches :