Phil Burford (GBR) Foto: EPBF/AMM
In a tight match, Phil Burford (GBR) defeated his fellow countryman Richard Jones with 9:7.
Jones, the winner of last year's Dynamic Austria Open in St. Johann, got the better start. He took a quick 2:0 lead over Burford. But the former European 9-ball Champion in Junior's division, Burford, did not think about getting upset or irritated. To the contrary, he seemed to be calmer to more the match went on. Burford won the next three racks before Jones got another point in his account. At 3:3, both players had some missed shots in the 7th rack. However, the winner in the end was Jones to take a 4:3 lead. Then Burford executed a monster break shot and pocketed four balls. He finished the rest as well and tied the match again; 4:4. The next phase of the match was interesting and could have been deciding but none of the players got the momentum to leave the opponent behind. When leading 5:4, Burford made a bad mistake. He should have taken a two-rack lead but ran out of position for the 7-ball. He missed his next shot and brought Jones back in the match. Jones said “thanks” and finished the rack. And if that was not already tough enough for young Burford, he miscued at his next break shot and faced some tough safety positions from Jones. However, Jones was not able to wrest three fouls from Burford. Still Jones won the rack and took a 6:5 lead. That was again tied up by Burford in another break and run. The next two racks were shared by the two contestants so the score was 7:7 after 14 racks. In the 15th rack, Burford broke the balls. He pocketed the 1-ball and found himself in a tough position for the 2-ball. He decided to play a push-out shot and leave a very tough shot on the tables. Jones did not want to take the risk and gave the table back to Burford. The young Brit fired in a tremendously tough 2-ball and ran the rack to get on the hill with 8:7. What an effort by Burford! He put an enormous amount of pressure on Jones whose break was coming up. Would Jones have the nerves to come back? He did! He had a great break shot and a promising lay out in front of him. But when he got to the 9-ball, he unnecessarily got himself a bad position and dogged the 9-ball, leaving another tough cut shot for Burford. Phil Burford made the tough shot and deservedly won the high class match in the winner's round with 9:7.
Other notable results include Marcus Chamat (SWE) winning 9:6 over Alexander Kazakis (GRE). Another close result was Jonni Fulcher (SCO) defeating Jim Chawki (SWE) 9:8. With the same result, Abbas Al-Marayati (FIN) sent Philipp Stojanovic (CRO) to the loser's side. Dominik Jentsch (GER) remained victorious over Maxim Dudanets (RUS), a junior player, with 9:7. There will definitely be more to come from the Russian junior. Ralf Souquet (GER), Darren Appleton (GBR), Daryl Peach (GBR) and Mark Gray (GBR) all won their opening matches.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epconline.eu , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
