Ko Pin Yi became the first major casualty of the 2022 UK Open Pool Championship at the Copper Box Arena, London live on the Matchroom Pool Facebook and YouTube pages as well as Matchroom.Live as the field edges ever closer to the single-elimination stage.
It was a packed day in England’s capital as 40 players were sent packing home with the biggest name coming in 2015 World Champion, Pin Yi. The Chinese Taipei star was sent to the Losers Bracket by Luke Garland yesterday and faced a potential three matches on day three to keep his UK Open journey going. Pin Yi beat Craig Brown early on 9-6 but came unstuck to South Africa’s JJ Faul who put on what he described as the performance of his career.
Mieszko Fortunski reached the semi-finals of the World Pool Masters just a few weeks back beating Jayson Shaw along the way and the Pole moved past the Brit once again to keep on the winners’ half of the draw. Shaw faces a stern test tomorrow if he is to keep going with a potential three matches on the agenda to reach the Last 16, first in the form of Jonas Souto Comino of Spain.
Fans were treated to a breathtaking performance by 14-year-old Riku Romppanen who came from 8-4 down to beat Robbie Capito to remain in the competition and meet Skyler Woodward to keep his hopes going. Romppanen’s journey will be one to remember with three wins over his three days but eventually came unstuck to Woodward despite pegging the two-time Mosconi Cup MVP back to 5-5 after Woodward led 5-0. The result leaving Woodward with a match against 2012 World Pool Masters champion Karol Skowerski to reach the Last 16.
Joshua Filler needs only one more win to reach the Last 16, the Killer doing a double on America’s Chris Reinhold and Shane Wolford 9-5 and 9-1 respectively. Filler will come up against Britain’s Luke Rollison, who has battled his way through after overcoming World Pool Championship semi-finalist Abdullah Alyousef 9-7 in a memorable performance. World Champion Shane Van Boening is also in the same position as Filler after beating Juan Carlos Exposito of Spain and legend of the game Ralf Souquet to meet Poland’s Daniel Maciol for a spot in the Last 16 tomorrow.
Thorsten Hohmann will meet Mario He in Winners Qualification tomorrow, after the pair dismantled Alexander Kazakis and Ko Ping Chung 9-3 and 9-1 respectively. The other Winners Qualification match sees Dennis Orcollo up against former World Junior champion Sanjin Pehlivanovic. Orcollo was given a scare against Souto Comino who had gone into a 5-0 lead on the Filipino great. Pehlivanovic meanwhile overcame Nineball World No.5, Max Lechner, in an emphatic fashion 9-2.
The losers’ bracket is stacked ahead of Round 6. One of Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Alexander Kazakis will learn their fate early on tomorrow as the pair do battle to make Losers Round 7 whilst it will be an all-American affair between Shane Wolford and Oscar Dominguez to keep their hopes alive. Two other 2022 Nineball World Ranking Top 32 players will meet in Alyousef and Marc Bijsterbosch. World Pool Masters runner-up Lo Ho Sum will face Romppanen. Ho Sum getting the better of Pijus Labutis and Denis Grabe on a busy day.
It was strictly business for Albin Ouschan who recovered from defeat to Karol Skowerski on the Winners’ side with victories over Snooker’s Gary Wilson 9-2 and Joao Grillo 9-1 to meet Souquet to keep hopes alive of another Nineball title. Ouschan winning seven racks on the spin to knock out Wilson.
Francisco Sanchez Ruiz vs Alex Kazakis (L6)
Jayson Shaw vs Jonas Souto Comino (L6)
Oscar Dominguez vs Shane Wolford (L6)
Joshua Filler vs Luke Rollison (W5)
Shane Van Boening vs Daniel Maciol (W5)
Ko Ping Chung vs Nicholas De Leon (L6) Mika Immonen vs Chris Alexander (L6)
Marc Bijsterbosch vs Abdullah Alyousef (L6)
Dennis Orcollo vs Sanjin Pehlivanovic (W5) David Alcaide vs Mieszko Fortunski (W5)
The final two days are available on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in the USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland as well as on Viaplay in Scandinavia and the Baltics and various other broadcasters worldwide including Matchroom.Live in relevant countries. See the full where to watch list here.
Tickets start from £15 for the day using the code UKOPEN at checkout. Secure yours here
Billy Fowler’s been collecting and recording payouts in his profile here at AZBilliards for 18 years now, since he won his first (recorded) major tour victory in Chicago on the Viking Cue Tour back in 2004. This past weekend (March 19-20), he recorded his eighth victory on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour in the past six years; one each in ’16, 17’ and ’18, along with two each in 2019 and 2020 (his best recorded earnings year). He also became West Virginia State’s first 9-Ball champion, coming from the loss side to down Josh Heeter in the finals of the $1,000-added WV State 9-Ball Championships, which drew 68 entrants to Sonny’s Billiards in Princeton, WV.
The Open (non-handicapped) event featured races to 7 on both sides of the bracket, with a single race to 9 in the finals. Tour director Herman Parker was pleased with this first WV State Championship, as were, he noted, many of the 68 who competed.
“It was a great event for everybody,” he said.
Fowler and Josh Heeter, looking for his first tour win in about a year, battled twice to claim the title. They met first in a winners’ side semifinal, as Cameron Lawhorne and Mike Clevinger battled in the other one.
Lawhorne downed Clevinger 7-5 and was joined in the hot seat match by Heeter, who’d sent Fowler off on a three-match, loss-side trip 7-3. Heeter grabbed the hot seat with a 7-2 win over Lawhorne.
The event drew the last 12 competitors back to Sonny’s on Sunday. Fowler began his loss-side work against Cory Morphew, who, earlier, had defeated Scott Roberts, double hill, and Trent Talbert 7-4. Clevinger drew Shannon Fitch, who’d defeated junior competitor Cole Lewis 7-4 and Craig Brown, the last West Virginian standing, 7-5.
Fowler downed Morphew 7-4, as Fitch was busy eliminating Clevinger 7-3. Fowler had to battle for his advancement over the next two steps. He survived two straight double hill matches; versus Fitch in the quarterfinals and Lawhorne in the semifinals to earn his second shot against Heeter.
In the extended, single race to 9, Fowler edged out in front and kept widening a lead. He kept at it until the end, completing his championship run 9-5 over Heeter and taking the title home.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Sonny’s Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Break Time Billiards of Winston-Salem, NC, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Ridge Back Rails, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (March 26-27), will be hosted by Hummy’s Bar (formerly, Jack’s All-American) in Newport, TN.
The richest prize in the history of English 8 Ball Pool will be claimed come the conclusion of the Home Leisure Direct Grand Finals this weekend at the Players Pool and Snooker Lounge in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Held between the 30th November to the 2nd December, this showcase event is the culmination of the five-leg Supreme Pool Series that has been running throughout the year. The innovative concept has brought together the world’s best players from both sides of the sport’s rules divide, thus allowing to feature dream inter-promotional clashes that the fans have been starved of in recent times.
Entrants from all four corners of the UK and Ireland have been joined by representatives from France, Malta, Morocco, India and even Australia, in what has been a truly international outreaching series in terms of viewership and participation.
With the inevitable strength in depth, it is perhaps a surprise that just two players have dominated proceedings by scooping up all four titles on the series so far.
Scott Gillespie claimed the first (Jason Owen Open) and latest (K8.com Classic) stops on the circuit, whilst the evergreen Phil Harrison tasted back-to-back successes at the Strachan Cup and Supreme Masters during the summer. Harrison’s dramatic deciding frame win against fellow all-time great Mick Hill in the Masters was arguably one of the sport’s finest ever finals.
125 players have met the qualifying criteria for the Home Leisure Direct Grand Finals, which will be played under the new, revolutionary Supreme Rules discipline. The last man standing will walk away with a life changing £51,000, a new record in English 8-Ball Pool competition history, eclipsing the £50k that was won by Frankie Sargeant during the one-frame Pub Pool Challenge at the Ricoh Arena in 2006.
The seeds and the draw
As was the case in the last two events on the series, double elimination qualifying is the order of the day until the Last 16 knockouts.
Top seeds Harrison, Gillespie and two-time finalist Liam Dunster all receive opening round byes. Five-times WEPF World Champion Hill, who is likely to be the pre-tournament favourite once
again, will face Malta’s Scott Muscat first up. Hill will be hoping to break his SPS duck at the most potent point.
For his standards, IPA World Champion Ben Davies has had a disappointing time at Players this year, but he too has the opportunity to time his run perfectly. The Welshman crosses cues with fellow professional Craig Brown, the winner will meet Gillespie in Round Two.
Coming off the back of a trio of big victories in recent weeks, the in-form Mark Boyle is another fancied competitor looking to strike. Sitting in the same mini-section as Gillespie and Davies, his first challenge to complete is Michael Smout.
2013 and 2014 WEPF World Champion Tom Cousins takes on George Tierney in what will be a keenly watched affair, whilst long time professional number 1 Marc Farnsworth would meet BCA Hall of Famer Darren Appleton in the second stage if they overcome Ben Mackie and Darren McVicar respectively.
Appleton is not the only star name from the wider world of cuesports who has returned to his smaller table roots during the Supreme Pool Series. Enticed by the prestige and record-breaking rewards on offer, Chris Melling (plays Lee Washbrook) and Karl Boyes (plays Lee Clough) are eligible and available for the Grand Finals, too. Jayson Shaw, who will be on duty with Team EUROPE at the Mosconi Cup, also featured earlier in the campaign.
All three days of this historic spectacle will be broadcast live via Beard Productions, who will stream four tables simultaneously from every session.
