The draw has been made for the inaugural UK Open Pool Championship taking place at the Copper Box Arena, London from May 17-22 with tickets available from only £15 to enjoy the action as 256 players battle it out for a share of $200,000.
Nineball World No.1 Shane Van Boening heads into the tournament as the newly crowned World Champion and starts his bid to become the first-ever UK Open winner against James Channon of Great Britain. 2022 World Pool Masters champion Joshua Filler meets Robert Hart whilst British favourites Jayson Shaw and Chris Melling face Ali Hirji Kheraj and Petr Urban, respectively. Albin Ouschan will take on Sergio Lagunas whilst the World Snooker Tour’s duo of Martin Gould and Gary Wilson take on Tashunka Schultz and Blaine Barcus.
Players were seeded based on the combination of the 2022 Nineball World Ranking and 2023 Nineball World Ranking alongside the WPA Rankings.
Live rack-by-rack scoring will be available throughout the event at www.matchroompool.com
From Tuesday, 17 May to Friday, 20 May fans will be able to enjoy the action globally on the Matchroom Pool Facebook and YouTube pages as well as Matchroom.Live with two tables streamed. The tournament will also be live on betting websites around the world.
The final two days are available on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, 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.
Two seasoned Challenge Cup players were due to contest the third final of this season, with both Robin Cripps and Dave Nelson aiming to avenge final defeats suffered earlier in the season.
Cripps’ high ranking allowed for a bye into the last 32 where he was down to face Ben George. His fight was nearly over at the first hurdle, but he dragged himself over the hill to win 9-8 and set up a last 16 match with Mark Parker. Cripps was making hard work of his matches but doing enough to see himself through, eliminating Parker by 9 racks to 6 to put himself into the quarter finals. There he was to face another hotshot in the Challenge Cup in the form of Tom Staveley. There was a sense of urgency from Cripps as we were approaching the business end of the tournament, and Cripps saw out a 9-4 win to set up a semi final with Michael Brisley. Brisley was looking for his first Challenge Cup final but Cripps had other ideas however, and a superb 9-7 victory put him through to his second consecutive final. The win continued the run of a Cornishman getting to a final of every weekend, following from his own final appearance in May and Dominic Clemens’ Tier II final appearance in February.
A first round clash for the not so fortunate Nelson meant that Sean Dracup awaited him in the last 64. The Keighley potter was in no mood for messing around, and a convincing 9-4 victory put him into the next round where he was to face another one of Keighley’s GB9 contingent, Arfan Dad. Nelson was in no mood for niceties as he swiftly saw off Dad’s challenge 9-3. Next was an equally challenging match on paper, with Benjiy Buckley waiting to put his wits against Nelson. The ruthless streak employed by Craig Osborne earlier in the weekend was rampant here too, and another excellent 9-3 win saw Nelson into the quarter finals to face Jon Davies. Nelson could sense glory was close and pulled out another safe win, this time 9-5 taking him through to the next round and one away from the final. A formidable opponent in Stewart Colclough was all that stood in his way of his second Challenge Cup final of the year. Colclough tried with all his might to reach his first, but it wasn’t to be – Nelson saw out the match on the hill to win through 9 racks to 8 and follow Cripps into the final.
Both players knew glory was at stake here. One would be a two time runner up in this season, the other would finally have a piece of silverware in 2015. The match was destined to go all the way and indeed it did, but it was Cripps who edged it 9-8 to win his first GB9 event of his career.
The GB 9 Ball Tour will return for the Southern Masters event between 25-27 September. If you wish to play this event please fill in the event entry form before the deadline of 22 September.
The draw has been made for the inaugural UK Open Pool Championship taking place at the Copper Box Arena, London from May 17-22 with tickets available from only £15 to enjoy the action as 256 players battle it out for a share of $200,000.