"The Tornado" from Malta, Tony Drago, won 9:6 over current World 9-Ball Champion Niels "The Terminator" Feijen (NED) at the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open.
The match started out quite even. Feijen seemed to struggle with his break a bit while Drago missed a few easy shots in the early stage of the match. However, after eight racks the score was wide at 4:4 between the two contestants. Then Drago managed to get a slight advantage over Feijen, sneaking away with a two point lead at 6:4. Then Feijen took a time-out. When he returned, things did not get better for him. Drago even took two more racks to get on the hill with 8:4. It looked like everything was said and done already when Feijen got a second life because of careless play by Drago. The Maltese played some bad safety attempts and suddenly Feijen was up his neck again with 6:8, having his own break coming up. But again his break did not work for him. He had no ball down and an open table for Drago which "The Tornado" used to clear the table and win the match with 9:6. Feijen has another chance on the loser’s side while Drago advances to the second winner’s round.
Another remarkable match was the encounter between Tomasz Kaplan (POL) and Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE). The Greek was leading 7:5 when he played two bad mistakes in the next two consecutive racks. That brought Kaplan back with 7:7. The next two racks were run outs which made the match a hill-hill affair at 8:8. There, Ekonomopoulos had the better nerves and closed the book on Kaplan with 9:8 to achieve a lucky victory over the Polish.
In his first Euro-Tour appearance, former World 9-Ball Champion Alex Pagulayan (CAN) defeated Sebastian Beuel (LUX) clearly with 9:4 after a 0:2 deficit in the beginning of the match.
Most favored players have made their way through the first winner’s round today.
The tournament will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET.
Three out of 11 tables can be watched LIVE throughout the event on www.kozoom.com. The event will be hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion, IBP. For further information, please check the event website at www.eurotouronline.com or contact the EPBF press office at press@epbf.com
After a days rest and a good night sleep, here are some final words about this years event..
As all of you probably noticed I’ve worked hard to get this edition of DCC right up there with the biggest tournaments in Europe and on the international stage. Therefore I had to get it noticed by a lot of people.. you be the judge whether I succeeded in doing my job. I know that from time to time it must have been a little but annoying to get spammed and notified every single day for the past few months, but in my opinion just a marginal downside of things, it’s simply the way marketing works nowadays. Obviously our event tries to copy one of the biggest pool-billiard happenings in the world.. the Derby City Classic. Our goal is to bring the class and variety it has to people in Europe, but these are only the first few steps towards building the same success they have. We know that there’s more to it and that we need to improve over time. Nevertheless we are proud it rose to what it is now! Couldn’t have imagined it would be such a great event just the 2nd time around..
On Tuesday and Wednesday we prepared Ames for the 2nd Annual 2014 Deurne City Classic. Starting this year themed with our new partner and main co-sponsor Predator Cues, thanks to Jimmy Worung from Loontjens Biljarts (main sponsor) for setting this up. Hope in the future we will grow even bigger together…
Tables and balls were cleaned after the Dutch Nationals so the venue looked fresh again, ready to receive players from all around Europe. The DCC saw a massive turn-up from foreign countries like the UK, Germany, Poland, France, Spain and even Austria. As the event started on Friday people were looking to prepare themselves early.. Ames had then showing up Thursday morning for some practice and in the evening they already were fighting for some hard cash. For us organizers Thursday afternoon meant last minute prepping like; getting promo material properly arranged in the DCC Arena, setting up the tournament desk and finishing off all matters regarding draws and tournament setup. I was also occupied with pickup up family and friends from airports incl. old friend Bartek Skoniecki(crew member) and Imran Majid.Harry was doing his thing and Aziz still had to put in some hard work at his company. Thursday night the early arrivals included players from Spain; David Alcaide Bermudez & Juan Carlos Exposito, who I accidentally met walking to the hotel when I dropped off some friends. Later on the Livestream/Match Recording EBillard.fr Team from France arrived, we spoke a little bit and they went on setting up their gear and installing all necessary equipment to provide the live matches that were broadcast throughout the event. They also brought along Pool-Photo celeb JP Parmentier, imo the best photographer in our business! It was an honor to meet and work together with him! More players came in after a while including the first Polish and German guys; Marek Derek, Kuba Sawicki, Konrad Piekarski, Mieszko Fortuński, his brother Marcel and Konrad Juszczyszyn. Mario He and Oliver Ortmann also came a day early. All players eager to practice for our event. Stumbled upon some Facebook faces but now in real life, that was my highlight of the day. Del Sim and friends came in and we spoke a bit and after that it was back to work. As the clock ticked on we were all still busy finishing our work and setup. Harry did all preparations towards getting the bar properly set up, I was connecting all wires for the booth and Aziz came in to support us. With the arena set and ready to be played at, the booth ready for the tournament we all went home or to our hotels to get a good night sleep.
Friday morning we arrived early and found out that the big ‘FINAL ASSEMBLY’ poster had been dropped off by the courier and to my surprise it did not disappoint! Most of the players that entered the MAIN-EVENT were displayed, some missing and some replaced due to last-minute withdrawals. But all in all a well propped and liked feature of the DCC. People were feeling proud to be placed on the main promotional poster displayed at our event.
All in all it was a great first day, with some laughs and drink in the evening.. we had ringgames and money-matches going. The setup was 2x €50,- 10ball (2 tables x6 players afterwards combined into one final table), 5x €20,- 10ball and 1x €20,- Bankpool Ringgame. Here are the winners:
€50,- STAKES (2 tables got into 1 : Karl Boyes = €275,- , Wojtek Szewczyk €175,- , Imran Majid €100,-
€20,- STAKES 10ball: Del Sim, Konrad Juszczyszyn, Jelle Kijlstra, Mark Lunn, Wojtek Trajdos and Pepijn De Wit won the Bankpool Ringgame. All of them won the entire pot with an extra entry from DCC.
FINAL WORDS…
I speak for myself and my co-founders Harry Charalampidis and Aziz Moussati when I say it was a great pleasure and experience to organize this great event.
To get all those players together in the small town called Deurne @ Sportcentrum Ames. Especially great to have the big names come over from foreign countries; Ralf Souquet, Tony Drago, Oliver Ortmann, Daryl Peach, Imran Majid, Karl Boyes, Stephan Cohen and of course it was an honor to have our Dutch stars Nick Van Den Berg and Niels Feijen present as well. But these are only a couple of players I was looking forward to meet, when starting the event I met new people on Facebook and was really looking forward to meet them in person as well. People who helped me out contacting others who enlisted and chatting in general about the event. Made new friends in real life like Del Sim, Phil Burford,Theodore Bitsaxakis, Sven Wenkheimer, Jürgen Wulf, Elliot Sanderson, Mark Lunn, Karl Boyes, Imran Majid and a lot more. Also had good talks with some people who know what they are talking about regarding tournament setup etc. like Ralf Souquet and others. Thank you for that. Met and befriended pool-photography celeb JP Parmentier who came along with Ebilliard.fr team and showed me the roped of marketing and internet publishing. Speaking of Ebilliard.fr.. these are some dedicated bunch of pool maniacs.. really! Kem Sen, Yannick Barrabès, Nikola Dc, Stephane Leveille and the rest of the guys that came along and helped out.. you are saints in the game of Livestreaming! We had so many people giving great feedback about the quality of your work, its just ridiculous! Big THUMBS-UP to you and hope we can count on you next year…
When creating events of this magnitude you need good people around you who help out when needed, that’s why I want to thank the following people for volunteering as crew or other ways; Gijs Van Westenbrugge, Kevin Dijkstra, Tim De Ruyter, Lesley Weeterings, Bartek Skoniecki, Konrad Piekarski, Susan Verheijen and other who I maybe forgot. Want to thank our two referees who got into the arena at the Last16 stage; Johny Vanrijkel and Tom Penrose.. a job well done ! Also want to thank the Ames Crew for doing a great job behind the Bar, especially Evy Peeters and Eveline Brinks.
A big thanks goes out to all spectators for coming to Ames and cheering on their beloved players and spreading the word to others. It really felt like the house was packed!
Obviously our event wouldn't have been a success without funding, therefore I would like to thank our Sponsors and Partners for making this event possible by contributing in all sort of ways:
Main Sponsors: Predator Cues & Loontjens Biljarts
Table fitting: Serge Das of Serge Das billiards
General: Bavaria, Savicki, AM Koeriersdienst, Simonis Cloth, Aramith, Ho-WAH, www.sixpockets.de, De Biljart Ballen (krant), Martin Welk Custom Cues for his repairs
Q-Promotions / Bobby Boleyn
if it wasn't for these three guys this event wouldn't be a success either..
Aziz Moussati for being one of my best friends and partners in crime.. couldn't have imagined setting up DCC without you. Your input on all matters was the key to my inspiration.
Harry Charalampidis.. this guy build the best venue in Europe IMHO! Props go out to you for doing the best job in organizing all sponsors and creating the arena.. also helping me out on a personal level in the past few years!
Gino De Ruyter.. thanks to you we got the event riding on wheels! Schedules etc. ? HE is your man! Without your input and hard work the event wouldnt have started or finished on time.. ! Thank you!
thats it.. 2014 DCC is done and dusted..
Hope to see you all next year! @ the 3rd Annual ….
A.Moussati, M.Sawicki, N.Feijen and H.Charalampidis
Saturday morning we started off with the MAIN 9ball EVENT…
1st four groups of 24 started off at 09:00h. All went well as nobody got sanctioned with a penalty, neither did anyone forfeit or no-show.
Group A saw one of the favorites Ivo Aarts sail through to the 2nd Winners round with wins over Kaylash Persad, Olivier Vandenbohede. In the 3rd round however he got beaten by UK’s Tony Burton who did not lose a match to qualify for the last64. Marek Derek, Serge Das and Tobias Hoiß all did the same thing by defeating Kadir Turku, Hoa Nguyen, Nicolas Georgopoulos and Tom Penrose. Three of them eventually qualified for the Knock-Out stage themselves by winning their subsequent matches. So did Ivo Aarts in the end.
Group B’s 2nd Winners Round had some strong matches and some surprises as Luxemburg’s Sebastian Beuel beat German 1.Bundesliga playing Klaudio Kerec 8-4 and Karl Boyes did the same thing to Sixpocket’s admin Florian Scholl. Both losers redeemed themselves in the 3rd Losers Round by defeating Joerie van den Broeck and Stefan Sprangers, the latter one not being as slouch. Through the winners side Daryl Peach, Karl Boyes, Bartek Skoniecki and Konrad Juszczyszyn qualified for the Last64 without losing a match. From the Losers round Carlos Cabello, Raphael Keusen, Sebastian Beuel and Klaudio Kerec joined them. Unfortunately some good players went down, like: Alain Da Costa and Maurice Houben.
Group C had some strong players, winning their 1st matches with ease; Niels Feijen beat greek player Theodore Bitsaxakis 8-2, Wojtek Trajdos did the same thing to UK’s Tom Stavely. Aziz Moussati lost to strong playing Benji Buckley 3-8 and after that 7-8 to Peter Lau. This saw him drop out of the 9ball. He said he could not focus on playing because of all the things that went on regarding organization etc. I myself had the same problem. Further in this group’s losers side Matthias Blehs got rid of Walter Hottgenroth and Benjamin Baier. On the winners side Niels handed a donut to Trajdos and Stephan Cohen beat Marcel Fortunski to both qualify for the Last64. Tobias Bongers and Benji Buckley sent Kyle Van den Bosch and Martin Steinlage to the last losers round. 4 players took their last chance to qualify; Trajdos beat Peter Lau 8-4, Bitsaxakis – Steinlage 8-3, Fortunski did the same thing to Del Sim. Matthias Blehs handed out the second donut of the group to Kyle van den Bosch.
Group D featured some strong playing German Bundesliga players; Stefan Nolle and Valery Kuloyants who got rid of their opponents Gijs van Westebrugge and Edward Werlemann pretty quickly in the 1st round. 2nd Winners Round matches went pretty quickly as well when Mieszko Fortunski beat Lex Wellens 8-0, Tony Drago vs. Jan Van Lierop 8-1. Mieszko continued his strong form by winning 8-0 again in his following match against Michael Kasper. Other favorites did not have that same luck as Tony Drago lost to strong youngster Francisco Sanchez Ruiz. Ralf Souquet showed Stefan Nolle who’s boss with a score of 8-5 and Valery did the same thing to Konrad Piekarski. From the losers round the following players eventually went on to qualify for the Last64: Tony Dargo over Sean Dennis with a score of 8-1, Stefan Nolle beat Jan van Lierop 8-2, Konrad Piekarski against Lex Wellens 8-4.
In the afternoon the last 4 groups started their matches, some of the previous groups had to qualify the next morning some of them were done..
Group E surprised a bit when Micha Beuriot beat Guy Buss in the first round and one of the favs Imran Majid got beaten by Nicolas Baumanns. I got my donut handed to me by Noel Bruynooghe.. Couldn’t focus on my game with all the stuff happening around me and had to get comfortable with my new cue as well. Noel played a very good match though, missing maybe 1 ball the entire match. He later on went and qualified for the Last64 by beating Sebastian Fuhrmann. One of the other strong favorites Mateusz Sniegocki sailed through with a score of 8-0 in his 2nd and 3rd match as well. Fast playing Marko Vogel struggled a bit but in the end got through with a hill-hill against Mario Stahl, who himself also eventually got through by beating Lennaert Speijker 8-1 in the losers round. Imran Majid, Robin Cripps, Anthony Wever also went on to qualify winning their matches in the 4th losers round.
Group F consisted of some great players like Oliver Ortmann and Juan Carlos Exposito, who met each other in the latter stages. Oliver first beat fellow countryman Michael Heinz with a big score of 8-0. Think Michael couldn’t get his rhythm going as he normally played way better than that. Norman Bakker surprisingly beat JCE 8-1, Greek fury Xrhstos Davetas beat Thomas Aschauer 8-4 and strong playing Marc Bijsterbosch beat Sven Wenkheimer with easy and a final score of 8-2. In the 3rd Winners round some big matches emerged like Ramazan Dincer vs. Ortmann (8-6), Elliot Sanderson vs. Marc Bijsterbosch (8-5) and Adrian Borowiec vs. Davetas (8-4). So now the losers qualification had some great thrillers going where Exposito met with Ortmann and beat him 8-5, which caused a bit of an upset. Also Hector del Amo Garcia who lost his 1st match got through to the last round and bear Sven Pauritsch to qualify. Marc Bijsterbosch also redeemed himself and beat Waikit Kwok after a hard battle. Davetas was the last one to set his score and got through.
Group G featured some big names like Mario He, David Alcaide and Phil Burford. But also strong formed Joshua Filler who had made a name for himself at DCC by winning the 9ball Banks against Nick v/d Berg in the final. 1st round saw no surprises and all big names went through to the next one. Then we had a big match-up when Mario He drew David Alcaide in the next round and beat him on the hill. David eventually got through to the last round and got through. Joshua showed that age does not matter and shot his way through Phil Burford at the arena with a score of 8-6. Marco Teutscher also went through over Jimmy Worung (8-5). In the 3rd winner round more surprises came when Daniel Kandi beat strong favorite Mario He. Furthermore Mark Lunn beat OC Chan, Teutscher beat Jelle Kijlstra and Joshua Filler knocked his countryman Clemens Phillipen to the losers round. Last chance to qualify for the Last64.. Phil Burford, Julian Kortüm, previously mentioned David Alcaide and Ralf Mrnka did so.
Group H was the final one and had 2013 Champion Nick Van Den Berg starting his journey to defend his crown. Started off with a bye and then went on to qualify for the Last64 by beating German Bundesliga player Kevin Becker and Belgian WCOP player Moritz Lauwereyns in his 3rd match. More strong players started off well; Huidji See beat Female player Vivien Schade 8-0, Jakob Belka vs. Olivier van Loteringen went down with 8-2. 2nd round winners side had some good matches when Dennis Jansen beat Hanno Bröcker on the Hill, Wojtek Szewczyk knocked his countryman Jakob Belka to the losers-side and youngster Aaron Vancoppenolle did the same thing to strong Female Chantal Manske. Last winners round saw all the favorites go through; NvdB, Szewczyk, See and Dennis Janssen, all with ease. Losers side saw Lars Kuckherm, Belka, Becker and Mauwereyns go through.
So that was it for the groups.. Now on to the Last 64 of the 9ball MAIN-EVENT and the 9ball DROP-OUT Challenge.
Around 10:00h on Sunday some matches of the Knock-Out stage began early, but most started around 12:00h.
Some noticeable wins were Moritz Lauwereyns beating his former WCOP team-mate Serge Das with a score of 9-5. Phil Burford beat his countryman Karl Boyes 9-7. Ivo Aarts beat Mateusz Sniegocki 9-8 after trailing 8-6. Konrad Piekarski beat Noel Bruynooghe with an easy 9-4. Norman Bakker got close with Matthias Blehs but beat him on the hill. Raphael Keusen beat strong playing Daniel Kandi on the hill as well. So did Carlos Cabello vs. Mark Lunn.
On to the Last32 where more surprises came along when Wojtek Szewczyk beat Huidji See with ease, final score of 9-5. Moritz Lauwereyns kept his form and beat last year’s Runner-Up Marek Derek 9-6. Konrad Juszczyszyn also shocked everyone when he kept his nerve on the hill against Phil Burford and beat him. More strong play by Ivo Aarts, Imran Majid, Ralf Souquet, Konrad Piekarski, Joshua Filler, Nick van den Berg, Niels Feijen, Tobias Hoiß who all went through to the Last16.
Surely now at this stage you would think only the strong favorites would emerge.. but no, Moritz Lauwereyns continued his form and beat Tobias Hoiß 9-7. Konrad Piekarski being the underdog against Ivo Aarts showed who’s who and beat him 9-5. Mario He did not disappoint and beat Juszczyszyn 9-5 as well. But the biggest surprises of them all was Wojtek Szewczyk taking his revenge on Nick van den Berg from last year at the quarter-finals. After trailing a couple of games Wojtek in the end prevailed and beat the struggling Nick 9-7. Fair to say Nick was dealing with some personal issues on the side. Nevertheless a great performance by the young Pole. More names that went through to the Last8 were Filler, Majid, Feijen and a player I would like to call the new ‘DARK HORSE’ ; Marcel Fortunski. Did not know Marcel had so much in him.. he went through to this stage by beating some big names in my book; Ramazan Dincer (5x 1.Bundesliga Champion), Normal Bakker (strong Dutch player), Elliot Sanderson (GB9 Tour) .. Well DONE!
At this stage our well prized DROP-OUT Challenge began, this tournament was created to let players have another change at some good prize-money and to let them enjoy our venue some more. Where at other tournament after losing twice you didn’t have a chance to redeem yourself.. @ DCC players still did! The Tournament had the same format and rules but shorter races and single knock-out.. so fast play and surprise results were expected. When people found out that the tournament was opened to more than 64 players, whey immediately signed up and the final field was 80.
Moritz again shocked everyone on the TV Table and beat strong favorite Mario He. Feijen showed who boss against Majid by beating him 9-5. Piekarski went on 6-1 against Marcel Fortunski in about 20 minutes but then lost focus and let the young player get back at him a little bit but in the end closed it off with a final score of 9-7. Joshua Filler kept cool against Szewczyk to beat him 9-5.
Semis both played on the TV tables, the match-ups were; Feijen vs. Lauwereyns and Filler vs. Piekarski. Both matches quickly showed who the better players was on Sunday. Even through the youngster match had a bigger score it was over pretty quick cus of fast run-outs and no safety battles. Niels and Moritz took a while longer as tactics came into play. Niels finally closed the deal with a 9-2 win.
So Holland vs. Germany in the FINAL! Niels quickly showed that the break in 9ball ET Style is mastered by those who regularly play the format and broke and ran most of his racks. Joshua struggled to get runs round because he lost his cue-ball a lot. Niels in front is unstoppable, I knew that from the get-go. Proved me right by winning and becoming the NEW 2014 ‘PREDATOR’ Deurne City Classic® CHAMPION !! Congrats Niels Feijen
Though "MASTER OF THE TABLE" title goes to Joshua Filler ! Winning the 9ball banks, 14.1 Shootout and becoming Runner-up in the 9ball MAIN-EVENT!
Around 14:00 we started the 1st round of the 9ball Bankpool, with a lot of entries who dropped out of the one-pocket we again had a full field of 32 players. No surprises there as the usual suspect all came thru this time.. Niels Feijen, NvdB, Ralf Souquet, Oliver Ortmann and Phil Burford all won their 1st round matches giving their opponent a donut! German “Young Gun” Joshua Filler also got thru to the 2nd round doing the same thing. After the re-buys the 2nd round also went on with a 32 field.
Again some of the frontrunners got rid of their opponent in a quick fashion in the Last 8, until the final;
Quarter finals Jelle Kijlstra 3 vs 1 Huidji See Nick Van Den Berg 3 vs 2 Phil Burford
Joshua Filler 3 vs 2 Niels Feijen
Ralf Souquet 3 vs 1 Karl Boyes
Semi finals
Nick van den Berg 3 vs 1 Jelle Kijlstra
Joshua Filler 3 vs 1 Ralf Souquet
Final
Joshua Filler 3 vs 1 Nick van den Berg
Great form shown by young Joshua Filler who really caught a gear and knocked off some big names in the end. He banked his way onto the Final where he beat NvdB losing only 1 game!
Sponsored by Diamond SMART TABLE, True Blue Simonis 860 Cloth, and Cyclop Pool Balls.
Old guys rule, at least, Efren stiil does. He went 11 rounds in the world's most punishing arena to show that if you make one mistake, you will pay.
If you leave him a ball, he'll steal at least 6 or, most likely, run out, That's what he did to master one-pocket marksman, Shannon "The Cannon" Daulton, That remarkable win gave Efren his 6th DCC title…at near 60 years old! Undefeated…and, still with the stamina to tame a pack of raging carnivores.
In the packed Accu-Stats' TV arena, Shannon, always the Southern gentleman, stood and applauded respectfully as tournament director Ken Shuman introduced the man who needed no introduction.
"Action," signaled Accu-Stats' Julian Robertson. The TV cameras started rolling.
Shannon ran the first rack like Efren would soon visit the buy-back booth. He was running out the second and missed pocketing a ball while, simultaneously, trying to open the stack.
Efren did what he does. He punished him…and ran out.
The 4th rack was unbelievable. Shannon still in shock, and down 2-1, fouled. He failed to touch a rail, although, he did still leave safe.
Efren tickled the cue ball off the bottom of the stack, it came back to stick on the other side of the rack, protecting 3 previously unleashed balls now sitting around Efren's pocket. Howdeedodat? (Where's the rewind button?)
Shannon, still mesmerized by the magic, tried to recover and left an opening. Efren pocketed 8 and out. He also appropriated $12,000.
Scott Frost, Shannon's opponent in the semi's, really wanted another shot at Efren. He'd beaten him before and knew that he could again, if given the chance.
Just like his best selling DVD, Scott was playing "Power 1-Pocket." His performance, today, included everything from kick combos to two rail, slow-rollers guaranteed to tease if they didn't fall. Yet, it wasn't enough. It took 2 hours of respectful, friendly fire before Shannon prevailed. It's always such a crowd pleaser to watch these two pals compete; They've been doing it for decades.
Previously, Scott had put Bustey to rest at 3-1, and in his first match of the day, young Justin Hall, the 2012 Southern Classic One-Pocket, and Bank Pool winner. Justin is definitely here to stay. One can tell; he revels in action.
Efren, prior in the day, menaced Dennis Orcollo and had reminded the talented and sporty Josh Roberts that the "Old Guard" was in the house and can still rock the rock.
Shannon knew that Josh was dangerous as he'd won on his Great Southern Billiards Tour.
Josh was last seen taking his winnings to the "Action" room to match up with the road worthy Chris Bartram. (Check the Forums.)
The Filipino Invasion continues: 3 players in the last 7 in One-Pocket, two in the finals in Banks. and there are more to come, including Kiamco, Biado, and Corteza in the 9-Ball.
And, guess who are in contention for the $25,000 Master of the Table purse?
Dennis, Bustey , and, you knew it, Efren.
Efren, like Elvis, had left the building before I'd gotten a chance to ask him why he'd won today. We all know how he would have answered, "I got lucky."
The Derby City Classic 9-Ball Championships
Sponsored by Lucasi Cues.
The Accu-Stats Arena held court to a match that had the crowd's attention: Karen, "The Irish Invader" Corr, against, by the luck of the draw, Efren.
Karen was thrilled to finally get a chance to compete with him, "It's a great honor. I've always admired Efren. It's great to see, up close, his skill. Although today," she laughed, "Maybe, a wee bit too close." She lost 9-2. The audience was super supportive and applauded warmly to Karen's grace in defeat.
Newly inducted Hall of Famer Jeanette Lee can draw an audience, too. Always a magnet wherever she goes,, her table with Nederlander Nick van der Berg was abuzz. Iphones were doing the smart thing as their cameras recorded every move as she pocketed ball after ball. Nick, unfazed, closed out the match at 9-5. The family is still well represented as Jeanette's hubby George Breedlove is competing on Friday.
Speaking of Nederlanders, Alex Lely, a former World Pool Master, is coaching a team of young Dutchmen that is attending the Derby to hone their competitive skills in the real world of American pool–and expenses are paid! (Are you listening America?)
Under Alex's tutelage, Jelle Kijlstra sent 2103 DCC 9-Ball champ Lee Vann Corteza to the buy-back booth. (Alex, still competitive, eliminated 2007 DCC 9-Ball champ Niels Feijen to reach the semi's of the George Fels Memorial straight pool event. More on this later.)
Friday's 9-Ball draw is constantly updated at http://dcctickets.com. Click to see when all your favorite players are competing.
2104 George Fels Memorial Straight Pool Challenge: High runs, Wednesday, 29th.
Mosconi Cup MVP Niels Feijen begins 2014 like he ended 2013, with a win.
Last weekend, the inaugural edition of the Longoni Capelle Open was held in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). The owners of the venue, Petra and Roy van Straalen, celebrated their 25th anniversary in the billiards business with this fantastic 10-ball event, as well as a 3-cushion Grand Prix. The latter was won by world Champion and Longoni ambassador Dick Jaspers. The Longoni Capelle Open counted no less than ‘147’ entries. A typical number, since Petra and Roy van Straalen contributed immensely to the growth of snooker in the Netherlands, with their five pool and renowned snooker halls. Participants from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and as far as France, Denmark and Sweden attended the event.
Four days of qualifications rounds saw the 32 best players emerge to advance to the main tournament on Sunday January 5th 2014. The format of the main tournament was 'double knock out’, races to 7, until the quarter finals, with races to 8, onwards. Throughout the tournament, the 'alternate break' was a in force and the balls were racked with the Magic Ball Rack. The Clash Competition pool tables by Loontjens Biljarts were re-fitted with beautiful brand new Iwan Simonis 860 cloth. The pool tables and Aramith pool balls were brushed and polished, daily, to offer perfect playing conditions.
To add value to the event, live streaming video coverage was brought to the audience at home by Ebillard.fr and match results were updated on Facebook. Additionally, some matches were recorded in high definition. Hundreds of fans followed the action.
In the end, a high standard of 10-ball was brought to the table by no less than ‘The Terminator’ Niels Feijen, ‘El Niño’ Nick Van Den Berg, ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Huidji See, many other pros and semi-pros. The audience in attendance was treated to 'break and runs’, great tactical safety play, amazing ‘kick shots’, ‘jump shots’, comebacks from near defeat and even ‘donuts’. Eventually, there could only be one winner. In the final, The Terminator bested Kung Fu Panda in an even match up to 6-6. Despite the late hour, Niels Feijen had enough energy reserve to haul in the 8-6 victory with great determination.
Feijen had to take a detour on his way to the final, as his fellow Dutch team mate Marco Teutscher sent him to the ‘one loss side’ in the ‘double knock out’ format. Eventually, Feijen was back on course, beating Geordie Sahilatua (7-2 in the 'final 12’), Nick van den Berg (8-2 in the quarter finals), Belgian pro Noël Bruynooghe (8-4 in the semi finals). Huidji See, on the other hand, had a smoother trip towards the final, with five straight wins: 7-1 against Geordie Sahilatua (1st round), 7-2 against Frank Spinnewijn (2nd round), a 7-6 'double hiller’ against fellow Dutch team mate Marc Bijsterbosch, another 7-6 thriller against Daniel Kandi from Denmark in the quarter finals and 8-5 against Jimmy Worung in the semis.
The event was more successful than expected and, with great anticipation, the intention to organise the 2015 Longoni Capelle Open has already been announced.
The Longoni Capelle Open was brought to you by Longoni, Loontjens Biljarts, Kamui.
The final ranking and payouts:
Winner €1.000 Niels Feijen
Runner-up €600 Huidji See
Semi-finalists €300 Noël Bruynooghe (B), Jimmy Worung
Quarter-finalists €200 Nick van den Berg, Marc Bijsterbsoch, Daniel Kandi (DK), Marco Teutscher
