Appleton Takes GB9 Northern Masters

GB9 Press Release:

Appleton Stops The Maharajah's Winning Streak

Imran Majid's incredible winning streak of 29 consecutive matches including 4 tournament championship victories has come to an end in Manchester at the hands of Darren Appleton, former English 8 Ball Pool champion in the semi-final stage of the Main Event.

Appleton then beat reigning World Pool Champion Daryl Peach in the final, and appeared particularly determined throughout the tournament, taking extra time at the start of every rack, planning the route of every run-out.

This was the first event that the GB9 have implemented the higher rack position - with the nine-ball on the foot spot, forcing many players to adopt a more powerful break putting a stop to the virtually guaranteed "wing-ball-on-the-break" that came with the old "tapped" rack position.

Of the final against Peach, Appleton said, "We broke pretty well, but it wasn't always coming out good, so there was a lot of safety", "it's been a long day and we didn't really focus as good as we can do, but I probably played a little bit better than him, on the day, and that was the difference I think in the end."

"It's a frustrating game sometimes, you can play very well and lose, and you can play average and win."

Appleton paid tribute to semi-finalist Imran Majid saying, "to beat Imran in the semis was a massive win. I felt a lot of pressure to beat him because obviously he hasn't lost this year, so that was a massive thing".

Unlike the rest of Europe which takes a summer break from Pool, (even some of the warehouses and manufacturers take a six week break from production) the British Pool season is a relentless twelve month affair, possibly due to the unpredictable nature of our weather.

The GB9 Ball Tour forges ahead with it's fifth event, the Northern Masters at Manchester, hosted by Rileys American Pool and Snooker Clubs - Europe's largest operator of Pool, snooker and poker clubs.

Each event consists of three individual tournaments, the 96 player "Challenge Cup" - the division for players attempting to gain promotion, the 32 player "Pro Cup" - for the elite top 32 national ranked players, and the 128 player "Main Event" - featuring the full field of 128 players from both divisions.

All matches are single elimination, race-to-nine, except the finals which are race-to-eleven. Matches start late on Friday afternoon and on Sunday evening the Main Event final is over by 9.30pm.

As you can imagine, the smooth running of the event is a thing to behold, precise timing and superb organisation skills enables all 254 matches to run like clockwork, and the use of the "Tapping Mat" speeds the racking process whilst preventing disputes.

It's a Shaw thing!

Proud Scotsman Jayson Shaw has managed to win the GB9 Manchester Pro Cup at only his second attempt. On his route to the final he beat former Pro Cup champion and current number 2 ranked European player Imran Majid in the first round of the UK's elite player event.

In the final, the youngster from Glasgow toppled the Euro Tour number one ranked player Mark Gray with an 11-8 score - I don't think we've seen the last of this young player.

Shaw actually missed the start of the tour, and has managed to get a reserve spot filling the vacancy due to Tony Drago having to attend the 2008 World snooker Shanghai Masters Qualifying - and Shaw certainly made the most of the opportunity. Jayson has now joined the GB 9 Ball Tour permanently so the extremely tough Pro Division has just become even tougher!

In an interview after the final Shaw was asked if there was anyone on the tour that he feared, he replied, "When I'm playing I don't really fear anybody, but to be honest with you, there could be easier draws, I'd rather play someone instead of Imran who has won the last four events" - he also admitted to practicing 5 hours every day, thanks to his sponsors The New Archway snooker club in Glasgow.

No surprise as Robson wins second consecutive Challenge Cup

Chris Robson was regarded as the underdog in the final at the last event, but he proved himself to be a bit of a giant-killer with his win over Scott Higgins, and once again he has shown that he's made of stern stuff with a thrilling 11-10 win over London's David Walsh.

In fact, Walsh was the only player to take Robson to the hill at this event, and Walsh and Robson now sit side-by-side on the Challenge Cup rankings at 3rd and 4th respectively, both in with a fair chance of topping the end-of-season rankings.

All will depend on the final event of the season, the GB9 British Grand Prix to be held at Rileys American Pool and Snooker Club, in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on 19 September 2008.