PRESS RELEASES
RESULTS: Bank Pool Tournament
Red Shoes Billiards of Alsip Illinois (Chicago) hosted a BANK POOL Tournament on Saturday August 4th, 2012. This was a $500 added money, double elimination, "Race to 23 balls" event. For those of you who have never heard of a "RACE TO 23 BALLS" format, it works like this.... After the break (FULL RACK) the players play out the WHOLE first rack (keeping a total of credited balls....i.e. 8/7). The player scoring the final (15th) ball of the first rack breaks the second rack (opening break rules apply). The second FULL RACK is played out (with players keeping a running total
of credited balls). If necessary the players will play a third FULL RACK until one player reaches 23 total credited balls (which ends the match). Typically matches last from one to two hours (depending how "safe/aggressive" the players are). This was a one day (iron man) tournament. It was a FULL FIELD with the following results: 1st Brian Gregg, 2nd Darryl Abernathy, 3rd Eric Hincks, 4th Jeff Carter, 5th-6th Freddie (The Beard) Bentivegna & Jeremy Bauers, 7th-8th Neal Jacobs & Rich Meager. As usual it was a very tough field with some home town favorites being knocked out earlier than expected (i.e...Glen "Piggybanks" Rogers, Ike "The Great Ike" Runnels and Eric "The Worm" Wermes). Next in the Red Shoes Billiards Tournament schedule is ONE POCKET on Saturday September 1st, 2012.
Gould Makes Breakthrough Win By World Snooker Martin Gould won a tournament carrying ranking points for the first time by beating Stephen Maguire 4-3 in the final of UK Players Tour Championship event two at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester. Londoner Gould climbed into the top 16 last season and also won the Power Snooker event, and can now add a PTC title to his snooker CV. Victory is worth Ă‚ÂŁ10,000 plus 2,000 ranking points to the 30-year-old former casino croupier. Scotland's Maguire won UKPTC1 last month and looked on course for a repeat victory when he took the first frame of the final with a break of 64. Gould hit back to win three of next four frames, compiling runs of 65 and 52 and nicking the fifth on a respotted black. Maguire won the next for 3-3 and when he fluked a red when escaping from a snooker in the decider he had the chance of a match-winning break, but could only make 41. The frame came down to the colours and Gould potted an excellent long green and added the brown and blue to win - LAST 16 Stephen Maguire 4-3 Shaun Murphy Pankaj Advani 0-4 Alan McManus Joe Perry 4-3 Michael White Nigel Bond 0-4 Mark Williams Alfie Burden 4-1 Robert Milkins Judd Trump 2-4 Ryan Day Ben Woollaston 4-1 Liang Wenbo Martin Gould 4-3 Mark Allen
the title. "It feels amazing to win a tournament with ranking points for the first time," said world No 16 Gould. "My aim now is to win some big titles. "Last week I started working with a coach called Stephen Feeney who has done a lot for the likes of Mark Davis and Stuart Bingham. He noticed a fault in the way I was sighting the ball and fixed it straight away. The improvement has been beyond my expectation and every time I was among the balls this week I felt as if I was going to clear up. "I lost a lot of close matches at the end of last season and I realise now that was because of the problem with my sighting and cue action. It feels great to know it is fixed." The Players Tour Championship is a series of ten events, four in the UK and six in Europe, with the top 24 on the final Order of Merit going through to the Grand Finals in March. They will be joined by eight players from the Asian PTC Order of Merit. The next event is Betfair European Tour 1 (the Paul Hunter Classic) from August 23-26 in Fuerth, Germany.
- QUARTER FINALS Stephen Maguire 4-1 Alan McManus Joe Perry 4-1 Mark Williams Alfie Burden 4-3 Ryan Day Ben Woollaston 2-4 Martin Gould
- Results
- SEMI FINALS Stephen Maguire 4-3 Joe Perry Alfie Burden 1-4 Martin Gould - FINAL Stephen Maguire 3-4 Martin Gould
(last 16 onwards)