Archive for English/UK Pool

Two New Live Events

February 8, 2012 / The_Teach / No comments

The last live event that we broadcast on Cuesport TV goes back to the beginning of November last year with a GB9 event, but they are now back!

In February we now have two great live events for you on PPV.

The first is the English Blackball Pool Federation National Tour Finals from Club 147 in Leicester, this new event to our calendar features all of the qualifiers from the Regional Blackball Tours in 2011.

Some of the names featured will be former World and European Champion, Andy Lucas and National Singles winner, Adam Brown.

There will be live action from the Juniors and Seniors on the Saturday (18th February) and from the Ladies and Men’s event on the Sunday (19th February).

The action will only cost you £3.00 to view for the whole weekend and you can purchase on the link above.

Our second event of the month comes from the UPC BUCS 8-Ball Championships in Great Yarmouth. We have covered the University event now since 2009 and it is always a very entertaining weekend. The singles and team events get stronger and attract more new teams and players each year.

This year the action is live from Thursday 23rd February until Sunday 26th February and will cost just £3.00 for the whole event on the link above.

Please join us on these events your input is very welcome.

Category: English/UK Pool, Live Event News / Tags: , , , , , ,

6 Great Places to Watch Live Pool (When we’re not streaming)

January 24, 2012 / The_Teach / No comments

There are a number of great people out on the web providing some really good quality live streaming, you may have seen some of them but I hope that some are new to you. However, you are only allowed to watch them when Cuesport TV are not live streaming!

I have not ranked them in order of preference, the list is simply there to make it easier to read:

  1. InsidePool.TV – probably the best pool/billiards magazine on the market, they have been involved with live streaming for a number of years now, they make use of both the Youtube and UStream platforms which makes access very easy.
  2. TheActionReport – They have been doing this since 2007 (about the same amount of time as us!) and the quality has just got better and better over the years, expect multiple camera angles, live commentary, interviews and also a live podcast now as well. Probably the one website that most ‘streamers’ aspire to.
  3. Pool Action TV – Operated by Ray ‘BigTruck’ Hansen PoolActionTV have done a number of differing productions over the last 2 years. Along with regular coverage of Pro/Am events they have also covered the Ultimate 10-Ball Championships and a number of money matches.
  4. OTBNTV -On The Break News operate a number of smaller pool magazines and also got invloved with the live streaming of tournaments from their area a while back. Again utilising the Ustream platform to provide live and VOD coverage.
  5. MaxLeePool – It is great to see someone else trying to push the UK game forward and this site provides live streaming as well as a tour that they operate up in Scotland, great if you are a fan of Blackball or the UK 8-Ball game.
  6. OnTheRail TV – Established in 2008 (07/08 almost seems to be the birth of live streamed pool!) they create high quality match-ups and stream pro-am tournaments from the Arizona region of the US. Many top names have featured including Efren Reyes, Earl Strickland and Darren Appleton with One Pocket seeming to be a speciality.

This is just a small list of live streaming resources, please send me links to other live streaming websites/companies/profiles on the web and I will try and update this list over time. If I have made any glaring errors then please let me know.

Category: 9-ball Pool, English/UK Pool, Live Streaming Resources / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Top 5 Matches of 2011

January 2, 2012 / The_Teach / No comments

Thought I would have a go at compiling a ‘Top 5 of 2011′ in terms of the matches that we have covered, you can find details of them below and where we have it a link to the video on Cuesport TV.

It has been a difficult task to compile this list due to the sheer amount of pool that I have been involved with covering in 2011 so they are in no particular order of preference!

1. Welsh Open Blackball Final – This has been our most watched video of the second half year even though it was only released at the end of November. In my eyes one of the most perfect games of pool ever played in front of our cameras as Simon Ward won his second consecutive Welsh Open title by demolishing Richie Oliver 6-0.

2. GB9 British Grand Prix Final – Jayson Shaw once again proved what a very classy and entertaining player he can be by lifting the GB9 British Grand Prix in November. Up against the best GB9 player of all time (Imran Majid) many felt that Imran’s more deliberate style would have slowed Jayson down but not on this occasion, the Scotsman showed pure class as he lifted the title 11-4 with 4 break and runs in the process. The win also meant that he finished 2nd in the end of year rankings. (Video available soon)

3. Oly Bale v Ronan McCarthy – This was a well talked about, high profile, big-money 8 Ball match that in terms of the pre-match hype didn’t meet expectations from the home player. What it did do though was prove what a class act Ronan McCarthy is! (Link is to the first part of the match.)

4. Money Match TV 14: Matt Lawrenson v Craig Osborne – There have been many great MMTV matches over the last 12 months but this one sticks in my mind due to the final part of the match alone, both players were tied early on with Matt the taking a lead. It looked pretty much over when Matt went 18-14 in front only to see one of the greatest comebacks in MMTV history by Craig Osborne. (Video is a link to this exciting final part)

5. European Blackball Championship Semi Final – ‘The Battle of Ireland’ as Gavin Cleary of the host nation took on Darren Sterrett of Northern Ireland for a place in the final. A very good advert for the game of Blackball with two very contrasting styles of play. Video link is part 1 of 2.

If you would like to submit your ‘Top 5′ or ‘Best of 2011′ then please drop us an email to enquiries@cuesport.tv

Category: 9-ball Pool, English/UK Pool / Tags: , ,

And Finally…

December 1, 2011 / The_Teach / No comments

I know it has taken an age, and all I can do is apologise, but finally we have released the final part of the Oly Bale v Gareth Potts £21,000 8-ball Money Match. We have had so many problems getting this particular video file to work properly but now it does!

You can watch it below:

Category: English/UK Pool, money matches / Tags: , , ,

Almost Perfect Pool

November 29, 2011 / The_Teach / No comments

This video is definitely worth a watch. In an amazing match that lasted just 23 minutes one of the two players played almost perfect pool, in fact their only mistake was a scratch in frame number 5. The match was the final of the 2011 Welsh Open recorded in Sunday 27th November.

Watch it below and then please let us have your thoughts:

Category: English/UK Pool / Tags: , , ,

A Short Lived Return

November 26, 2011 / The_Teach / No comments

It has been a very long time since I personally picked up a cue in anger. I don’t mean to use as a cosh in some bar brawl, but as the weapon of choice on a pool table.

Laughing aloud the organisers of the Welsh Open, a blackball event I am covering for Cuesport TV, told me they had put me in the main draw.

It would have been fine but for two things, I haven’t played any form of small ball game for about two years and I didn’t have a cue.

The cue problem was solved by borrowing a very nice Trevor White one piece owned by Paul Bushnell. I can’t reply you in words how nice that cue is!

Ok so we come to the second problem, not having played for a very long time.

I have to say I was strangely nervous, with no expectations I expected to be feeling quite relaxed. Not the case!

I won the lag and hit an awesome break. All the balls in situe for a nice dish, I didn’t take it out though failing on my final colour. Luckily though I got a second chance and went 1-0 up!

Second frame I made a nice clearance after my opponent failed to make his break work, and after a bit of a battle. This meant I was leading 2-0 in the best of nine match.

It went downhill from there though! He battled back to lead 3-2 even though I had a chance in every frame.

I did manage to level it in the next only to see him take the seventh frame.

The 8th frame saw a dry break from my opponent with a scratched white. I used my first shot to good effect and looked set to take out the frame only to go in off whilst getting position on the black – gutted!

I lost the game 5-3 and was reasonably pleased with my performance, may even have to start playing again now!

Category: English/UK Pool, General / Tags: , , ,

A Very Good Advert for Blackball

November 10, 2011 / The_Teach / No comments

For some reason these two video files took longer than all of the others to come through our transcoding system. they were originally uploaded on the 29th September and a few errors occurred meaning they have only been made available today.

For me this was the best match and best advert for Blackball pool from the entire week of the European Blackball Championships in Ireland.

It was a real clash of styles between Darren Sterrett of Northern Ireland and Gavin Cleary of the host nation. The match was from the semi-final stage and a place in the final was up for grabs.

Darren was much more the steady player and from my experience of Blackball over the past couple of years I had him down as the favourite.

Before the tournament Gavin was unknown to me (may have missed a trick there I know!) but came out in this match with some seriously aggressive and attacking pool.

I won’t ruin the surprise go and watch both parts of this match yourself at the links below and please let me know your thoughts.

Gavin Cleary v Darren Sterrett – European Blackball Semi Final – 1 of 2

Gavin Cleary v Darren Sterrett – European Blackball Semi Final – 2 of 2

Category: English/UK Pool / Tags: , ,

A Truly International Tour

October 17, 2011 / The_Teach / No comments

In a statement posted yesterday, the IPA Tour, have confirmed that they have secured the sponsorship of the Hilton Worldwide chain of hotels to become the host venues for the 2012 season.

Whilst this is an excellent move there is still a lot of work to be done behind the scenes to secure the funding necessary to drive the tour forward. It is without doubt that the tour is in a transitional state and with the launch of the UK Pool Tour (started by the IPA’s former Chairman) that already has significant funding and backing a package needs to be put together sooner rather than later.

The one thing from the statement that I did pick up on though was the line quoted below,

We would like to advise that in 2012 the IPA TOUR will for the first time become a truly international tour by staging one of its events in Wales

Although Wales is officially a constituent Country of the United Kingdom it is hardly giving the tour some International flavour, many Welsh players have participated in the tour for a long time. If a tour such as the IPA wants to claim to be International in terms of the events then they have to leave the UK, France have a big Billard Anglais following and places like Belgium, Catalonia, Gibraltar and Malta also play a lot of 8-ball.

I am in no way knocking the efforts of the new tour committee as I understand the problems with trying to move events into other countries, and I also applaud them trying to change the geographic spread of the tournaments, hopefully in time many of the countries mentioned would have a genuine leg of the IPA Tour. Having Hilton as a sponsor may help towards this as they have hotels all over the world.

In the first instance though the tour need to announce their plans, entry fee’s, accommodation prices and prize funds for the tour next year so that players can make an informed choice over which series to participate in, and this is mainly a choice for the amateurs as it is them that make up the majority of the prize funds in the first place.

Does moving an event to Wales constitute a Truly International Tour?

Category: English/UK Pool / Tags: , , ,

Heaps of Videos Now Showing

October 12, 2011 / The_Teach / No comments

It has been a little over two weeks since I returned from Ireland and the European Blackball Championships, during the time I had over there James and I recorded some amazing action and it has always been my intention to make new content available sooner.

On this occasion I have pulled out all the stops to try and keep this event fresh in people’s minds. All of the content has now been uploaded to our system, some is taking a bit more time than others to come through transcoding however. What this means is that there will be somewhere in the region of 30 hours worth of Blackball Pool for you to view.

Most of the content is broken down into hour long chunks, but if that is too long then just use the skip feature on the video player.

I really hope you enjoy tucking in and watching some of this action, my favourite match of the whole week was probably the men’s semi-final between Darren Sterrett and Gavin Cleary, the match was tense, had great safety and some good aggression on the table as well. In my eyes it proved to be a very good advert for the Blackball game.

Sadly this is one of the matches that is not yet released but I will update this post with a direct link once it is.

Do you have a favourite match from the event? Please let us know

Category: English/UK Pool / Tags: , , , , ,

A Quiet Couple of Weeks

October 7, 2011 / The_Teach / No comments

After the hectic last few weeks with Cuesport TV out and about on our travels to different live events, there are now at least two weekends without any live coverage.

Fear not though fellow cue sport fans as there is plenty of video content available for you to peruse over at the VOD site.

Some top picks for you:

European Blackball Champs – Wheelchair Final – 8 Ball

European Blackball Champs – Men’s B Team Final – 2 of 2 – 8 Ball

MMTV 12 – Kevin Uzzell v Matt Lawrenson – 11 of 11 – 9 Ball

MMTV 12 – Ben Clayton v Alex McElhatton – 1 of 8 – 9 Ball

Jamie Cope Interview – Snooker

Live events will return on the 29th October with Money Match TV 16, once again 3 live matches back-to-back and there is talk of Craig Osborne playing Chris Melling in this event.

Category: 9-ball Pool, English/UK Pool, General, Live Event News / Tags: , , , ,
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