Tag Archive for 8-ball pool

Legend’s Pool Tour Live from Leicester

June 12, 2009 / The_Teach / No comments

Cuesport TV are continuing their support of the brand new Legend’s Pool Tour that will be live this weekend from Club147 in Leicester.

The series developed by Pat O’Kane and Gary Taylor has attracted a lot of interest with many over 45’s wanting to get in on the action. The stars of the 1980’s pool scene have returned to competitive action to remember friends who have passed away and of course to have a fantastic time, a buffet is always laid on and drinking is encouraged.

Club147 is the host of round 2 in the series of 4 events and winner last time out Ross McInnes will be looking to double up. Looking to stop him in his pursuit of back-to-back titles is Martin Rothwell, runner-up in event 1, Pat O’Kane, Charlie Shaw and Maltese Joe Barbera. All of these players were fixtures in the televised tournaments of the 1980’s so it is great to see them returning to action.

You to can get in on this action too by watching it live and exclusive on Cuesport TV over the 13th and 14th June. Coverage is from 12pm-6pm on day one and from 12pm until close on the final day.

Action will be competitive so please do not be put off by the over-45′s moniker attached to the tournament. The last event in Basingstoke was highly competitive with every player wanting to get their name on the trophy.

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

The Growth of Blackball in Spain

June 10, 2009 / The_Teach / No comments

Traditionally the small ball game of Blackball has had its heartland in Britain and Ireland. There has also always been a following in France.

The tide is turning and the ‘small-ball’ 8-ball game known as Blackball is finding new homes worldwide. Spain, and Catalunya in particular, through the work of Joan Marminya is becoming a hotbed of International Blackball. When teams like Scotland, Wales and France stayed away, Spain travelled to Swaziland for the 2008 World Championships. A tournament where they received moderate success, winning the open 5-person team event.

Normally when you see the growth of this sport Internationally the infrastructure comes from ex-pats living abroad. In this particular example there is none of this.

I don’t really have a reason for the growth, but it comes down to passion from the organisers and a belief that the game can prosper in a country where American 8-ball is traditionally the largest cue sport.

From a personal point of view, it is important now to continue this good work and introduce an International event to further develop the potential of the sport in Spain. Funnily enough I have wind of an International festival due for March 2010. If this happens then it will be a great place to have an International tournament but will also add Spain as a stronghold of Blackball Pool.

The game is developing elsewhere, I choose Spain as my example simply because I know some of the players and organisers personally. The game is played massively in South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania and there are also pockets of it in China. I think all governing bodies need to have a world conference at some stage to sit down and discuss how to make Blackball more of a global phenomonen. It is fast-paced, attacking and exciting to watch and could appeal to TV audiences worldwide.

Blackball, the time is now!

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

Jayson Shaw Wins CueSport TV Event in Dublin

May 12, 2009 / The_Teach / No comments

The CueSport TV £50,000 Pool Series returned over the weekend of 8th-10th May. 84 players from as far away as Catalunya, Spain competed to try and get their hands on the £3500 winners prize, or at least a share of the £10,000 guaranteed prize fund.

A lot of the usual suspects including Simon Ward, the winner of the first event in the Isle of Man, and Jayson Shaw made it through to Sunday unscathed after coming through the winner’s side.

One of the biggest stories of the weekend was that of Craig Marsh. Marsh, the runner-up in the Isle of Man, was beaten by England’s Andy Lucas in the final qualifying round. Lucas himself had come through three matches to qualify for Sunday’s knockout stages.

The last 16 contained some well-known names from the world of Blackball and it also contained the name Stephen Dempsey. Local-boy Dempsey is more well known for his World Rules play and it was actually his first ever tournament under Blackball rules. He ended up being the last Irishman standing and was beaten in the semi-final 10-8 by Jayson Shaw after leading 8-7.

The other semi-final pitted the only Englishman in the tournament, Andy Lucas, against another Scotsman, Paddy McMullen. McMullen is a very slow and deliberate player and takes his time over every shot, this lead to a very long match. Andy was leading throughout only for Paddy to peg him back; the match went 9-9 with Andy breaking. He prevailed and managed to book his spot in the final.

The final was a different matter as Jayson really ran away with it after Andy Lucas continually failed on his break. He had a run of 7 dry breaks during the final, which meant Jayson was able to lift the title and the £3500 prize after a 10-4 victory. Lucas settled for second and no doubt will be pleased with his performance after collecting £1500 for the runner-up spot.

The series continues in June with the English leg from Preston over the weekend of the 26th-28th June. Once again this will be live and exclusive to CueSport TV.

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

Live from Basingstoke – The Legend’s Tour

April 12, 2009 / The_Teach / 4 comments

We are live from The Academy in Basingstoke for the Legend’s Tour today.

Watch it live over at www.cuesport.tv – Hit the Live Events button to watch for free.

Have your say on the action via the comments on our blog.

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

Playing For Cash!

March 24, 2009 / The_Teach / No comments

Are we just too conservative in this country or is it that the scene is much more underground?

What I am talking about is money-matches or challenge matches in any pool discipline. Although there are matches played with some large sums of money there doesn’t seem to be much of a scene per se. In the USA money-matches are high profile and quite regular.

Recently (some of you will have watched it) we showed a £10,000 8-ball challenge match between John Kelly and Tony Halpin. The match was not of the highest quality but the money on offer (plus a bit of interactivity with our viewers) meant that it was a tense affair.

It was such a success from our point of view that we would love to do something more regular, ideally midweek so it is away from the usual tournament scene.

Again it does not matter what the discipline of pool is, be it 8-ball or 9-ball the biggest thing is that there is some action, the players, I think, are keen for it and our recent live stream proved that viewers are up for it as well.

It was interesting to see some recent forum comments on a regular 9-ball forum in the UK about a potential £2000 challenge match between Gareth Esprit and World 10-ball Champion Darren Appleton. If this happens we will be there to stream the action live, but again we would love for this to become a regular feature on the channel, so if anyone knows anything or knows a game that is going ahead let us know.

Also, why do you think the money scene is kept under wraps in this country?

Category: General / Tags: , , , , ,

Live 8-ball Challenge Now!

March 2, 2009 / The_Teach / 208 comments

John Kelly v Tony Halpin £10K per man live http://www.cuesport.tv Tonight!!!

Tune in now match starts at 8pm UK time.

First to 18 frames World Rules 8-ball

Please leave your comments and predictions below!

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

Frustrated? You Bet!

February 23, 2009 / The_Teach / No comments

I am back in the office after a weekend at Great Yarmouth providing coverage of the UPC 8-ball Championships. This event was supposed to be live online and would have received significant coverage.

Due to problems with the Internet connection on site (what is becoming a recurring theme) we were unable to go live.

Our system is very expensive and provides what we believe to be the best video quality available outside of the major broadcasters. This means we have to do things differently to those that are streaming over the web vis UStream or one of the other free services.

Our system needs us to be able to port forward, in itself something very simple to do, however this needs support from the venues and clubs of the UK.

It is the inability to port forward that meant the UPC coverage reverted to recorded rather than live and that is frustrating, we have worked hard and invested a lot of time and money over the last year and it is seriously disappointing to not be able to make good on our promises.

The biggest frustration in this instance was that the venue did not return any of my pre-tournament telephone calls so this problem could have been averted. Four messages were left and each time I rang the correct person was unavailable. Not going live also costs us revenue which will keep the content free so is doubly frustrating.

Anyway rant over, the money-match next week should be fine, all body parts crossed!

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

Live Pool from Great Yarmouth

February 17, 2009 / The_Teach / 4 comments

This weekend (20th-22nd Feb) will see CueSport TV’s first live broadcast of 2009. The Universities Pool Council 8-ball Pool Championships will be streamed live online across all three days.

The tournament is the largest in the University pool calendar and it is anticipated that over 450 budding 8-ball players will be involved in the individual and team championships. The man to beat is CueSport TV regular Richard Wharton who is the defending individual champion and number 1 seed.

For the first time in a live event CueSport TV will be providing live graphical scoring and at least two camera angles to enhance the viewing pleasure. In addition live commentary will be available all weekend from Pete Williams and a selection of the players in the venue.

The event is free to all registered CueSport TV viewers, who will be required to login to the channel in order to watch. Joining CueSport TV is also free and simply requires an email address and password.

This is the first of many live events planned for 2009 from the company as it develops it’s portfolio of quality pool and snooker events.

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

The Greatest Shot Ever?

February 12, 2009 / The_Teach / 2 comments

The video below was recorded by us back in October last year whilst we were broadcasting from the Isle of Man Festival of Pool. The quality is not great due to us recording directly from the 148kbps live webcast.

The main match we were covering had finished so we turned the camera around to other matches still going on. We focused on Bob Douglas’s game on an adjacent table when he was faced with this impossible red, or so we thought!

Watch the video to find out what actually happened.

Please rate, comment and share your thoughts on this video with us and your friends, if you have recorded something similar then please let us know.

You can find this video on the following video sites:

YouTube, Metacafe, DailyMotion and Veoh

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

Mick Hill wins Oracle Pool Tour Final

November 24, 2008 / The_Teach / No comments

2004 World Pool Champion, Mick Hill, has won the final event of the 2008 Oracle Super Tour. The win pockets Hill £5,000 and the title.

It was always going to be a tough final against event 2 winner Simon Ward. Ward plays some of the most attacking and attractive pool on the circuit and his wins over Oly Bale and Chris Melling were very good indeed.

In the final though it was Hill that looked the stronger eventually taking the match 8-5.

Speaking afterwards I found out that Mick was due to be on holiday in Spain.

CueSport TV – “Well played Mick, I hear you are supposed to be on holiday?”

Mick Hill – “Thanks very much, yes, I had to cancel my flight when I got into the last 16, I am supposed to be in Spain now.”

CueSport TV – “Well once again well played and at least the delay has made you £5000 richer.”

Mick Hill – “Yeah! Cheers”

All of Sundays action from the last Oracle Tour event can be viewed later this week on CueSport TV.

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