CueSport TV - The Blog

Last week was manic, I left on the 23rd April (my birthday incidentally) for the long trip to Blackpool for the GB9 event at the Imperial Hotel. The long drive lasted 7 hours with traffic and I did it in one stint because… well just because I can!

I went up to my room at around 8pm and woke up the next day at 7am - obviously needed the sleep! Thanks for Tone Weafer for the two pints he had bought me prior to this, whatever he had put in them certainly did the trick!

The event itself was superb with some excellent pool played all weekend, the only problem for us was being moved from the main tournament room to the back room for the semi’s and the final on Sunday night. Big thanks to all on the GB9 team who helped move the kit to the other room and re-setup in around 30 minutes.

Videos from this event will be available shortly.

So, from Blackpool I made the trip east to Bridlington, the journey was made a it easier by having Jayson Shaw in the car who reached the semi-finals in Blackpool and needed to get to Bridlington to represent Scotland. Having a chat about pool on the journey certainly passed the time. I reached my hotel at 00:45 - they had waited up for me!

In my opinion there is not much to Bridlington, this is based solely on the walk from Rags hotel to the Spa so I don’t have much to go on in fairness, however, the Spa Theatre has provided us with the best Internet connectivity for web streaming over the past two years. This time was no exception with testing on Monday taking a matter of minutes.

The upload capacity of the line is excellent which meant I was able to stream the live content at 1200kbps, very high bitrate for live streaming!

Some good pool followed with some bad pool was the order of the week with a real mixed bag. Some great people made the week for me coming over and chatting, sharing a beer or two at the end of the day and generally providing me with some entertainment.

It was a very well-organised event (apart from putting the singles on late into the evening something that will have to be remedied for next year) and I think that everybody that took part and represented their country will come away from Bridlington feeling they have been part of something.

It was a shame that the event is no longer regarded as a World Championships, this meant less teams, but lets hope that the event can be re-invented next year to bring more teams to an awesome venue.

9-ball Pool, English/UK Pool 8-ball, 9-ball, blackball, blackpool, bridlington, eba, gb9

Over the last few months I have been mentioning the Four-nations Blackball event that we are going to put on in Bournemouth, Dorset.

The only problem is that at the moment we only have three nations confirmed, Wales, France and Scotland.

If you are a) English and b) think you can play Blackball at the highest level then please contact me on enquiries@cuesport.tv for further information on this great event.

The dates of the event are 8th-9th May 2010 in Bournemouth Dorset.

English/UK Pool blackball, cuesport tv, four-nations

So we have it marked down, 8th-9th May, the first ever Four-nations Blackball Cup featuring teams from England, Scotland, Wales and France.

I have been talking about it for a while and have now confirmed all teams except for England (come on boys!)

The event is due to take place in Bournemouth, Dorset over the said weekend and it will become quite historic in its make-up. Not only will it be the first time the tournament has been held but the broadcast itself will also be a first for Cuesport TV and possibly even the world.

Originally every match was going to be shown back-to-back on one table, but due to the extra team this means we have to use two tables. But do not fear we have a plan!

Part of the reason for moving the event to Bournemouth is the fact that this is the first town in the UK to receive 100meg fibre optic broadband. What we plan to do will be amazing:

• Viewers will be able to choose a match from the two tables
• Each table will have two seperate live streams
• A viewer will be able to choose between SD & HD versions dependant on their own broadband speed

Not only that but I can also release the format that is going to be used below is an example:

• Wales (A) v France (A) - Best of 17 frame singles
• Wales (B) v France (B) - Best of 17 frame singles

If both teams win one of the singles matches then we go to a decider:

• Team Wales v Team France - Best of 9, alternate shot doubles

So that is the match format but the teams will also be playing a double eliminator across the weekend until the champion is crowned on the Sunday. Do not forget, this is a Blackball rules event.

Any thoughts and comments are appreciated.

English/UK Pool blackball, cuesport tv, four-nations, tournament

I have already released some details over the proposed Tri-nations tournament. At this time it has already been extended to a Four-Nations with France confirming a team. There is also the possibility of Spain wanting to enter as well.

Although that is great news that teams want to play the events, it also poses somewhat of a dilemma.

Finding a definitive calendar is not at all easy as each promoter, tour, governing and nation seem to have their own with nobody compiling an overall calendar.

What I thought I might do is set one up that everyone can edit and add events to. Hopefully this would eliminate date clashes and would actually mean it is easier for players to know what is going on.

On the plus side the contact I have had from other nations encourages me as it shows that high quality Blackball events are required.

English/UK Pool, General blackball, calendar, dates, four-nations, tournaments

I have been contacted by somebody from the Scottish Blackball fraternity asking if I know of anyone that would want to play some money matches against Scotlands finest up in Glasgow.

Recently it has been clear to me (off the back of the Potts v Bale match) that Cuesport TV needs more high profile one-off matches.

This could be an opportunity for anyone so basically if you fancy testing your skills against some of Scotland’s best Blackball players and are prepared to play for high stakes then drop me a message. I will pass on your details.

This also goes for keeping us informed of any upcoming money-matches, we are interested to hear about each and every one of them.

English/UK Pool 8-ball pool, blackball, money matches, uk pool

For some time now I have been toying with the idea of hosting events specifically for the Cuesport TV audience.

I never haide the fact that I feel Blackball is the better rule set when it comes to UK ’small-ball’ pool, and there are a lack of tournaments for these players to compete in as well.

It made obvious sense to me to promote an event of our own and I wanted to do something different that would show Blackball in the right light.

The first ever tri-nations tournament will take place this year and will feature two-man teams from England, Scotland and Wales.

The tournament will be exclusively live online at Cuesport TV and will feature players like Craig Marsh, Simon Ward and Andy Lucas, plus it is hoped World Masters Champion Scott Ross will compete for Scotland.

Through sponsorship from BilliardsBoutique.com the event will have £2000.00 prize money with the winning team pocketing it all and the title for 2010. If successful, which I believe it will be, then it will become an annual event on the calendar.

The format, date and venue are yet to be set in stone but dates around April/May 2010 are being considered.

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It is very nearly upon me, for the second year in a row I will be making the journey to the Irish sea where I will find the Isle of Man.

Last year the Villa Marina venue, in Douglas, hosted the Isle of Man Festival of Pool, this year it goes one better with the EBA European Blackball Championships being hosted in the magnificently refurbished venue.

Watch our short promo video here to get a feel for the place: European Blackball Championships 2009.

Last year we simply provided a basic live stream, this year will be so much better with much more interaction with our viewers. It is planned to shoot and edit a number of short ‘diary’ videos to be uploaded each day, so if you miss the live stream you can still catch up with some of the action. In addition, there will be multiple camera’s, live scoring, commentary and also competitions. Look out for the Cuesport TV promo girl, Emma, who will be doing the rounds selling subscriptions and competition entries.

The first day will be completely free to watch, subsequent days will only be available as part of a Cuesport TV subscription, due to the contract with Sky Sports we do not know until the actual day whether we will be able to stream the finals live, we hope we can!

Look out for a special subscription promotion as well which will tie in with the work Emma is doing for us.

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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!

English/UK Pool 8-ball pool, blackball, catalunya, joan marminya, pool, spain

Isle of Man Pool Festival Returns

Ross McInnes, six-times World Pool Champion and promoter of the Isle of Man festival has today released further details of one of the hottest tickets on the pool calendar.

The 2009 Festival of Pool with run from the 27th September until the 3rd October and will be jam-packed full of tournaments and events throughout the week.

In addition to the main festival that ran last year, McInnes has also secured the EBA European Championships for the same venue during the week. There will be Mens, Womens, Senior and Junior team events plus singles in each category including a wheelchair event.

There is talk of Eurosport involvement in this event and if so it will add even more prestige to an already fantastic tournament.

Last and by no means least there will also be the first ever staging of the Inter-Continental Cup between Europe & Africa. Each continent will field a team in the following categories, Mens, Ladies, Seniors, U-23, U-18.

More exciting details to follow so stay tuned!

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The CueSport TV £50,000 Pool Series returned over the weekend of 8^th-10^th 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 26^th-28^th June. Once again this will be live and exclusive to CueSport TV.

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