Three players continued their excellent run of form in recent weeks and capitalised by lifting GB9 Titles, two of them for the first time.
Newly installed Professional number 1, and reigning World 9-ball Pool Champion, Daryl Peach took his second consecutive Pro Cup title with a 9-2 victory over Scott Higgins. Higgins was in his third GB9 final and it is the second time he has been beaten by Peach in an attempt to pick up a trophy.
In the Challenge Cup, fresh from a very productive trip to the USA where he beat top professional Shane Van Boening, Stephen Folan played magnificently for a 9-4 win over Challenge Cup promotion favourite Anthony Ginn. The standard across all divisions of the GB9 tour is continually improving with now at least 16 players capable of lifting a title at any given event.
The main event is the one that everyone wants to win and the Paul Medati Trophy was all the more special as it was named in memory of GB9 regular, Paul Medati, who died of cancer last year.
GB9 is turning out to be very exciting this year with a number of first wins already having been achieved by Michael Valentine, Steve Petty, Craig Osborne, Damian Massey and now Stephen Folan. Well the trend continued into Sunday as the very in-form Karl Boyes finally lifted a GB9 title that he has been threatening to win for some time. His 11-5 victory over Adam Benn Smith (a Pro Cup player last year but with undoubted talent) was fully deserved and he has been playing really well for the last 4 weeks.
The next event’s venue has yet to be decided so stay tuned.
Videos from the tournament will be available very soon on CueSport TV.
The Venue
I don’t normally leave a section of a report to talk about the venue, but with all the recent discussions about the quality and standard of equipment across the Rileys chain I thought it was worth a mention.
Barnsley Rileys is the best Rileys club I have ever been in, the club is clean, the tables are well maintained and through the efforts of George Vetters and his staff the equipment is treated with respect. I personally think that it is this ‘education’ of the punters that keeps a club in check and other venues across the UK should start taking note.
