Yipeeee!! Was nice to win the main event at the Daventry tour stop. It was a good final between me and the young gun from Scotland Jason Shaw who looked to be in great form. I started slow and Jason took a good lead running most of his racks at the beginning of the race to 11. He looked very confident and in good stroke after beating Mark Gray from being behind in the semi finals. I knew I had my work cut out and had to play well to keep up with Jason because he was breaking very well sometimes making 3 to 4 balls thus getting easy runouts. Luckily I kept up with him and pounced on a few of his mistakes during the middle of the set. Once I got in front I think it was 8-7 I always manged to keep a 1 to 2 rack advantage prevailing with a 11-9 final scoreline. At 10-9 to me, I hook Jason and he kicked out of the snooker well and left me a long 7ball which barely went past the 8 into the top left hand pocket. As I got down on the shot I knew this was for the title so I got back up and realligned my shot just to make sure of the seven because it was a difficult shot and just about went past the 8. The pressure was on and I put everything into that 7 ball hitting it perfect and leaving me plum on the 8 to get to the 9. Phew!!! it was over but a gallant effort from the young Scot. Overall a solid performance from me and was nice to hit some good form again winning another main event title to add to my other four which I won consecutively in 2009. Sorry had to boast about that lol!!!
Congratulations to Phil Burford for winning the pro event and Shane Appleton for winning the Challenge. Both looked to be in good form especially Phil who beat the likes of Mark Gray 9-4 and Raj Hundal with the same scoreline in the final.
A big thanks goes to the Gb9ball tour and all its helpers for putting on another great event at the Daventry Barcelo where the venue is top notch and the staff are very friendly and helpful. Guess I like Daventry, two trophies in two stops...not bad eh! Looking forward to the next event in Blackpool which is a nice venue aswell.
Back to 10 ball now because am training for The Sarajevo Open which starts next week in Bosnia. It was a good tournament last year with an excellent venue and perfect equipment. I lost in a close match in the semi-finals so am looking to go one better this time around. A couple of days after Sarajevo I fly off to the US Open in Virginia so its back to 9 ball. The US Open is an important event for me because if I win it I most likely will be selected for the Mosconi Cup team in December. Am in good form so look to put in a good performance at both events....if not win them.......keep you posted.
Remember........the more tournaments you play........the easier they will become!
The Maharaja.................Back to winning ways!!!!!!
