2009 ACTEBA 9 Ball Champions
Dragan Markovic and Nicole Welsh
Congratulations to Dragan on his first 9 Ball title after finishing runner up last year, and congratulations to Nicole on her 2nd title, 12 years after her first and also being runner up last year. As they say in footy circles, you have to lose a grand final in order to win one…
The Ladies tournament started first and the usual suspects, Cindy Blackmore and Nicole, had to fight hard to make through the first round, as Cath Jones defeated Theresa Whitten in tough match 5-4. Cath then upset Cindy 5-3 while Nicole triumphed in a long match 5-2. The back half of the draw saw Theresa win through with a well won match over Gemma Pike, only to go down 3-0 to Cath after Cath’s tight 6-4 loss to Nicole. Theresa fought back to win 6-4 and meet Nicole in the final. A 2-0 lead to Nicole turned into 2-2 and then 4-2 to Nicole. Theresa fought back again to level at 4-4, but the last 3 frames went with the break to give the title to Nicole 7-6, and with it a $160 cheque, Theresa picking up $80 for 2nd place.
All this time the Open comp was heating up, starting with a field of 41 in double elimination, the day was set to be a long one, and so it proved.
Les Otuhouma fought hard for 2 straight 5-4 victories, but Semisi Naupoto found the going easier, winning 5-1 in each of his first 2 matches. Anthony Chia also played well early, before running into Dragan, who had already defeated Doug Percy and Andy Bailey.
JR saw off Cindy and Phil Bailey, but Misi proved too strong for him, 6-2 and JR entered the back half of the draw while Misi went on to a 5-7 loss to Dragan.
But this was happening on the bottom half of the draw, while Matt Power was taking care of Pete Smith, Jason Perry and Tuan Dong, Tuan already having defeated Les 6-3 to bring her run to an end. Oh, but this was only the 2nd quarter of the draw…
In the top quarter, though, enter Matt Harmon, Mongrel, Mick Norton, Nicole Welsh, Tony Fleming and Dean Welsh. Yes, this could be worthy of a top 8 selection, but no one saw what was about to happen.
Tony ran into Matt in round 2, and ran into him hard at 5-1, while Mick and Dean met in round 3 for a 6-3 win to Dean. But no one told Ged Johnston who was in the state team as the Matilda took out State Team Captain Mongrel 5-4, then in back to back matches defeated the last two State Champions, Matt 6-5 and Dean 6-0.
Ged was then to meet Matt Power, with Dragan to meet Misi, the winner of these matches make the final. Let’s look at the other side of the draw now…
Phil Bryan was on fire, taking out Scrol, Les, and Jason Perry. Jason, a snooker player, had defeated Palmer Dunn and Alessandro Nasca before his demise, but Phil ran into Anthony Chia and went down 6-4.
The bottom half of the back end seemed a little easier, that is if you don’t include a couple of blokes by the name of Mongrel, Tony Fleming and Phil Bailey. Oh, and that other young fella , Brent Hampton. Unfortunately for them, they wound up in the same quarter of the draw and Mongrel took out Tony, Brent took out Mongrel, then Phil took out Brent.
Phil had just won through the toughest quarter, and a match against Dean Welsh. Phil stood up, though, winning through 6-5, and I’ll just talk about that bottom quarter before I get to Phil’s next match.
There were some quality players in the bottom quarter, but Andy Bailey stood them all up. After defeating Kaaron Keily and Alessandro Nasca in the front half, this player went down 6-3 to our eventual champion. Moving to the other side, he took care of Pete Smith 5-0, Ian Stanley 6-1 and then Tuan Dong 6-2.
And so Andy had to meet his brother in a quarter final. Andy Bailey had surprised all except Phil, who probably took this match more seriously than all the others he played that day. A laugh and a smile between shots was replaced by the sternest of concentration while feathering, Phil got up 6-3 in a great game.
Meanwhile the top half, delayed somewhat, was moving into full swing with Nicole taking out Gemma 4-2, Matt Harmon taking out Nicole 5-2, then Matt taking out Mick Norton 5-4 (Mick already having accounted for Cindy 5-0).
The match of the tournament then took place with two old hands matching skills against each. JR representing the foundation members, with Matt Harmon representing the first generation of juniors. While remembering that this is 9 Ball, not Eight Ball, it was still a victory for the old hands, JR winning a tight match 6-5.
JR then met Anthony, running out a winner 6-4.
But let’s rewind about 2 hours…
Ged was on fire after defeating the previous two year’s Eight Ball Champions, but was running into an extremely hot (and cold – Matt was pretty crook) Matt Power. Ged kept it going for long enough to outdistance Matt 7-2 and add an Australian Singles Representative to his list of victims.
Dragan, meanwhile, was eyeing off a second straight final, while Misi was looking to add to his 2004 championship. A great game ensued, but in the end Dragan triumphed 7-5.
Ged’s run was to come to an end, but at the hands of a red hot Dragan 8-6, with no shame and still a second chance at the final. Misi was not so lucky, going down 6-3 to Phil. JR, meanwhile, had benefited from Matt Power’s withdrawal, but his opponent had waited just as long for a game.
Phil started strongly against JR, winning the first 5 frames, which is not too smart against your Wednesday night captain, but loyalties aside Phil won the match 7-4. This left JR finishing 4th and a prize of $75, while Phil was to meet Ged next for a spot in the final.
Unfortunately the next match was pretty much a no contest, with Phil once again running out to massive early lead, 6-0, before taking it 8-2, leaving Ged in 3rd with a $75 cheque.
So the final started with Phil leading Dragan 2-1 early. Dragan leveled at 2 apiece before Phil somehow sent an object ball off the table, the laws of physics must also change from Eight Ball to Nine Ball…
Dragan took his chance and before Phil knew it the score was 5-2 in the race to 9. Phil stole the next two to get within 5-4 but Dragan was too good and ran the next 4 to take out the title and a $390 cheque 9-4. Phil, as the runner up, receives a cheque of $195.
A massive thank you must go to The Maram, in particular Jimmy and Leesa, for hosting the event.
Congratulations to our Saturday winners and well done to all players on a very enjoyable day, played in great spirit.
Regards
Chris Jones
ACTEBA Tournament Director
