Congratulations to the 9 players who this weekend earned an invitation to represent the ACT at this year’s Australian Eight Ball Championships, in particular the four players who qualified for next weekend’s Top 4 shootout to decide the 2009 ACTEBA Open Singles Champion.
A new look Top 16 contested this year’s championship, with only defending champion Dean Welsh, Anthony Chia, Mongrel, Matt Power, Michael Hazilias and Rony Sood backing up from last year’s Top 16. Some old faces returned to the fold, with Danny Marlow, John “JR” Pagden, Paul Carlile, Semisi Naupoto and of course Matt Harmon ready to make their presence known. Newcomers to the final round were Andrew Pearce, who qualified from 3rd division, Daniel Sostarko, the reigning Australian Under 21 Champion, Edmund Chen, top shooter in 1st division last season, Stephen Thomas, perennial top 32 player and Nicole Welsh, current Australian Ladies Representative.
Unfortunately, depending on which way you look at it, both Matt Power and Nicole Welsh are currently in Blackpool, England, representing Australia at the World Titles, meaning the 16 were reduced to 14. This meant that competition for the 9 places in the team was stepped up a notch or three, with just on two thirds of the players able to qualify. Danny arrived with an excellent laptop setup which included a screen for the leaderboard to be displayed, keeping all players and spectators informed of the standings.
The format was then a round robin of 13 frames times four rounds, asking a total of 52 frames from each player. With the Top 4 finishers to play off for the state title, then the top 9 to receive an invitation to the State Team, then a distinct order of merit required below the top 9, every position from 1 to 14 was going to be hotly contested. Yes, this always means a great chance of playoffs, which no one wants to play after 52 frames.
Round One commenced on the Saturday at 10.30, with Misi giving the go ahead after finishing his first beer. Dean bolted early, winning his first 7 frames, before finishing the round on 10 from 13. Daniel proved a quick finisher, and also recorded 10 for the round. Paul and Mongrel also started strongly with a round of 9, but it closed up behind them with Steve and Misi recording 7 apiece. But round one is never a great indicator, as Matt Harmon’s 5 frames were to prove.
Matt showed his class with a 10 frame 2nd round, to move into equal 4th, but Daniel snuck past Dean’s 7 frames to take the lead on 18 at halfway, Dean close behind on 17. Mongrel consolidated with 7 frames to sit 3rd on 16, while Steve hit an 8 frame round to join Matt in equal 4th. Paul hit 5 to sit 6th on 14, but bugger me if the race for the last 3 spots wasn’t close at half way. Two players sat on 12, three on 11 and a further 3 on 10 frames. Sunday was looming as a fantastic day.
Often the third round sorts out the contenders from the pretenders, but this wasn’t to be the case this weekend. After an indifferent Saturday, Misi tells me he had just the right amount of beer in round 3 to top the list on 9 frames, moving up into 7th. Behind him, though, 5 players hit 8 frames, including Dean who levelled with Daniel (7 frames) once more, Paul, Steve, Matt and a resurgent Rony. Andrew, Edmund and Danny weren’t able to repeat their strong second rounds, with 3, 3 and 4 respectively, and needed a big round in the last to shake things up. Meanwhile Anthony, Mongrel, JR and Hazza maintained their consistency with rounds of 6 apiece.
Still, seven players looked strong for the top 4, and the nine places in the team were anyone’s to take. Andrew and Danny fell off the pace early, and despite some great play they were the unlucky ones to finish in a tie for 13th and 14th places, on 17 frames each. In one of the great playoffs in history, Andrew then won the coin toss agreed upon by the pair to finish 13th. Matt continued his great run to nail 9 frames in the last round, sealing a top 4 berth early on with a final total of 32. Daniel faltered early in round 4, but was also never really in doubt as his 6 wins left him one behind Matt on 31.
Behind them, Dean and Mongrel were caught up in a battle with Steve, Misi and Paul for the last 2 spots in the 4. Dean struggled to his lowest round of the weekend, but was helped by a similar round from Mongrel, with the early leader having done enough to grab 30 frames and a top 4 spot. Mongrel, however, dropped to 50% on 26 frames, but had also done the work early to nail down a spot in the 9.
Misi looked in the hunt for the Top 4, but in his own words “maybe I have too much beer in round four, gooo A. C. T.”. His round of 6 was enough to seal a Nationals spot with 27. Paul fought hard, but his 6 frames in the last straight left him two behind Dean on 28, with both Rony and Steve having 4 frames still to play and within reach.
Edmund produced the big last round he needed with 9, and faced an anxious wait to see if his 24 would hold off Hazza and the fast finishing Rony and Anthony. JR hit his best round of the weekend with 7, but 23 frames were just not enough as he finished an unlucky 12th. Rony continued his big Sunday with a round of 9, taking frames off the other players in the race for the last few spots, but it was his 2nd last frame that was to prove the most crucial. Steve on the other hand, couldn’t put a foot wrong in the final stages and also hit 9 to charge into a share of 1st with Matt, both players coming from a good Saturday into a great Sunday to pip the early leaders Daniel and Dean into 3rd and 4th respectively. This left Paul in 5th, with Rony and Misi equal 6th behind him. And just to prove how close the whole weekend was, Mongrel ran in top 4 contention for the first 3 rounds but finished 8th, another State Team berth in the bag.
Hazza was consistent (6, 6, 6 & 7), finishing on 25, but joined Edmund in the anxious wait to see how Rony and Anthony finished. Rony sailed past the pair, but met Anthony in one of the last frames of the day. Anthony sat on 25, having just nudged Edmund out of the running and into 11th spot, but needed to win this last frame against Rony to avoid a playoff with Hazza for 9th. After a missed opportunity at a runout, Rony had left his balls over the bag and was able to help his Hammerheads team mate out by finishing at the next visit, forcing a playoff for the crucial 9th spot in the team. But hey – what’s a Top 16 without playoffs?
The number one seed took the first frame in the best of 3, as after the many runouts seen over the two days these frames proved tactical. Anthony managed a close one in the second frame, before squeezing past Hazza in the third for a 2-1 win and the last spot in the team.
The final table looked like this:
| Pos | Player | Rd 1 |
Rd 2 |
Rd 3 |
Rd 4 |
W | L | % |
| 1 | Matt Harmon | 5 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 32 | 20 | 61.54% |
| 2 | Stephen Thomas | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 32 | 20 | 61.54% |
| 3 | Daniel Sostarko | 10 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 31 | 21 | 59.62% |
| 4 | Dean Welsh | 10 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 30 | 22 | 57.69% |
| 5 | Paul Carlile | 9 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 28 | 24 | 53.85% |
| 6 | Rony Sood | 6 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 27 | 25 | 51.92% |
| 7 | Semisi Naupoto | 7 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 27 | 25 | 51.92% |
| 8 | Mongrel | 9 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 26 | 26 | 50.00% |
| 9 | Anthony Chia | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 25 | 27 | 48.08% |
| 10 | Michael Hazilias | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 25 | 27 | 48.08% |
| 11 | Edmund Chen | 4 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 24 | 28 | 46.15% |
| 12 | John Pagden | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 23 | 29 | 44.23% |
| 13 | Andrew Pearce | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 17 | 35 | 32.69% |
| 14 | Daniel Marlow | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 17 | 35 | 32.69% |
So, 364 frames later, an enjoyable weekend was completed with a slightly different looking Top 4, and a few new faces receiving invites to the State team. A big congratulations for their performance over the last few weeks should go to the 5 players who were unlucky to miss out, with all of them being gracious in defeat despite their disappointment. With only 4 frames (out of 52) separating 5th from 11th, this was just as close as the 4 way playoff we saw last year. Andrew, Danny, Edmund, Hazza and JR, well done and we know you’ll be back next year.
Congratulations to Matt, Steve, Daniel, Dean, Paul, Rony, Misi, Mongrel and Anthony on earning an invitation to the 2009 ACT Team to contest this year’s Nationals right here in Canberra. With two new faces in Daniel and Steve, we have a great chance of putting in a strong showing.
And so to the Top 4. Matt Harmon has reached his 15th (?) top 4, with 7 state finals and two State Titles to his name already. Dean Welsh is the defending ACT Champion, with many Top 4 places and two finals for two victories to his credit (one of them against Matt). Joining the two seasoned veterans are two players in their first Top 4 (and first Top 16!). Steve Thomas has been knocking on the door of the 16 for the last few years, finally showing what he is capable of once he got there. Daniel Sostarko is a four time ACT Under 21 Champion and the reigning Australian Under 21 Champion, coming of age this year with a great showing this weekend.
These four players will put on a great day of Eight Ball next Saturday. With a round robin of race to 7 followed by a final of race to 9, there will be plenty of great frames to be played. Play starts at 10.30am at The Maram on Saturday morning, with the final expected to commence anytime between 1 and 3, depending on how long the round robin takes to complete.
This year’s Top 16 has underlined the depth of talent the ACT now boasts. A few familiar faces missed out this year, but it just increases the experience within the top 20 or 30 players as it has proven that a top 10 or even 20 player needs to be on their game to make the state team.
A big thank you to Leesa and The Maram staff for hosting this weekend, as well as Trent Billington, Scrol and Cath Jones for their fantastic assistance in adjudicating. And of course to Danny Marlow for his brilliant computer setup which gave a running leaderboard for all the players and spectators (and stopping them from looking over our shoulders all day!).
I hope to see as many of you who can make it next Saturday for an exciting finish to this year’s Open Singles State Titles.
