SAPPA
World Championship Qualifier
Pennies, Falkirk
14 and 15 May 2005
Michael Valentine's unbeaten run in Scottish 9-Ball continued recently when he won the qualification tournament to find Scotland's representative at the 2005 World Pool Championships, which are once again being held in Taiwan. He did not have it all his own way, with a couple of his matches, including the final against 16-year-old wonderkid Jayson Shaw, being decided by only a couple of racks.
Shaw, 2004 EUKPF World 8-Ball Champion at both Junior and Youth levels, had to start his trek to the final on the Saturday winning a qualifying match against Gordon Paterson by 10 racks to 8 to make it to the 32-player draw on the Sunday, where the top 16 ranked players would join the 16 qualifiers from the previous day.
The main shock of Saturday's qualifying round, however, came from Greek-born Edinburgh resident Achillies Chatzitheocharis who beat last year's SAPPA qualifier, Pat Holtz, by 10 racks to 6.
Sunday
Last 32 |
||||
Michael
Valentine |
10 |
v |
1 |
Rab
Armstrong |
Danny
Turner |
8 |
v |
10 |
Clark
Smith |
Darren
Murray |
10 |
v |
2 |
Ian
Skirving |
Davie
Jack |
10 |
v |
2 |
Achillies
Chatzitheocharis |
Darren
Raine |
3 |
v |
10 |
Andy
Morris |
Brian
Hunter |
10 |
v |
8 |
Pete
King |
George
Fagan |
6 |
v |
10 |
Davie
Markey |
Ross
McInnes |
10 |
v |
3 |
Ian
Mitchell |
Paddy
Moir |
10 |
v |
8 |
David
McPherson |
Chic
McCaig |
10 |
v |
1 |
Martin
Hughes |
Tam
Talent |
10 |
v |
4 |
Sanjay
Varma |
Stuart
Ellis |
7 |
v |
10 |
Dave
Tait |
Stevie
Capaldi |
10 |
v |
7 |
John
Ward |
Jim
O'Hare |
6 |
v |
10 |
Lee
Chenman |
Graham
Tough |
3 |
v |
10 |
Jayson
Shaw |
Geoff
Dunn |
10 |
v |
9 |
Scott
Ross |
Seeded players are in bold text
With the matches being races to 10, there was plenty of pool to be played and watched over the day. The main stand-out results from the round of 32 included Andy Morris' 10-3 battering of Darren Raine, which was over before this reporter could get a proper look at the match. Dave Tait beat Stuart Ellis 10-7 in a match that he lead 9-2 at one point - he would miss an 8-ball at 9-3 up to finish the match off, but had a couple more opportunities to close the match out. Jayson Shaw would continue his road to the final with a 10-3 demolition job on Graham Tough in a match in which every roll seemed to go for Shaw and against Tough. The undoubted tie of the round, however, was the match between Geoff Dunn and Scott Ross. In a match that lasted just under 2½ hours, Ross was 6-2, 8-4 and 9-6 up on former qualifier, and good friend, Dunn. Ross missed an 8-ball at 9-8 up and eventually lost the ultra-tense 20-minute long hill-hill game to go out 10 racks to 9.
Last 16 |
||||
Michael
Valentine |
10 |
v |
8 |
Clark
Smith |
Darren
Murray |
10 |
v |
5 |
Davie
Jack |
Andy
Morris |
6 |
v |
10 |
Brian
Hunter |
Davey
Markey |
10 |
v |
6 |
Ross
McInnes |
Paddy
Moir |
10 |
v |
Chic
McCaig |
|
Tam
Talent |
5 |
v |
10 |
Dave
Tait |
Stevie
Capaldi |
10 |
v |
7 |
Lee
Chenman |
Jayson
Shaw |
10 |
v |
8 |
Geoff
Dunn |
Highlights from this round were Michael Valentine's match against Clark Smith which Valentine lead 7-4 only for Clark to come back to 9-8 before Valentine finally crossed the finishing line. Davey Markey had an excellent 10-6 win over the legend that is Ross McInnes and Dave Tait kept his phenominal run going with a 10-5 result over Tam Talent, allowing Tam to concentrate on running the tournament itself. The 2 stand-out ties were Stevie Capaldi's 10-7 win over Bellshill-born, Hinckley-based, Lee Chenman - a welcome visitor to SAPPA events - and young Mr Shaw's 10-8 win over Geoff Dunn. The Shaw - Dunn match was close all the way with Shaw fluking the 8-ball at 9-8 up to close out the match.
Quarter Finals |
||||
Michael
Valentine |
10 |
v |
0 |
Darren
Murray |
Brian
Hunter |
10 |
v |
7 |
Davey
Markey |
Paddy
Moir |
7 |
v |
10 |
Dave
Tait |
Stevie
Capaldi |
3 |
v |
10 |
Jayson
Shaw |
Valentine's 10-0 win over Darren Murray included a run of 4 break-and-outs. Hunter's match against Markey was fairly close until near the end. Tait continued his run with an excellent win over Paddy Moir and Jayson Shaw steemrolled over Stevie Capaldi, showing that he and Valentine were the ones to beat in this tournament. The results also guaranteed that one unseeded player would go through to the final and the chance of the place in Taiwan.
Semi Finals |
||||
Michael
Valentine |
10 |
v |
5 |
Brian
Hunter |
Dave
Tait |
7 |
v |
10 |
Jayson
Shaw |
And so the 2 form players of the day were to come together to decide the Scottish representative at the 2005 World Pool Championships in Taiwan in July. Valentine and Shaw were playing excellent pool and it was sure to be a close final.
The Final
This was a tight match all the way through with no one player managing to get any more than 2 racks ahead of their opponent. In the late stages, the match score went 6-5 Valentine, 6-6, 7-6 and 8-6 Valentine, 8-7, 8-8 (Shaw made the 9-ball on the break to tie the match), 9-8 Valentine and finally 10-8 to Valentine with Michael trying to play a table-length bank shot on the 9-ball, only for the cueball to kick it into the side pocket to win the match - an almost perfect duplicate of the shot Jayson had played earlier on in the day
Michael
Valentine |
10 |
v |
8 |
Jayson
Shaw |
Congratulations should go to Jayson Shaw for putting up such a fantastic display through the day. However, it is once again Michael Valentine who takes the main share of the spoils and the spot as the Scottish qualifier for the 2005 World Pool Championships. Congratulations and good luck, Michael.The full tournament chart can be found here.
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