9 Ball News: The UK Pro 9 Ball Tour Event NO. 8 - Stirling - 2004-05-13 12:00:50
The UK's best Professional 9 Ball Pool player Imran Majid has done the unthinkable by winning both UK Pro 9 Ball Tour events in Scotland this weekend. In awesome form all weekend, Imran beat Raj Hundal in the eighth Pro 9 Ball Tour event of the season, hot on the heels of his win at Kirkcaldy. Here are the results from Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday's action in Stirling.

RILEYS AMERICAN POOL & SNOOKER CLUB 57-59 Upper Craigs Stirling Scotland FK8 2DT Telephone: 01786 446 363 Sun/Mon 2/3 May 2004 THE QUALIFIERS By the end of Sunday there were 16 players remaining who have achieved the distinction of reaching the final stages of the UK Pro 9 Ball Tour in Stirling, and who proceed to meet the 16 best nine-ball pool professionals in the UK. Here are the qualifiers: Jon Wims Andrew Morris Ross McInnes Stuart Ellis Andy Esgrove Phil Morgan Chris Buckmaster Graham Tough Dave Simmons Kevin Hew Steve Capaldi James Akenhead Courtney Symons George Fagan Dave McCarthy Niven Adams Congratulations to all the qualifiers. THE LAST 32 DRAW Seeds in Caps IMRAN MAJID 10 : 5 Jon Wims IAN WEST 10 : 8 Andrew Morris Ross McInnes 10 : 7 LEE CHENMAN ANTHONY GINN 10 : 4 Stuart Ellis GEOFF DUNN 10 : 6 Andy Esgrove BRADLEY PARKER 10 : 6 Phil Morgan CRAIG OSBOURNE 10 : 8 Chris Buckmaster KEVIN SMITH 10 : 4 Graham Tough MICHAEL VALENTINE 10 : 5 Dave Simmons KEVIN UZZELL 10 : 7 Kevin Hew Steve Capaldi 10 : 4 JAMES FRITH RICHARD JONES 10 : 2 James Akenhead RAJ HUNDAL 10 : 5 Courtney Symons George Fagan 10 : 7 PAUL WILLIAMS JAMES KAY 10 : 4 Dave McCarthy TOMMY DONLON 10 : 5 Niven Adams Only three qualifiers beat their seed at his event, ALL SCOTS TOO!!! So BIG congratulations must go to Ross McInnes, Steve Capaldi and George Fagan. THE LAST 16 Imran Majid 10 : 5 Ian West Anthony Ginn 10 : 6 Ross McInnes Geoff Dunn 10 : 4 Bradley Parker Craig Osbourne 10 : 9 Kevin Smith Kevin Uzzell 10 : 7 Michael Valentine Richard Jones 10 : 8 Steve Capaldi Raj Hundal 10 : 6 George Fagan Tommy Donlon 10 : 6 James Kay THE QUARTER-FINALS Imran Majid 10 : 9 Anthony Ginn Geoff Dunn 10 : 7 Craig Osbourne Richard Jones 10 : 9 Kevin Uzzell Raj Hundal 10 : 7 Tommy Donlon THE SEMI-FINALS Raj Hundal 10 : 9 Richard Jones Imran Majid 10 : 6 Geoff Dunn THE FINAL IMRAN “THE MAHARAJAH OF POOL” MAJID vs. RAJ “THE HITMAN” HUNDAL So there are two good friends in the final of the second of the Scottish events organised by the UK Pro 9 Ball Tour. Imran Majid in his second final in four days must be the favourite, being the reigning and provisional No.1 ranked player in the UK and already a winner of two Pro 9 Ball Tour events this season already. However, Raj is no stranger to the final arena either, having already won the Pro Tour event in Clifton earlier this year. So incredibly relaxed and friendly are these two players that they agree, with the agreement of the Tour Director, to play a shorter race than normal, instead of the usual race to eleven. It’s only 6pm, but they have a long trip home to London and Imran has an early flight tomorrow for the Eurotour event in Sindelfingen, Germany. Obviously he wants to remain as fresh as possible for that event, and so a race to five is agreed upon. MAJID 6 : 6 HUNDAL Imran Majid won the lag. As usual, he makes the 5-ball from the wing of the rack into the corner pocket. He also makes the 1-ball in the opposite side. An absolutely priceless break, although there is a tough shot on the 2-ball to be negotiated. Imran banks the 2-ball the full length of the table, and it doesn’t touch the sides as it drops into the corner pocket. Still negotiating a tough table layout, Imran now has to shoot a 3-8 combination. He makes the combo, but the 3-ball drifts out of good position after the shot, and now he must play a tough pot on the 3-ball. It’s no problem for the UK No.1 and he makes it look easy as he sinks the 4 as well. Now a difficult thin cut on the 6-ball is the only way to “get out” on this table but Imran doesn’t think twice as he drops it and is rewarded with perfect shape on the 7-ball and then the 9. It’s the best BREAK AND DISH of the year, and what a time to get it too! MAJID 7 : 6 HUNDAL Imran breaks and makes the 1-ball in the side pocket again. Imran plays a safety on the 2-ball, and Raj has to cue the cue-ball off the rail at the 2-ball. He miscues and he sits down, and manicures his tip a little with the finest piece of sandpaper you’ve ever seen. Actually that’s an interesting point, if you get the chance, watch how Raj manicures his tip, you won’t believe how gently and delicately he does it, and how perfect the end result is. OK. Maybe this is a bad time to mention it, after he has miscued, but I beat the hell out of my tip with a “Sandman” tip tool and it generally looks like a Scammel wheel nut by the time I’ve finished. Raj’s tip looks like it’s just come off an elven lathe, it’s so perfect. Anyway, I digress, and Imran, sure as eggs is eggs, runs out the rack. MAJID 8 : 6 HUNDAL Imran break, making the wing-5 and the 1 in the side, and plays a safety on the two-ball. Raj hits it, but sells out by not getting it safe. Imran makes the 2-ball, and then plays a snooker on the 3-ball. Again, Raj hits it but sells out. Imran runs out the rack. MAJID 9 : 6 HUNDAL Imran makes three balls on this break. The wing-5, the 1 in the side, and the 7-ball in the opposite side pocket. He runs out the remaining balls for another BREAK AND DISH. MAJID 10 : 6 HUNDAL At this point in the game, some people in Raj’s position might be feeling a little deflated to say the least. Not so with Raj, as he comments to the audience, “All I’m saying is don’t let me shoot – I’ll run the match out!” Imran breaks and makes a ball, but plays a pushes out. Raj makes Imran play again, which turns out to be a mistake, as Imran banks the 1-ball off the back rail into the side pocket, as a shot to nothing, and then runs out the rest of the rack. MAJID 11 : 6 HUNDAL So Imran Majid’s third win of the year puts him 750 clear of his nearest rival for the number one spot, and should hopefully give his confidence a terrific boost for the coming World Pool Championships in Taiwan. INTERVIEW WITH RAJ HUNDAL BigDave: “OK. So how do you feel about the final, quite a short race to five, do you think you made the right decision?” Raj: “Well, yes and no. I would say no now, because I lost, I didn’t get a chance to shoot. But it could have been the other way around. If I had won the lag, it doesn’t mean to say Imran had to shoot. He could have sat in his chair as well for five racks. He’s a good player, it’s not like I’m surprised he ran five racks, he can run a lot more than five. But if he meets me again in a final, he’s in a situation!” BigDave: “The first finalist, in a couple of years, not to win a rack, a bit of a dodgy accolade?” Raj: “I had one shot, I miscued. Off the back rail, long two, I don’t know if could make that two even if I don’t miscue. I didn’t get to shoot, I didn’t get a chance, but don’t get me wrong, there’s only literally two players in this whole country that can do that to me. If anyone wants to step up and have a go, here I am, you know what I mean, that what it is!” BigDave: “And you still think you made the right decision playing the short race?” Raj: “Well, ideally, if we were closer to home, we’d like to let everyone entertain themselves watching a first to eleven, but yeah, I still think we made the right decision.” Then he jokes: ”Because you know why? I don’t like Scotland, I’m just trying to get out of here!” BigDave: ”Well congratulations on your second final this year, that quite an achievement, you seem to be finding yourself at home in the finals nowadays, are we going to see you in a final again soon?” Raj: “Well you never know. You never know. I might surprise you all and end up there again, and I’d like to thank all the people in Scotland and I really liked the BURRRRRGERRRRRRR AND CHAPS!” BigDave: “Thanks very much mate, congratulations again. Are you going to the World Pool Championships Qualifiers at Cambridge this weekend? Raj: “I’m going there and I intend to win it.” INTERVIEW WITH IMRAN MAJID BigDave: How do you feel you played?” Imran: “I didn’t play too good at the beginning of the tournament. Because I won the tournament before, it’s kind of tougher, there’s a bit of pressure on you I think, and I didn’t play my game. But as I got to the semi’s and the final, I found my game and played well to win it. BigDave: “How do you feel about winning both of them?” Imran: “It hasn’t quite hit me yet, but in a couple of days I’ll be in shock. But it’s been a good trip.” BigDave: “That puts you safely at the top of the rankings now.” Imran: “Yeah, that was the main thing, because I wanted to get in front of Tommy (Donlon) because I know if you let him loose, he’s a great player and he can run two or three tournaments so I’ve got to keep the pressure on him.” BigDave: “It’s outrageous that you’ve won two finals, tell me why you did the race to five.” Imran: “It’s because I’ve got a flight to catch tomorrow to Germany for the Eurotour and my lift is waiting, Kevin Smith, so we had to make it short and sweet.” Imran: “I think the Eurotour last week helped me as well. Going over there (Monfalcone, Italy) and seeing the cream of Europe play. You know you try and emulate some of them sometimes, and sometimes it works. I was unlucky and lost to (Nick) Van Den Berg, but it was a good tournament and you learn to play good professional pool.” THE TOP TWENTY PROVISIONAL RANKINGS 1 Imran Majid 6477 2 Tommy Donlon 5718 3 Raj Hundal 4438 4 Damian Overton 4319 5 Richard Jones 4260 6 Steve Knight 3903 7 Anthony Ginn 3792 8 Kevin Smith 3691 9 Kevin Uzzell 3587 10 Kevin Huw 3133 11 Craig Osbourne 2838 12 Michael Valentine 2825 13 Paul Williams 2512 14 Ian West 2418 15 Geoff Dunn 2321 16 James Kay 2233 17 Rico Diks 2092 18 Lee Chenman 1881 19 Nick Hampton 1767 20 Chris Buckmaster 1580 The next event is the World Pool Championships Qualifier event exclusively for Pro 9 Ball Tour members at Mickey Flynns American Pool in Cambridge. See you there.