During the Pentecost weekend, the NCC Open 9-Ball was played in Burglengenfeld which is located close to Regensburg. Due to the large number of tournaments organized during this weekend, there were not too many, but very good players competing. Mainly players from Bavaria, with the exception of the complete first division team from Wiesloch in Baden, competed at very high summer temperatures for the title and the 1.200 € price money. With just a few exceptions, there were no major sensations ion the 7 qualification groups and all of the top players entered the final field of 32 players, including the last four champions of this tournament.
Thanks to my matches against T. Kaiser (7-0), C. Brehme (7-3) and J. Weber (7-2), I qualified for the final round on Monday. My first opponent was one of the invited players and former team mate from Ingolstadt, B. Jahnke. Years ago, he had quit the international competitions, but he still is strong enough to win tournaments. Although he appeared to be quite nervous, he could finally win the match 7-5, due to a high number of mistakes on my end. In the loser’s bracket, I faced D. Paulus. And again, I did not play up to my abilities. I lost the match 5-7 and the tournament was over for me (rank 25). Due to time constraints, the final between B. Jahnke and R. Hybler could not be played and both players agreed to share the price money. B. Jahnke was officially declared winner of the competition, since he was the only player who did not lose a match. Third place went to C. Brehme, fourth place to M. Werner.