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At
thre seventh edition of the Derby City Classic, promoter Diamond Billiards
could once more welcome a record breaking number of participants. In the
first discipline, the 9-Ball Banks, 409 players competed for the price money
and the title, since Kentucky is also known as „Bank-Pool Land“. To have
a chance to win the World All Around title, which is a combination of all
three disciplines, the top 9 Ball players must also participate in this
discipline.
Like
no other tournament in the world, this event attracts the “gamblers”,
since there is always action to watch or to be part of. So, it can happen
that a player misses his official match, since he was playing into the early
hours of the morning to earn his money. The tournament format, quite
different from what is usual elsewhere, a KO system with the chance to buy
yourself in once after being eliminated, makes this tournament a bit of a
lottery. The players always need to be on “standby“, because there is no
fixed time schedule and the indicated times are only reliable to 10 %.
In
this first discipline, I managed to enter the seventh round with 5 wins and
2 losses, and so I was among the 58 best „bankers“, but as compared to
last year, I was down some 20 ranks. However, I managed to beat a few
specialists and was not too unsatisfied. Winner was the US player D. Matlock
who defeated his country fellowman J. Brumback 3-1 in the final. Both
players had achieved pretty good 9-Ball results in the past and were thus
the first hot bets for the overall victory.
In the discipline One Pocket, I had ambitious plans, since this is a game
with a lot of tactics and one needs to be very patient. But I wasn’t
patient and could not confirm my last year’s results, since I just entered
the fourth round. 2 wins and 2 losses were just enough for a rank among the
top 100 players (354 competitors had started this discipline). Winner was
undefeated Magician E. Reyes from the Philippines who upset a well playing
C. Deuel (USA) 3-1 in the final. The man from the Philippines could defend
his last year’s title and with his rank among the top 20 in Bank Pool, he
turned out to be among the top bets for the overall win. During the
tournament, Reyes was facing defeats several times, and should have used his
second chance already in his 3rd round match against A. Roschkowsky, but
finally won 3-2. The German was already leading 2-0, and at 2-1, he had an
advantage of 7-1 balls and missed the ball to win the match. Playing a
wonderful game, Reyes just made it over the arrival line. Against the US
player T. Chohan, he was also trailing 2-1 and seemed to lose the match. But
„T-Rex“ also missed two match points and Reyes was the lucky winner.
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Arena
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For
the last discipline, a number of new faces could be seen in
Louisville. Some 100 players came to Kentucky only for the 9-Ball
competition, and some of the specialists in Bank Pool and One Pocket,
who did not stand any chance for the overall ranking, did not show
for this last discipline. So, some 340 players competed in the
9-Ball event, which also represents a record.
As so often in this
tournament, we assisted to many surprises, since no players were
seeded and the top players could already play against each other in
the first round. As the defending champion, I was very positive for
the 9-Ball event and had a satisfying start. Even if it took some
time to get back to potting directly and playing straight, I managed
to turn around a 1-3 to win 7-4 against L. Di Marco jr. (USA). I played very well in my second match against
T.F. Whittington (USA), even if the room temperatures were
unpleasantly cold - 16-18° Celsius. In some parts of the room, it
was simply not possible to play in a short leaves polo shirt,
especially during the morning sessions. But even with a sweatshirt,
hands and the queue remained so cold, that it was almost impossible
to play normally, at least for me. In round 3 against
S. Kirby (USA), I could win 7-1 during the evening session. The next
morning, during my match against S. Sambajon jr. (PHI), I could only
pot two balls during the entire „shivering match“ and almost
froze to death while losing 0-7. In my opinion, this had nothing to
do with Billiard sports. I do not want to lower the good performance
of the player from the Philippines, and he fully deserved to win. I
made use of the possibilities and bought myself back into the
tournament, to win my next match 7-3. In round 6, I played for the
first time on the TV table and my opponent was D. Basavich (USA).
The first match with normal temperatures, but the chance to the cue
ball with red dots was another change to get used to. I missed to
100 % balls and was eliminated 4-7 after a not so successful
tournament week. My rank was somewhere in the top 70 and in the
overall ranking, I finished on a disappointing 45th rank, after
finishing runner-up last year. My former team mate from Dessau, A.
Roschkowsky, had a much better run. He played well and could beat in
the round of the last 12 players the later overall winner Reyes 7-2.
The next day, Roschkowsky then lost to R. Saez (USA) who was
undefeated until then, and became also a „victim“ of the TV
table. But he could be satisfied with his 8th rank in 9-Ball and he
assured a top 25 rank in the overall ranking.
After
his defeat against Roschkowsky, Reyes played as if he came from
another planet and after winning the One Pocket discipline, he also
scored the top rank in 9-Ball. In his semi-final against R. Saez, he
saved himself once more, just because the US player missed a ball at
6-6, which was already almost in the pocket and which was more
difficult to miss than to make. But this would not have had any
incidence on the overall ranking, since no other competitor could
come back anymore to the score of the player from the Philippines at
this point. Reyes won the 9-Ball final after a brilliant game 7-1
against J. Barracks (USA).
The
Magician defended successfully his last year’s win and secured a
price money cheque of some 30,000 Euros.
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Ralf-Jeanette Lee
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