NEWS  March 12, 2007    Grand Masters 8-Ball – David Alcaide deserved to win

For the first time, the Grand Masters in 8-ball was played in the English university town Cambridge. The field of 32 players was full of prestigious names, since the high starting fee of 500 £ Sterling (app. 750 €) prevented all those from enrolling who would not stand a real chance to win the event. The format of the tournament was somehow special. The matches were played in KO format in best-of-five sets in races to 8 with tapped balls and winner break. Some of the matches lasted for more than 6 hours, so the physical condition was a main element in this event.

My first opponent was Serge Das from Belgium who could not play up to is possibilities. My game was not too well either, so the mistakes made by my opponent came in handy. I scored a clear 8-4, 8-5 and 8-0 and entered the next round against my Mosconi Cup team mate Imran Majid (GBR). I somehow missed the start of the match and was quickly trailing 1-5. I fought myself back into the set and at 4-5, I could have equalled the score, but I had a bad contact between cue and object ball and missed the desired position by some 15 cm. I had to play another ball and once more, had a poor position on the last half ball. I missed the shot and a great opportunity to win the set. So, I lost the first set by 4-8. In the second set, I had major trouble because the balls grew dirty and impossible to calculate. Even if I cleaned them now and then, it was impossible to create good conditions, because the racking was done without a triangle and many players had sweaty hands and increased the dirty aspect of the balls. So, I committed some unusual mistakes and did not find my pace. So, I also lost set two on the score of 6-8. The match resumed after a 10 minutes break. After trailing again, I managed to win set 3 by 8-6.

After some discussions about the Time Out rule, we continued. Beside the prescribed breaks, each player had one Time Out per match to go to the toilet and not to satisfy personal addictions. Bad enough, some players do not understand these rules and have to be reminded of them. But when the tournament organization does not react or only half-heartedly, then we do not need any rules and can develop back into a pub sport.

In set 4, I could not turn the match around and had no real chance to win. I had to accept my 3-8 defeat and once more, had to make do with rank 9.

In the quarter-finals, all the four matches were played in three straight sets. Tony Drago from Malta crushed Dutchman Niels Feijen in less than 80 minutes (8-1, 8-2, 8-5). Spaniard David Alcaide won on the same score against Daryl Peach from England (8-1, 8-1, 8-5). Rico Diks (NED) upset Darren Appleton (GBR) 8-3, 8-3, 8-7 and Imran Majid (GBR) won against our Mosconi Cup colleague Nick van den Berg (NED) 8-3, 8-4 8-2.

The semi-finals:

Tony Drago (MLT) – David Alcaide (ESP)   0-3 (4-8, 1-8, 5-8)

Rico Diks (NED) – Imran Majid (GBR)   2-3 (6-8, 8-3, 8-1, 7-8, 6-8)

In the final, Alcaide won the first set 8-2. The next set went to Majid 8-4. Set 3 went to Alcaide 8-1. In set 4, Majid won 8-3 and levelled the score at 2-2 sets, so the match went into the deceisive fifth set. The last set was balanced until 2-2, but then Alcaide did not let his opponent come back to the table and won the set 8-2 to win the match (3-2) and the Grand Masters title. Finally, the best player on this weekend had won the event. With 10 racks in a row, one time 9 racks and several 5 and 6 rack series he showed his strength in 8-ball and played constantly on a high level.