Glossop Boys On Tour
On Saturday 8th July two Glossop pool players
set out on a journey with myself to compete in their first
event outside of their home town. I picked them up
around 8am (well 20 past) with my eldest girl Jamie. We
picked up Adam Clark and Perry Bethall on their trip into the
unknown. I had spent the 3 weeks before teaching them
World Rules and some of the finer points of the rule
set. For those 3 weeks we were all camped out in Staley
Vegas Snooker Club every free evening or day time we could
find. This is hardly ideal for them as I had a full 6
months before I went into serious competition. I was
proud of them for trying but had already told them to expect
to get beaten and take whatever positives they could from
their first event. From there they could adapt their
game to have a better crack at event 2.
After a trip down through the county we
arrived at Mc Cluskeys Pool Hall part of the Sponden Snooker
Club. We arrived early enough for them to get as good 45
min practice in before the event started. Only a couple
of tables were in use out of the 7 or 8 Supreme's in the
club. However once they had seen the players in action
neither of them could concentrate on their own games.
They described what they saw as totally awesome and Perry said
they are all just mint. Unfortunately players like these
are common place in big events. To say the list of
entrants facing them was strong has to go down as a massive
understatement indeed. Amongst the runners were 2 IPA
tour finalists from 2005 in Scott "Butch" Higgins
29th IPA tour rankings (just off the back of whitewashing the
great Darren Appleton 7-0) and Mark White 31st on IPA
rankings. Both had dream starts on the IPA last year and
that's dream by most of the worlds top 64 standards.
Derby regular John Giles who wins an awful lot of events, Liam
Farrell of Coventry who made the last 16 of the 2006 World
Championships and IPA player. Clint I'anson another
player who had a fantastic run at the Worlds making the last
16, Kev Barry top Cheshire player and many other top Derby
players including recent semi finalist on the Premier Pool
Tour Liam Bullock. With an amazingly strong field surely
this would be too much for 2 lads who were complete novices at
World Rules and had never even played a competitive match.
I had gone down with no intension of entering
the event which was pretty much chock a block anyway.
However upon speaking to the organizer in the car park (on my
way to Mc Donald's) I agreed to fill in should they really
need me to. I went off to Mc Donald's with Jamie and
left the boys to practice hard on the tables. Upon my
return I found I had been entered in the draw for event one,
having not had any knock I thought it may be a slight
disadvantage after I received a bye to the last 16.
Perry drew one of the organisers 10 year old sons which has to
be a dream draw for a 15 year old in his first event.
Perry was still shaky but managed to record a whitewash 6-0
victory smoothly moving into the last 16. He came off
the table very satisfied to go through but the draw was far
less kind to Adam. Having gone down in bullish mood Adam
faced the serious up hill clash of having to play Liam Bullock
hot off a semi final on the Pro Am Premier Pool Tour.
Both players stated fairly slowly in a tactical battle but
Adam made an error at 0-1 when on a fairly routine
finish. That set the tone for him and Liam moved through
the gears beating him 6-1. Adam had 3 decent chances but
at this level you have to convert those chances against top
quality opposition had he taken those chances it would have
been a very close encounter. However, Adam really made
Liam battle for every frame he won so can be satisfied that he
can improve to compete with these big guns.
By the time round 2 started Jamie was starting
to get bored with things unfortunately for her she didn't know
just how long the day was going to go on. Perry started
against Derby county "A" player Darren Finch who
runs many of these events. I managed to watch some of
the game before I was called into action myself. I was
fearing for Perry who looked overawed against a far more aware
world rules player. The second frame leading 1-0 Daz
left one up got snookered several times by Perry, eventually
resulting in 2 visits. Perry then made a dreadful shot
selection error and missed a ball he really shouldn't have
been attempting. Daz potted the black out of a snooker and to
be cruelly honest it was exactly what Perry deserved.
After a short exchange with myself Perry settled into his
rhythm and started up show a lot more class and
thinking. He turned a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead his
turn around was due to far more clinical potting. The
7th frame put Perry on the hill as he battled through another
tactical frame to get within touching distance. However
Daz was not finished and mounted a come back, this got him to
4-5 but Perry saved himself the nerve wracking decider by
closing out a 6-4 victory. Daz was a favourite for this
match make no mistake about it but Perry showed a lot of
maturity beyond his years and his battling qualities helped
him overcome a very tough opponent. This was a dream for
Perry to make the money in his first ever event.
My personal battle started on a nearby table
against Liam Stanley who had literally just finished seeing
off Derby's very talented Jack Whelan 6-5. With odds
well against me, my opponent who had just played 11 frames on
the same table started off remarkably nervously. However he
forged many of the opening chances but made crucial errors
allowing me to take a 3-0 lead. His was a quality cueist
though and closed the gap to 3-2 with some much better
finishing. However I was starting to find form and
opened up a 5-3 lead with sound tactical play and good
clearing. I then finished off another good clearance to
go 6-3 and close out the match. This was not only good
news for me as I had gone in cold but for Glossop having 2
quarter finalists admittedly with my bye I had less the do
than Perry. However my opponent was himself a well
respected player who had won many similar events and only
later would I find out just how good the player I just beat
was.
By the time the quarter finals came around
many per event favourites had departed. Amazingly Scott
Higgins IPA top 64, Kev Barry, Adams conqueror Liam Bullock,
Clint I'anson, Jack Whelan who were all tipped to do very
well. Perry this time had a slightly tougher proposition
in Terry Hunt another highly decorated and top quality
player. I was to play Steve "Bat" Simpson who
has easily overcome Adam's conqueror Liam Bullock. This
time however I was playing at the same time as Perry and got
to see very little of him playing. Perry had a good run
but it all came crashing down in super quick time. He was
beaten 6-1 he learnt that the class gap was huge between
himself and the very top players. At 5-0 down without
really doing a great deal wrong he managed to swerve a black
to get some pride back. After coming off the table he
admitted that no matter what he tried Terry had all the
answers and was potting out of snookers and dictating the
pace. Some good news though for Perry was had had 2
separate county youth "A" offers on the table Perry
can be very satisfied with his days work. Both EPA
(World Rules) & Federation (BAPTO) gave him firm offers to
start straight away at the highest county youth level.
As a bonus he also made the money stages of the event a
real result which was well deserved.
My game started in almost the same manor as my
last match but I was now striking the balls far more
clinically. Steve looked a little on edge after asking
me how I did against Liam Stanley and was complaining a little
and looked slightly unsettled. Matters were not helped
by Jamie who was becoming restless and making a little
noise. Once explaining that I wasn't even meant to be
playing he settled down but I was already 3 frames to the
good. I was really comfortable on the table and soon my
3-0 became 5-2. Steve seemed determined to attempt low
percentage finishes and that suited me as I was capitalizing
on errors. However my mood soon changed as gilt edged
chances came and went begging at 5-2, 5-3 and an awful missed
black at 5-4 when I shouldn't have been able to miss.
Maybe it was the yips but I couldn't have fallen over the line
if I had been shot. Things went from bad to worse as by
the decider I was drastically behind. Somehow I made a
double moving a ball and after treading water for a few visits
I managed to get in control. I took out a 6 ball finish
under extreme pressure with many onlookers watching the match
reach its conclusion. I did stumble over the line but
beat a very good and highly respected player. This moved
me to the semi finals not bad going for someone who wasn't
even playing the event half an hour before it started.
The day was getting long and Adam, Perry and Jamie were now
off playing pool on another table well away from the final
action.
Already knowing that Liam Farrell had
dismissed Terry Hunt 6-3 to reach the final both myself and my
opponent John Giles had a chance to play a really great player
if we reached the final. John Giles a well spoken player
from the Derby area is regarded by many as the county's
finest. The player who I beat in the last 16 was winning the
plate event (for 1st and second round losers) beating Scott
Higgins on the next table to us. Again I started fast
going 2-0 up after one good finish and a mistake from
John. However he quickly pulled it back to 2-2 after
dishing his break and taking a tight tactical battle.
However disaster for him on his next break as he came up dry
and I dished then I took another and a final berth looked
really on. Again John dished his break and disaster for
me as I sent the white ball into row Z! this gave John two
which is criminal at world rules. Again he cleared and
at 4-4 he was threatening to freeze me out but played an awful
positional shot on his black which opened a very small
door. Having two balls on cushions I took on one as a
double with an element of safety but it dropped. I
mopped up 3 others but missed my position on my last ball
leaving a fairly low percentage double to the bottom right
hand corner. With little option and an easy black if I
missed I took it on and made it. This moved me one away
from victory. At 5-4 I created a fairly good chance but
one positional shot slipped off and my chance to close it out
evaporated. Having been so close to winning it was hard
to pick myself up for the decider. John broke and things
went a little ugly forcing him to take reds when he really
wanted yellows. I potted 4 and opened everything up but
left him half ball snookered behind the black. John
pulled of a great tactical shot that he had no right to make
but left me a very tough backwards cut which rattled potting
it gave me natural position to clear at pace but it stayed up
and my chance had gone. I lost 6-5 to a great player and
picked up a nice little purse myself for my efforts.
Before the event I would have bitten your hand
off if you had offered me a last 4 and last 8 for Glossop
players in a massive and amazingly high quality event.
Daz Finch should be proud of the field assembled for this
event as it was truly awesome. I would never have dreamt
that one of those players would have been me but sometimes you
take what is offered to you. Perry certainly did today
and Adam admitted he had played the best player he had ever
seen!
Glossop pool made a little mark today, just a
little one but we made a mark. We took home some of the
money on offer and two future stars were blooded on a much
bigger stage to anything that they would be used to. I
know the work they have put in to achieve their dreams of
playing and competing on this stage. In Daz Finch's own
words, we have a few players like Adam and Perry who refuse to
pay money to play people of the ilk of the players here
today. Some of these lads wont stump up money to back
themselves against that quality of opposition and they should
be praised for that.
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