Sweet,
Back in february/march I asked my boss if I could have the 9-10 June off to go see the World Pool Masters in Egmond aan Zee. The answer was no. Then last saturday I went to work only to find out someone else was allready there! I did have the weekend off, they just forgot to tell me about it.
Well, I didn't have a hotel or tickets or anything, so I had to contend myself with only going one day, the final Sunday. There would be 6 matches on sunday, three remaining quarter finals, two semi's and the final. I had to leave after the first semi because I still had to drive back home and it was 10 pm allready.
The day started off with a 175 Mile drive to Egmond which went well, the weather was very nice last Sunday. I did have to make a detour due to roadworks which meant I arrived almost half an hour late. Luckily it turned out I only missed one rack, Niels Feijen was leading Pat Holtz 1-0.
So on to the first match, Feijen-Holtz:
After just a few racks it was very clear that this year the table was breaking very differently from last year. Last year if you looked real hard at the rack, the wingball would fall. This year I'd guess about 20% of the breaks were dry, I only saw one dry break last year. The wingball only fell maybe 50% of the time. The players were trying everything, but couldn't find the sweet spot.
Niels started the match well, winning the first rack comfortably (I was told), but that's where his troubles started. He broke dry the third rack, and left Pat a fairly easy out for his second rack. From that point on it seemed an uphill struggle for Niels, he made at least two but possibly three dry breaks, and when something did go in he had a tough lay-out.
This wasn't all though, at several points in the match Pat was facing a tough opening ball, maybe four or five times. He got them all, shooting his way to a comfortable 8-5 victory.
The cheering section that Pat brought along was also quite impressive. Pat is somewhat of an unknown, but he's got game! Excellent stroke and composure around the table. The shots he made against Niels were world-class.
The second match was between Thomas Engert and Chia-Ching Wu. This was the tightest match along with Nick's match. Thomas won the lag, and didn't seem to do anything of note wrong in the first two frames, but some incredible shotmaking from Wu saw him bag these first two. Thomas got a break in the third when Wu missed an easy 8 and Thomas was able to pot the last two.
The next frame he came very close to a 9-break and was able to make a 2-9 plant for a 2-2 score. Engert missed a pretty easy shot in the next frame and got three fouled in the sixth for a 4-2 deficit. At this point Thomas had to up his game or Wu was gonna walk away with it. And he did, a nice B&R brought him the seventh frame, and one of the many dry breaks gave Thomas a chance and indeed the 8th rack. The match went 5-5 at which point Wu made a 9-combo followed by a golden break.
I thought it was over at 7-5. Wrong! Engert made another B&R for 7-6, Wu played a bad safety and that gave Thomas the one chance he needed, he ran the rack and broke and broke and ran his next for the victory! Again I have to say what an incredible player this Wu is, his kicking is not quite up there yet with the top Filipinos, but hey, the guy is like 18. He breaks like a mack truck, relishes in side-spin. He is/will be a monster player.
The next match was another classic, Nick van den Berg vs. Fabio Petroni:
Nick is one of the most popular players in my country, and he has a very dedicated group of supporters, headed by his father, Cupido, who is also getting to be somewhat well known, mainly for his antics.
The match itself was a rollercoaster ride with each player taking three or four racks in a row one after the other. The first rack was a B&R from Nick, in the second Fabio broke dry, but Nick had a big miscue and left Fabio an easy out for his first.
The next three racks were quite scrappy, but Fabio managed to take them all for a 4-1 lead, with him breaking. It was starting to look grim for Nick. Fabio scratched of the break however and Nick ran the rack from there, 4-2. More scrappiness in the next two had Nick getting the best of it and going 4-4. A dry break from Nick and a B&R meant Fabio was back in the driver seat at 6-4 and when Nick fould in frame 11 it seemed all but over at 7-4.
Nick missed a shot in the next frame but Fabio couldn't capitalize, 7-5. Nick managed to keep in control and made it 7-6. All Fabio had to do was run one rack, but this proved too much and he sold out on a tough one-ball. Nick ran the rack for 7-7. When Nick scratched off the break the audience just about died. Fabio however, couldn't keep his nerve and missed the three which meant Nick could run the table for a 8-7 victory with the crowd going beserk.
The last match I was able to see was the first semi-final between David Alcaide and Pat Holtz. I was anxious to see Alcaide play, because he's been doing some great thing on a pool table lately. A few months back he played in a big 8-ball tournament and made an 8-pack aswell as a 10-pack! He also made an (the only one I believe) 8-pack in that big pool tour that went belly up. He is an emotional player with a lot of heart and confidence in his own abilities. I just hadn't seen him play in person yet. I wasn't disappointed, again very solid stance and cueing, nice speed around the table and respectful to his opponent.
Pat Holtz in this match was a different player. With all the shotmaking he did in his earlier match, he amost couldn't pot a ball in the first couple of frames. He missed three times in the second frame, and missed his opening shot after a succesfull break three times aswell.
Holtz got a bit of a break when he managed to tie up David a few times and David didn't get out of the tough spots well, meaning it was 2-2. At that point David got a bit of a good run, making an early combo and being left only three balls with an easy starter, 4-2 to David.
A B&R brought him to 5-2, and another missed shot from Pat meant 6-2. This time it was Divid's turn to miss
a pretty makeable shot and Pat found a little confidence to go 6-3. David made a terrible mess of his first shot and Pat was able to capitalize for 6-4.
David regained his composure and made a B&R for 7-4, Pat fought back with his own B&R, but couldn't clear the table when he got a chance in the last rack, David won 8-5.
By this time it was almost 10 pm, and I decided I wasn't going to watch the rest of the tournament because I still had a 2 1/2 hour drive home.
Thomas Engert beat Nick van den Berg in the other semi-final and went on to win the tournament against Alcaide with 8-5.
The quality of the field maybe wasn't as stellar this year as it was last year, but the matches were better with the tougher beaking table, I really enjoyed my time there aswell as the matches. I'll post a few pictures and maybe a short video later when I'm home again.
gr. Dave
Back in february/march I asked my boss if I could have the 9-10 June off to go see the World Pool Masters in Egmond aan Zee. The answer was no. Then last saturday I went to work only to find out someone else was allready there! I did have the weekend off, they just forgot to tell me about it.
Well, I didn't have a hotel or tickets or anything, so I had to contend myself with only going one day, the final Sunday. There would be 6 matches on sunday, three remaining quarter finals, two semi's and the final. I had to leave after the first semi because I still had to drive back home and it was 10 pm allready.
The day started off with a 175 Mile drive to Egmond which went well, the weather was very nice last Sunday. I did have to make a detour due to roadworks which meant I arrived almost half an hour late. Luckily it turned out I only missed one rack, Niels Feijen was leading Pat Holtz 1-0.
So on to the first match, Feijen-Holtz:
After just a few racks it was very clear that this year the table was breaking very differently from last year. Last year if you looked real hard at the rack, the wingball would fall. This year I'd guess about 20% of the breaks were dry, I only saw one dry break last year. The wingball only fell maybe 50% of the time. The players were trying everything, but couldn't find the sweet spot.
Niels started the match well, winning the first rack comfortably (I was told), but that's where his troubles started. He broke dry the third rack, and left Pat a fairly easy out for his second rack. From that point on it seemed an uphill struggle for Niels, he made at least two but possibly three dry breaks, and when something did go in he had a tough lay-out.
This wasn't all though, at several points in the match Pat was facing a tough opening ball, maybe four or five times. He got them all, shooting his way to a comfortable 8-5 victory.
The cheering section that Pat brought along was also quite impressive. Pat is somewhat of an unknown, but he's got game! Excellent stroke and composure around the table. The shots he made against Niels were world-class.
The second match was between Thomas Engert and Chia-Ching Wu. This was the tightest match along with Nick's match. Thomas won the lag, and didn't seem to do anything of note wrong in the first two frames, but some incredible shotmaking from Wu saw him bag these first two. Thomas got a break in the third when Wu missed an easy 8 and Thomas was able to pot the last two.
The next frame he came very close to a 9-break and was able to make a 2-9 plant for a 2-2 score. Engert missed a pretty easy shot in the next frame and got three fouled in the sixth for a 4-2 deficit. At this point Thomas had to up his game or Wu was gonna walk away with it. And he did, a nice B&R brought him the seventh frame, and one of the many dry breaks gave Thomas a chance and indeed the 8th rack. The match went 5-5 at which point Wu made a 9-combo followed by a golden break.
I thought it was over at 7-5. Wrong! Engert made another B&R for 7-6, Wu played a bad safety and that gave Thomas the one chance he needed, he ran the rack and broke and broke and ran his next for the victory! Again I have to say what an incredible player this Wu is, his kicking is not quite up there yet with the top Filipinos, but hey, the guy is like 18. He breaks like a mack truck, relishes in side-spin. He is/will be a monster player.
The next match was another classic, Nick van den Berg vs. Fabio Petroni:
Nick is one of the most popular players in my country, and he has a very dedicated group of supporters, headed by his father, Cupido, who is also getting to be somewhat well known, mainly for his antics.
The match itself was a rollercoaster ride with each player taking three or four racks in a row one after the other. The first rack was a B&R from Nick, in the second Fabio broke dry, but Nick had a big miscue and left Fabio an easy out for his first.
The next three racks were quite scrappy, but Fabio managed to take them all for a 4-1 lead, with him breaking. It was starting to look grim for Nick. Fabio scratched of the break however and Nick ran the rack from there, 4-2. More scrappiness in the next two had Nick getting the best of it and going 4-4. A dry break from Nick and a B&R meant Fabio was back in the driver seat at 6-4 and when Nick fould in frame 11 it seemed all but over at 7-4.
Nick missed a shot in the next frame but Fabio couldn't capitalize, 7-5. Nick managed to keep in control and made it 7-6. All Fabio had to do was run one rack, but this proved too much and he sold out on a tough one-ball. Nick ran the rack for 7-7. When Nick scratched off the break the audience just about died. Fabio however, couldn't keep his nerve and missed the three which meant Nick could run the table for a 8-7 victory with the crowd going beserk.
The last match I was able to see was the first semi-final between David Alcaide and Pat Holtz. I was anxious to see Alcaide play, because he's been doing some great thing on a pool table lately. A few months back he played in a big 8-ball tournament and made an 8-pack aswell as a 10-pack! He also made an (the only one I believe) 8-pack in that big pool tour that went belly up. He is an emotional player with a lot of heart and confidence in his own abilities. I just hadn't seen him play in person yet. I wasn't disappointed, again very solid stance and cueing, nice speed around the table and respectful to his opponent.
Pat Holtz in this match was a different player. With all the shotmaking he did in his earlier match, he amost couldn't pot a ball in the first couple of frames. He missed three times in the second frame, and missed his opening shot after a succesfull break three times aswell.
Holtz got a bit of a break when he managed to tie up David a few times and David didn't get out of the tough spots well, meaning it was 2-2. At that point David got a bit of a good run, making an early combo and being left only three balls with an easy starter, 4-2 to David.
A B&R brought him to 5-2, and another missed shot from Pat meant 6-2. This time it was Divid's turn to miss
a pretty makeable shot and Pat found a little confidence to go 6-3. David made a terrible mess of his first shot and Pat was able to capitalize for 6-4.
David regained his composure and made a B&R for 7-4, Pat fought back with his own B&R, but couldn't clear the table when he got a chance in the last rack, David won 8-5.
By this time it was almost 10 pm, and I decided I wasn't going to watch the rest of the tournament because I still had a 2 1/2 hour drive home.
Thomas Engert beat Nick van den Berg in the other semi-final and went on to win the tournament against Alcaide with 8-5.
The quality of the field maybe wasn't as stellar this year as it was last year, but the matches were better with the tougher beaking table, I really enjoyed my time there aswell as the matches. I'll post a few pictures and maybe a short video later when I'm home again.
gr. Dave
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