ORKNEY POOL IBA CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 7th Islands Blackball Association Pool Championships
took place in The Ball Room, Dunfermline from November 23rd to 26th
and it proved to be the most successful year yet for Orkney cueists.
SINGLES
46 players competed in this year’s men’s singles with every
round the best of 13 frames. As always a lot of the Orkney players eliminated
each other in the early stages and of the 8 players who made it to the quarter
finals, 5 Orkney players remained. Neil Cormack lost to an on form David
Addinall before Paul Sinclair came through a tough encounter with Rhydian
Reynolds to book his semi final place. Darren Tait then won an all Orkney
quarter final against Nicol Holland before Merv Sinclair was edged out in a
decider against Shetlander Andrew Stout
Darren was appearing in his second consecutive semi final
but unfortunately he could only find his best form in the 2nd part
of the match, as he came from 6-2 down before being narrowly beaten 7-5 in the
end by the 2008 champion. The semi final between Paul and David was a pulsating
affair with incredible clearances being pulled out by both players. The game
was at 6 each and it was Paul to break. Paul potted from the break and then
proceeded in exquisite fashion to clear the table including a double on the
black into the bottom pocket to clinch the match. It was an incredible result
for Paul against arguably the tournaments outstanding player.
Full of confidence from his semi final win, Paul then went
on to win the final 7-3 as he exuded calmness from start to finish, taking out
several clinical finishes to earn a well deserved win. Paul’s win also meant
the men’s singles trophy headed to Orkney for the 4th year in a row.
The women’s event also featured some early round all Orkney
ties with Rachael defeating Sandra and Biz edging out Katherine. 4 Orcadians
made it to the quarter finalists where Maureen Herdman lost out 5-2 to last
year’s runner up Tanya Rhodes while Caroline Sinclair had an excellent 5-3 win
over Nicola Young. Rachael had to play another team mate in her quarter final
as she beat practise partner Biz by 5-3 to set up a semi final with Caroline.
Unfortunately for Caroline, Rachael found top gear in this match as she ran out
a 5-1 winner.
In the final though Rachael came up across defending
champion, Shetland’s Amanda Cutt, and although there were a lot of close frames
it was Amanda who came out on top with a 5-2 victory
MEN’S EVENT
Men’s A team
Neil Cormack (captain), Erlend Grieve, Stewart Keldie, Paul
Sinclair, Shaun Spence, Alan Stevenson, Darren Tait
Men’s B team
Paul Robertson (captain), Robert Gatt, Nicol Holland, John Norquoy,
Merv Sinclair, Darren Sutherland, Steven Walls
Men’s C team
Ryan Gillespie (captain), Michael Brown, Magnus Drever, Liam
Harcus, Sean Munson, Lee O’Hagan, Jamie Ross
For the first time at this year’s event Orkney had mustered
up enough interest to enter 3 teams into the competition. These 3 teams joined
2 teams from The Isle of Man as well as 2 teams from Shetland. The 7 teams
would play a round robin with the top 4 teams qualifying for the semi finals.
The competition began as ever, with each counties A and B
sides battling each other. Orkney’s B side were looking a formidable side on
paper this year, with each member of the team having an Inter County cap to
their name and they proved to be more than a match for the A side as they
narrowly lost out by 11-10. The B team’s disappointment did not last long
however as they had a fantastic 15-6 win over The Shetland ‘A’ side before
further wins versus Orkney C and Shetland B. Although they went down to both
the Isle of Man sides in their final 2 games, Orkney B had still done enough to
ensured a 3rd placed finish in the group and a spot in the semi
finals.
The A side had never lost a game in the last 2 years of this
competition and although they had comfortable wins over the Isle of Man and
Shetland B sides they had to fight hard for another tight 11-10 win, this time
over Shetland ‘A’. A 21-0 whitewash over Orkney C followed as the players hit
top form before the final game of the group against Isle of Man A to see who
would clinch top spot. Unfortunately though, they could never get going against
an on form Isle of Man side, which ran out 15-6 victors. This meant The Orkney
A and B sides would meet in the semi finals.
Despite losing all their matches, The Orkney C team
performed very credibly as well in the group stages, narrowly losing out by
12-9 to both the Shetland and Isle of Man ‘B’ sides. Impressively, the C side
managed Orkney’s best effort out of all the Orkney teams against Isle of Man
‘A’ as they took 7 frames. The Orkney C side contained a good mix of youth and
experience and the young players who were involved all had an excellent
experience which was great to see.
On to the semi finals and the game between the Orkney sides
proved to be incredibly tense and it was the B side who took their chances the
best to lead after the first session by 4-3. The standard in the 2nd
session was very high with players from both sides taking out 8 ball clearances
and the session ended delicately poised at 7 each. Desperate to win a 3rd
successive title, the A side then went on to dominate in the final session as
they took the next 4 games through wins from Neil, Darren, Shaun and Alan, to
take an unassailable 11-7 lead in the match. Although bitterly disappointed to
lose, the Orkney B side can take great pride in their performance, with all
players producing incredible pool and the team spirit created was second to
none.
Orkney ‘A’ would now go on to face Shetland in the final,
who had incredibly come from 8-4 down to beat The Isle of Man in the other semi
final. Buoyed on by Paul Sinclair’s earlier win in the singles, Orkney looked
the much stronger team in the final, with each player contributing at least 1
win as they led 9-5 after 2 sessions. Orkney then wasted little time to win the
remaining 2 points, with Erlend first, and then Stewart, as each player potted
their decisive blacks within seconds of each other to ensure an 11-5 win and a
record 4th IBA team title
LADIES EVENT
Ladies A team
Caroline Sinclair (captain), Sandra Mainland, Katherine
Muir, Biz Seatter, Rachael Sutherland
Ladies B team
Gemma Herdman (captain), Maureen Herdman, Anne-Marie Keldie,
Linda Ratter, Dana Sutherland
5 teams competed in the Ladies event as Orkney ‘A’ went into
the tournament with their strongest and most experienced line up possible in
Caroline Sinclair, Rachael Sutherland, Katherine Muir, Sandra Mainland and Biz
Seatter.
At the end of the group stages Orkney ’A’ finished in 3rd
place, having suffered very narrow defeats to Isle of Man ‘A’ and Shetland
‘A’. However, very good wins versus Isle
of Man ‘B’ and a 14-1 victory over Orkney B, meant confidence was high going
into the semi finals. The Ladies ‘B’ side narrowly missed out on 4th
place after a close 9-6 defeat against Isle of Man ‘B’.
Orkney’s opponents in the semi final were Shetland and all
ladies performed excellently under pressure to secure an 8-5 win and gain
revenge for the earlier group defeat. The victory meant that the ladies final
would be a repeat of last year’s final versus Isle of Man ‘A’.
The final began and the Orkney players began very
confidently to lead 6-2 after the first 8 games. As the Orkney men had just
secured victory on the other tables, attention now turned to the ladies game
with all Orkney supporters excitedly anticipating a double success for their
teams. Rachael and Katherine were the players on the table and it wasn’t long
before Orkney moved to the cusp of victory as Rachael took out a very assured
clearance.
Katherine then followed suit with a well taken clearance of
her own, and as she potted the winning black the Orkney contingent celebrated
what was a very well deserved first IBA title for The Ladies team. A tremendous
boost for Orkney Pool as well as it meant 3 of the 4 IBA trophies headed back
to the Islands.
Also played at The IBA was the mixed doubles trophy. Again
it was played with great fun and spirits as a male and female from different
islands formed to make a partnership. In the end though, it was the happy
couple of Rachael Sutherland and David Addinall who lifted the trophy,
defeating Robert Gatt and Ali Cannon in the final. This was the 2nd
year in a row Robert and Ali had lost in the final having missed out to Erlend
Grieve and Nicola Young last year.
In what was a fantastic week of pool played in a friendly
and competitive spirit, a massive thank you goes to all the players who
participated from all of the islands, to the staff at the venue, to David
Duncan and Jackie Henderson for organising the event, to Orkney Gin and Munro’s
Garage for the sponsors of the shirts and to Lee O’Hagan for live streaming the
event on Facebook which generated a lot of interest and allowed friends and
family back home to follow the event. With the event set to take place in
Falkirk next September there are sure to be plenty of players eager and looking
forward to going.
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