Saturday, February 28, 2009

Three years and counting

Billiard Pulse is a gargantuous three years old today!

.. or rather yesterday, but I've been a bit lazy.

The biggest change since the second anniversary is the addition of polls. Other than that the concept is the same as one year ago:
  1. Provide links to current and upcoming events
  2. Write short reports from major events with references to related material
  3. Cover the billiard blogosphere and maintain a list of billiard blogs and other billiard related sites
This blog is still a "labour of love" for me. I hope you find it useful.

Thanks for visiting!

State of the blog

In total there's been 196 posts since the start and 56 in the last year.

They have been tagged 1306 times with 132 different tags. 98 (28 in the last year) posts have been tagged with pool, 44 (12) with snooker and 31 (10) with carom.

The link list in the right menu now contains 179 links, of which 123 are blogs. That's a slight increase since last year when the numbers were 170 and 118 respectively. I had to retire a fair share of those though.

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Allister Carter bags first ranking win in the 2009 Welsh Open

Welsh Open 2009England's Allister Carter won the 2009 Welsh Open.

His opponent Joe Swail (N.Ireland) took the early lead with 5-2 before Carter stormed back with seven frames on the trot to win 9-5.

Anthony Hamilton (England) and Neil Robertson (Australia) lost out in the semifinals.

Carter received £35,000 for the victory and Swail got £17,500 for his runner-up spot.

Marco Fu (Hong Kong) had the highest break of the tournament with a 142. That earnt him £2,000.

Defending champion Mark Selby (England) lost 5-3 to Hamilton in the quarterfinals.

This was the first ranking title for Carter. Swail was also looking for his first title. The popular Irishman will be happy to finally have reached a final though. This was his 10th(!) semi-final appearance.

Carter improves from fourth to third in the provisional rankings. Swail jumps eight places, from 28th to 20th. The top two remain the same. Ronnie O'Sullivan (England) stays on top, followed by Stephen Maguire (Scotland).

The event took place at the Newport Centre, Newport, Wales 16-22 February, 2009. It was the sixth ranking tournament of eight on the 2008/2009 Main Tour. Next up on the snooker calendar is the Honghe Industrial China Open which starts 30th March 2009.

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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Feijen takes French Open for back-to-back Euro Tour titles

Niels Feijen from Netherlands captured the 2009 French Open for his second Euro Tour win in a row.

In the final the merited Dutchman defeated 15-year old Mario He (Austria) 9-4. The victory was worth €5000. Mario got €3300 for second place.

The semi-finals saw Feijen defeating Poland's Thomasz Kaplan 9-4. Mario overcame Tour legend Ralf Souquet (Germany) by the same score.

This was Feijen's first win in the French Open and fifth Euro Tour win overall, from ten finals. It moves him into fourth in the all-time list, only behind the German trio of Souquet, Oliver Ortmann and Thomas Engert.

It was Feijen's second straight win, having also lifted the trophy at the 2008 Costa del Sol Open. Souquet won the two events leading into that event. Before that Johnny Archer (USA) was the last man to win back-to-back titles, in 2000.

Defending champion Tony Drago (Malta) lost 9-8 to Rafael Guzmann (Spain) in the Losers Qualification.

The win took Feijen from second to first in the season's first Euro Tour Ranking. Losing finalist Mario improved from 184th to 96th. Former leader Souquet dropped to second and Nick van den Berg slipped to third.

The tournament was played 12-14 February at the Leader Billard Club, Paris, France. It was the first event of seven on the 2009 Euro Tour. Next up is the Italy Open which runs from March 25-28 2009.

See also:
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Sunday, February 01, 2009

John Brumback is Master of the Table in 2009 Derby City Classic

Derby City Classic 2009
John Brumback from the USA is the Master of the Table in the 2009 Derby City Classic.

The tournament is comprised of three events. Brumback was first in bank pool, top-ten in one pocket and 9th in 9-ball. He bested Johnathan Pinegar (USA) with only half a point, 175.5-175.

Here are the final results, with field sizes:

Bank pool (398): Winner: John Brumback (USA), $10,000; Runner-up: Rodolfo Luat (Philippines), $5,000
One pocket (333): Winner: John Schmidt (USA), $12,000; Runner-up: Scott Frost (USA), $6,000
9-ball: (341) Winner: Shane Van Boening (USA), $16,000; Runner-up: Lee Van Corteza (Philippines), $8,000

All-around title (Master of the Table):
  1. Brumback, $20,000
  2. Pinegar, $3,000
  3. Luat, $2,000
This was Brumback's first all-around-title and also his first bank pool crown. Earlier he had finished runner-up twice in banks. Schmidt and Van Boening also lifted their first trophies in the event.

Francisco Bustamante (Philippines) was the defending over-all champion but ended outside the top four this year.

During the week there were several more events being staged. For instance, Danny Harriman (USA) beat defending champion Darren Appleton (England) in the final of the Straight Pool Challenge.

The tournament ran from January 23-31 at the Horseshoe Casino and Hotel, Elizabeth, Indiana, USA. It was the 11th edition of the event.

See also:

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