Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Two years and counting

Billiard Pulse is a massive two years old today!

The biggest change since the first anniversary is the inclusion of the Billiard Pulse Calendar. Otherwise the concept is pretty much 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

Maintaining this blog is still a lot of fun. I hope you find it useful.

Thanks for visiting!

State of the blog

In total there's been 140 posts since the start and 59 in the last year.

They have been tagged 925 times with 124 different tags. 70 (28 in the last year) posts have been tagged with pool, 32 (12) with snooker and 21 (13) with carom.

The link list in the right menu now contains 170 links, of which 118 are blogs. That's a significant increase since last year when the numbers were 139 and 87 respectively.

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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Tony Drago wins French Open

Tony Drago from Malta won his first Euro Tour title in the inaugural Dynamic French Open.

In the final he defeated Christian Reimering from Germany 10-6 to win €6000. Reimering took home €3800 for the runner-up position.

In the semi-finals Drago hammered Finland's Markus Juva 10-3 and Reimering defeated Marco Tschudi (Switzerland) 10-7.

This was Drago's first win on the Euro Tour in his fourth final. It must have been a welcome triumph considering he recently lost his place on snooker's Main Tour.

The win takes Drago all the way from 52nd to fifth in the Euro Tour Ranking. Losing finalist Reimering moves from 13th to second. Mark Gray (England) stays in first place while Bruno Muratore (Italy) improves one position to third.

The tournament was played 20-23 February at the Leader Billard Club, Paris, France. It was the first event of seven on the 2008 Euro Tour. The next stop is the Dynamic Italy Open which runs from 10-12 April 2008.

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Sweden successfully defends world three cushion team championship

2008 World Team Three Cushion ChampionshipFor the fourth time in a row and eighth overall Sweden won the World Team Three Cushion Championship.

The winning team consisted of Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson. In the final they won 2-0 over Netherland's duo, Raymond Burgman and Dick Jaspers.

South Korea and Spain tied for third place in an event with 20 teams from 19 countries.

Blomdahl has played on all of eight winning teams. Nilsson has six golds.

Sweden had a perfect 10-0 record in the event. They also had the highest general average of 1.664. Germany had the highest single game average with 2.117.

Of all the players Jaspers had the highest general average of 2.171. Blomdahl had a 3.333 to top the single game averages. He also had a perfect set where he made a run of 15 from his first inning. This has only happened three times in the last 10 years.

The tournament was played 14-17 February at Festhalle in Viersen, Germany.

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Monday, February 18, 2008

Mark Selby wins Welsh Open after impressive comeback

Welsh Open 2008Mark Selby from England won the Welsh Open for his first ranking title.

Selby made a strong comeback from 8-5 down in the final to edge Ronnie O'Sullivan (England) 9-8. It must have been particularly sweet since he lost 9-8 to O'Sullivan in the recent UK Championship.

For the fourth straight ranking tournament 2006 world champion Shaun Murphy (England) lost out in the semi-finals. This time he was beaten 6-3 by O'Sullivan. Scotland's Stephen Hendry lost 6-4 to Selby in the other semi-final.

Defending champion Neil Robertson (Australia) was beaten 5-3 by England's Allister Carter in the third round.

Selby received £35,000 for the victory. It was his second major title, having also captured the Masters in January.

O'Sullivan won £17,500 as runner-up. He was looking for his second consecutive ranking win, having captured the UK Championship in December. In addition he won the £2,000 high break prize for his 143 against Murphy.

The win lifts Selby from fifth to fourth in the provisional rankings. O'Sullivan stays on top. Shaun Murphy is the new No.2 after swapping positions with Stephen Maguire (Scotland).

The event took place at the Newport Leisure Centre, Newport, Wales Feb 11-17, 2008. It was the fifth ranking tournament of seven on the 2007/2008 Main Tour. Next up on the snooker calendar is the China Open which starts 23rd March 2008.

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Shaun Murphy retains Malta Cup trophy

Malta Cup 2008Shaun Murphy from England successfully defended the Malta Cup.

Murphy defeated Ken Doherty (Ireland) 9-3 in the final. John Higgins (Scotland) and Ding Junhui (China) lost out in the semi-finals.

Murphy earned £20,000 for the victory. Doherty won £9,000 as runner-up.

The Malta Cup was a non-ranking event this year so there are no changes in the ranking lists.

The tournament took place at the Hilton Conference Centre, Portamaso, Malta Feb 4-10, 2008. Next up on the snooker calendar is the Welsh Open which starts 11th February.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Frédéric Caudron wins World Cup in Sluiskil

Belgium's Frèdèric Caudron won the three cushion World Cup event in Sluiskil, Netherlands.

In the final he outgunned Nikos Polychronopoulos (Greece) 3-0 (15-5, 15-3, 15-9).

Tying for third were defending champion Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden) and Kyung-Roul Kim from South Korea. They both lost 3-2 in their semi-final matches.

Caudron dominated this tournament stats wise. He had the highest general average of 1.963 and the highest single match average of 3.105. Belgian Barry Van Beers' 15 was the highest run of the event.

Clearly Caudron has kept his form during the off-season. Last year Caudron won two World Cup events plus the Sang Lee International.

The win puts Caudron atop the initital World Cup Ranking, followed by Polychronopoulos, Blomdahl and Kim.

Caudron also takes the lead in the World Players Ranking. Runner-up Polychronopoulos stays in ninth. Blomdahl drops from first to second and Sánchez stays in second.

The event took place 21-27 January 2008, in the Congrescentrum 't Meulengat, Sluiskil, Netherlands. It was the first of five events in the 2008 World Cup. Next event is in Porto, Portugal, 30 June - 6 July.

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Mark Selby wins Masters on debut

Saga Masters 2008England's Mark Selby won the Saga Masters on his first appearance.

In the final Selby defeated countryman Stephen Lee 10-3 to capture his first major title.

Ken Doherty (Ireland) and Marco Fu (Hong Kong) lost out in the semi-finals.

Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan (England) was beaten 6-5 by Scotsman Stephen Maguire in the first round.

Selby earned £150,000 for the victory. In addition he won £5,000 for making a 141 in the last frame of the final. He shared the high break prize with Doherty.

Lee won £68,000 as runner-up. It must have been a welcome return to form for the man who's ben struggling with his game lately.

The event took place at the Wembley Arena, London, England Jan 13-20, 2008. Next up on the snooker calendar is another non-ranking event, Malta Cup which starts 4th February.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Bustamante wins all-around title in Derby City Classic

Derby City ClassicFrancisco Bustamante from the Philippines is the Master of the Table in the Derby City Classic.

The tournament is comprised of three events. Bustamante was seventh in bank pool, third in one pocket and second in 9-ball.

Here are the final results:

Bank pool: Winner: Larry Price (USA), $10,000; Runner-up: Sylver Ochoa (USA), $5,000
One pocket: Winner: Gabe Owen (USA), $12,000; Runner-up: Larry Nevel (USA), $6,000
9-ball: Winner: Ralf Souquet (Germany), $17,500; Runner-up: Bustamante, $8,400

All-around title (Master of the Table):
  1. Bustamante, $20,000
  2. Owen, $3,000
  3. Souquet, $2,000
This was Bustamante's first all-around-title. It was Souquet's third 9-ball win after also lifting the trophy in 2004 and 2006.

During the week there were several more events being staged. For instance, Darren Appleton (England) beat Niels Feijen (Netherlands) in the final of the Straight Pool Challenge.

The tournament ran from January 4-12 at the Executive West Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Approximately 400 players took part in each of the three main events.

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