Wales Ben Davis Crowned 2009 Ireland’s Invitation
8-Ball Pro-am Pool Classic Champion
The 2009 Ireland’s Invitation 8Ball Pro-Am Pool Classic
returned to the Lough Erne Hotel Kesh
Co. Fermanagh once again for its annual event, which
is regarded as the most prestigious Invitational tournament to take place
in Ireland and also further a field when a host
of past and present world champions from the game of 8 & 9ball pool and
the world professional snooker circuit made their way to the Co. Fermanagh
town to compete for the £9,000 prize-money which was up for grabs in this
prestigious and enjoyable event…..
Shaun Murphy presents Ben Davies (Wales) with the £3,000 winners
cheque and the crystal trophy and also
the runner-up Gareth Potts (England) with £1,500 in the 2009 Ireland's
Invitation 8Ball Pro-Am Pool Classic.......
This fantastic event cued-off on Friday evening with open
qualifiers taking place in four different categories under-16, under-21, over
40’s and a open event with all qualifiers returning the next day for the group
matches which was only limited to 16 groups of five played in a round robin
format with the top two players progressing into the knockout stages with
all group winners playing a group runner-up in their first match before meeting
one of the invited professional players in the last-32 of the competition……..
The four semi-finals in Ireland's Invitation 8Ball Pro-Am Pool Classic Scott
Gillespie (Scotland), Gareth Potts (England, runner-up), Pat Holtz (Scotland)
and Ben Davies (Wales, winner).......
Sunday morning seen the start of the last-32 with the following
Irish players north and south of the border making it through to the final
stages Troy Prendergast (Dublin), Ben Mc Moran (Fintona, Tyrone), Stephen
Dempsey (Cavan), Ronan Mc Carthy (Kircubin,
Down), Brendan Mc Donagh (Dromore,
Tyrone), Willie Eakin (Coleraine,
Derry), Keith Bowden (Kilkenny), Mark Stockten (Newtownstewart, Tyrone),
Damien Corrigan (Fintona, Tyrone), Billy Moore (Ballymoney,
Antrim) Manny Byrne (Newry, Down) with the rest of the last-32 field of players
representing England, Scotland and Wales with Ken Doherty and Shaun Murphy
representing the world of professional snooker……..
The two finalists in the £1,000 Scotch Doubles Shoot-Out pictured from LtoR:......
Keith Bowden (Kilkenny, runner-up) / Carl Morris
(England, runner-up) and Marc Farnsworth (England, winner) / Damien Corrigan
(Tyrone, winner).......
Good results in the last-32 came from the Irish players
with Ronan Mc Carthy defeating Wayne Camm (England) on a 8-3 score-line with Manny Byrne putting
in a brilliant performance to defeat the current Ladies world 8ball champion
Lynette Horsburgh 8-5 while Tyrone’s Damien Corrigan
lost to 1997 World Snooker Champion Ken Doherty 8-6 and Billy Moore put on
a fantastic display to knockout the 2005 world professional snooker champion
Shaun Murphy on a 8-3 score-line…….
Carl Morris (England, winner) and Billy Gorman (Belfast, runner-up)
pictured before the final of the £1,000 Plate Tournament.....
This annual event once again attracted along list of world professional players which included the
2008 Ladies World 8Ball Champion Lynette Horsburgh,
2008 Men’s World 8Ball Champion and current holder of the event Gareth Potts
and the 1997 & 2005 World Professional Snooker Champions Ken Doherty and
Shaun Murphy just to mention a few but come Sunday evening their
was only one player everyone was taking about and
that was Wales fantastic cue-sport player Ben Davis who was crowned the 2009
Ireland’s Invitation 8Ball Pro-Am Pool Classic Champion taking out a unbelievable
finish in the 18th game to defeat last years champion Gareth Potts 10-8 in front of the large turnout
of spectators………
On Ben’s route to lifting the title for the first time in
this prestigious event which has of some great champions in its roll of honour list over the years, players like Jason Twist, Darren
Appleton, Ross Mc Innes, Gareth Potts just to mention a few and now the Welsh
Wizard Ben Davis has added his name to this quality list of past champions…
Paul Tierney (Meath) winner of Friday nights celebrity pro-am poker tournament
and shared the prize on Saturday nights event as well with Pat Holtz.......
Ben started his winning campaign in the last-32 with a 8-3 victory over England’s 8ball professional Marc Farnsworth
before overcoming the challenge of Ireland’s top international junior player
Ben Mc Moran (Tyrone) in the last-16 with a 8-3 win……
The Welsh wizard kept up his great run of form going, with
another fantastic victory over Ronan Mc Carthy (N.
Ireland) in the ¼-final on a 8-5 score-line and followed that up with the
same score victory over Scotland’s top cue-sport player Pat Holtz in the semi-finals
to reach his first final on Irish soil of Ireland’s Invitation 8Ball Pro-Am
Pool Classic 2009 event…..
Pat Holtz (Scotland) who shared the prize pot with Paul Tierney (Meath)
in Saturday night’s celebrity pro-am poker event........
In the final the Welsh wizard came up against the defending
champion and the current world 8ball champion Gareth Potts with both players
in tremendous form throughout the tournament with the defending champion taking
a early 4-1 lead before Ben turned on the style to level the match at 4-4
with the rest of the games swinging from player to player with Ben holding
the upper hand in the final straight with the Welsh wizard taking out probably
the greatest finish ever seen to get over the line on a 10-8 score-line to
be crowned the 2009 Ireland’s Invitation 8Ball Pro-Am Pool Classic Champion…….
The presentation was made by 2005 World Professional Snooker
Champion Shaun Murphy who presented the £3,000 first prize and the crystal
trophy to Ben Davis (Wales) with Gareth Potts (England) receiving £1,500 for
the runner-up prize.….……….
Results:
The Irish players is listed in brackets
by the county they represent…….
Last-32:
Ben Mc Moran (Tyrone)
8-0 Mick Hill (England)
Ben Davis (Wales)
8-3 Marc Farnsworth (England)
Scott Ross (Scotland) 8-4
Stephen Dempsey (Cavan)
Ronan Mc Carthy (Down) 8-3
Wayne Camm (England)
Simon Ward (Wales) 8-2
Pat O’ Kane (N. Ireland)
Ross Mc Innes (Scotland)
8-0 Brendan Mc Donagh (Tyrone)
Andy Crosdale (Scotland) 8-6
Willie Eakin (Derry)
Pat Holtz (Scotland)
8-4 Troy Prendergast (Dublin)
Ken Doherty (Ireland)
8-6 Damien Corrigan (Tyrone)
Geoff Campbell (England)
8-6 Tom Cousins (Wales)
Scott Gillespie (Scotland)
8-6 Carl Morris (England)
Jason Shaw (Scotland)
8-1 Keith Bowden (Kilkenny)
Karl Boyes (England)
8-3 JJ Faul (England)
Billy Moore (Antrim)
8-3 Shaun Murphy (England)
Manny Byrne (Down)
8-5 Lynette Horsburgh
(England)
Gareth Potts (England)
8-1 Mark Stockton (Tyrone)
Last-16:
Ben Davis
8-4 Ben Mc Moran
Ronan Mc Carthy 8-4 Scott Ross
Simon Ward
8-2 Ross Mc Innes
Pat Holtz
8-3 Andy Crosdale
Geoff Campbell
8-3 Ken Doherty
Scott Gillespie
8-4 Jason Shaw
Karl Boyes
8-2 Billy Moore
Gareth Potts
8-6 Manny Byrne
¼-Finals:
Ben Davis
8-5 Ronan Mc Carthy
Pat Holtz
8-4 Simon Ward
Scott Gillespie
8-4 Geoff Campbell
Gareth Potts
8-4 Karl Boyes
Semi-Finals:
Ben Davis
8-5 Pat Holtz
Gareth Potts
8-5 Scott Gillespie
Final:
Ben Davis 10-8
Gareth Potts
