World Championship Qualifiers
Congratulations to Deb Burchell and Lisa Reynolds in qualifying to play in the World Championship singles, and Liesa Conlin and Lorraine Fivey who qualified to play in the World Masters in Blackpool this July!
Collette Victorious in Ireland!
The 'Smiling Assassin'
Event 2 of Ireland’s 8-Ball Challenge Tour £4,000 Series for 2011 seen a bit of history made on Sunday 10th April when Collette Henriksen became the first lady player in the three year history of the event to be crowned a Challenge Tour Champion……….. As World Champion Sue Thompson’s closest rival, this result comes off the back of the number 2 seed finishing runner-up on the EPA Ladies Tour event 1 last month.
Welsh International Collette, now living in Co. Fermanagh, defeated some fantastic players on route to victory which included three times winner and former All Ireland Under-18 8-Ball Pool Champion Ben McMoran (Tyrone) and also the first 2011 event one winner Emmett McGuire.
A brilliant achievement from this great lady player nicknamed the ‘Smiling Assassin’ and with no doubt the Welsh cueist will be winning many more events in years to come. As a great supporter of all organised tournaments held in different venues throughout the province and she will be travelling to Leicester for Event 2 of the EPA Ladies Tour at the beginning of May and then on to Blackpool in a few months time to represent Wales International Ladies Team at the 2011 World 8-Ball Pool Championships.
Full Results from Event 2 of IRELAND’S 8-BALL CHALLENGE TOUR £4,000 SERIES
Report courtesy of Ronnie, Q Sport Academy.
Motifs Sponsorship
We would just like to say thanks to Motifs.co.uk for sponsoring the 2011 EPA Ladies Tour plate shirts!
Tour Event 1 – Reports
Sue’s Super Seven
Tour 1 Winner Sue Thompson with Jordan Church
Sue Thompson strode to her seventh consecutive EPA Ladies Tour title at the first event of 2011, continuing her ever impressive record. As number one seed, Sue entered into her first match in the last 32 against Anne Louise Arkle. A few early balls were missed but with a 5-2 scoreline they were easily forgotten. Last 16 opponent Helen Littlewood gave Sue a good battle taking three frames, but Sue finished day one with the prospect of a quarter final match versus newly qualified England International Sharon Wright.
Placed on the TV table, Sharon was confident going into the game but was no match on the day for Thompson, who sailed into the semis with a 6-1 win. All top four seeds made it through to the semi finals with Sue’s next opponent being England International and no.3 seed Carly Smith. Smith’s recent good form saw her winning the National ladies championship and top average at the European Championships, but there seemed to be no stopping ten-time World Champion Sue as she again dropped just one frame going into the final.
Fellow finalist and number two seed Collette Henriksen felt she hadn’t reached her top form over the weekend, but had some great results en route to the final, including Amanda Booth (5-1), Julie Fane (5-2) and Jackie Baker 6-3 in the quarters. Her semi against Liesa Conlin was a close encounter up to 4 apiece, but Collette took two good frames to eventually take the match 6-4.
The final showed much promise in the early stages with Sue and Collette exchanging the first two frames, but several chances missed by Welsh International Henriksen let Sue burst into a 5-1 lead. Collette took the next frame but Sue made no mistake and closed out the match 7-2.
Amy Coley takes the plate prize
Number 12 seed Amy Coley again showed what a promising talent she is by claiming the first plate prize of the season. After being knocked out of the main event by Jackie Baker in the second round, Amy breezed past opponents Lynne Pinches (4-1), Sarah Nicklin (4-2), Amanda Booth (5-0) and Fran Rogers (5-2), before an impressive 5-1 victory over no.5 seed Lyndsey Roberts in the final.
Credits
Thanks to Les, Maureen and Jordan Church for hosting the event, along with the staff for all their hard work in making the weekend an enjoyable one both on and off the table.
Thanks to Shirley Jewkes, tournament director, Jason Davies for running the event, senior referee Martin Pearson, Emma Senior for the website, Anne Taylor for the tour magazine, Bob Taylor for the photography and Paula Sagar for the live streaming.
A note from the director:
Thanks to all the players who continue to support the EPA Ladies Tour and make the event so great, and welcome to the 13 new players joining in 2011: Amanda Booth, Carrie-Anne James, Emma Wilkinson, Fran Rogers, Helen Gurd, Helen Metcalfe, Holly Cann, Katie Bonham, Keely Clarke, Lisa McGirr, Louise Etherington, Lynne Pinches and Sarah Ramsden. It is wonderful to see new faces on the tour and always a great pleasure to welcome back players returning from a break.
The ladies game continues to grow and looking at the tour results you can see how the standard has risen over the recent years. There is great talent and some great characters, I have seen many excellent matches, awesome performances and nail biting close encounters. But aside from the pool, the tour is about enjoying a weekend away, so please enjoy yourselves, greet old friends, make new ones and have a very happy and successful season – Shirley
Spotted Cue Ball
The EPA Ladies Tour are introducing the World & European standard spotted cue ball at the first tour, to be used in all matches going forward.
This cue ball will also be used in the World Championship and Masters qualifiers on Saturday 30th April.
