Number One seed through as others fall by the wayside – that’s pool!

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Dan Rush and John Chambers - your commentary team for the evening.

Back to the Lakeside for the second day here of the World Blackball Championships and the huge opening numbers are slowly dropping away to leave those in with serious chances ahead of finals day on Sunday.

The doubles were started this morning with some minor shocks along the way but despite the decent enough prize money, I got the feeling some were using it for table time in an attempt at boosting their chances of taking the big one, and seeing their name etched in to pool history.

7.00pm saw the big boys roll in to town for the last 64 draw (it’s a seeded event so they were yet to play), though to be fair, plenty have been here for a couple of days supporting friends and the sport in general.  Gareth Potts is the unofficial number one of 8ball pool (I am sure some would argue, but not too many), and was on the premises late afternoon shaking hands and talking to fans and players alike plus the odd autograph! He would have watched the draw as intently as the rest of us – there is a lot of team spirit here, but at the end of the day, everybody is focussed on winning and precious little else, as do all top sportsmen.  16 of the top 32 players were in action tonight (Thursday), and those on the top table were guessing how many would go though overall with my guess of 24 out of 32 laughed out of the room with others coming in much lower which either shows my ignorance or points out just how wonderfully open the sport can be – though I could be right of course, (and no one thought of that as an option).

Number one seed goes through at lakeside

With the first 16 seeded players in action it is my solemn duty to wait around and report any surprises, and Ollie Douglas was the first of the top 32 to fall when beaten two sets to nil (5-0 5-2) by a beaming Shane Lewis, followed closely by James Croxton (beaten 5-1 5-3 by Kristian Phillips, leaving the year of the underdog very much in vogue.  Crowd favourite Craig Marsh, two time World Champion Jason Twist and other well known names all got through as did number one seed Gareth Hibbott after a give and take battle with Maltese challenger Ivan Rizzo who was anything but disgraced in a 5-4 5-4 loss that could have been very different but for a dry break in the deciding frame of the second set in a cracker of a match and a wise choice for the www.ipapool.com live stream. With that game complete its time to wander off with a busy day ahead tomorrow – Seniors, Doubles, and the next round of the Singles – worth every moment though and I wouldn’t swap it for anything else I promise.

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