The Challenge Cup & The GB9 Paul Medati Trophy

The Challenge Cup & The GB9 Paul Medati Trophy

Karl Boyes on a tremendous victory in the 128 Player main event at the GB9 Tournament in Barnsley.

This is Karl’s first GB9 title - but it was noted by a few “in the know” players that Karl appeared to have brought his brilliant streak of good form back with him from his recent sucessful visit to Germany where he was playing some of the best pool in his career, ultimately reaching the Quarter-Final stage of the 240 player field of the best pool talent in Europe.

Like many of the best players in the world, Boyes’ results improved throughout the event, despite a “touch and go” result in the Quarter Final (9-8 vs Craig Osborne) Boyes then spread his wings and appeared to cruise through the two final stages with strong victories over his two final opponents—–

Steve Folan was another new name added to the exclusive list of players with a GB9 title to their name.

Folan had just returned from a visit to Las Vegas where he had a couple of momentous victories in the Predator 10 Ball Open. After qualifying for the prestigious single elimination rounds he notched up a strong win over Raj Hundal, now playing for India, and then a notable victory over Shane Van Boening - unarguably the hottest ten ball player in the world at the moment!

Surfing this wave of confidence it’s no wonder that Folan made short work of collecting his first GB9 Trophy.
The Pro Cup

Daryl Peach’s name appears to have tenancy rights on The GB9 Pro Cup trophy, as this was the incredible third time he has won this title in the two short seasons that the GB9 tour has been running.

There were some notable absentees from the Pro Cup line-up, as Imran Majid, the hottest GB9 player of the 2008 season with a staggering set of results and trophies from the GB9 tour was committed to playing ten ball in Sarajevo.

Maltese snooker legend, and former Predator 10 Ball Champion Tony Drago was absent due to a previous snooker engagement, and World 10 Ball Champion Darren Appleton was occupied in his “home from home” in Manila as he was invited to the Philippine 10 Ball Open.

With some of the top players absent due to these prior engagements, Peach, the reigning World 9 Ball Champion from Blackpool, must have known he had a good chance of striking gold again, and sure enough, this was his second Pro Cup win on the spin!