Well, the first event of the new GB9 ball tour season got underway this weekend. As usual the standard of pool was superb, the equipment was great, and the event was ran to perfection by the GB9 team.
Firstly in the Pro Cup, where I was defending my title from last years event, I played some steady stuff. That's about as far as it went really, I never got into full flow and eventually got beat in the semi-final. In the main event On the Sunday though it was a different story, I played some awesome pool, demolishing many very good players along the way by score lines of 9-1, 9-1, 9-3, 9-3. In the semi-final it was more of the same in the first half of the match, but when I was leading by a scoreline of 5-2 I simply hit a brick wall and my energy and concentration disappeared. I made several safety mistakes and was just not with it. I eventually lost 9-7. I simply put this down to the fact that earlier on that morning before I played any matches I had an extremely bad stomach, and I found myself in the toilet for the first 2 hours of the day! I felt ok around midday and the afternoon, but I fell that it caught up with me in my semifinal, and this was the deciding factor in the end. Disappointing really because I felt that I was playing the best pool in the tournament by far, and I really fancied my chances of taking it down. But this wasn't to be, and I now have to look forward to my next event.
One thing that does excite me though, is the fact that I have been working on a few slight changes in my technique/cue action over the past couple of weeks and this was the first event where I have had chance to try it in tournament play.....I was really pleased in general, and I am certain that the changes are for the better, and now I will pound the practice table over the next few weeks to perfect the changes and make it so that I don't even have to think about them.....so that they happen naturally.....they will become part of my games make up.
So all in all, 2 semi-final places this weekend, not a bad result, although I knew I deserved better. But the main thing for me was the fact that the changes I am making to my game have been confirmed to me that they are good ones, and now I have something to work on in my practice sessions.
