De Montfort University’s very own Pool Society entered three teams (four players in each team) into the BUCS-UPC (British Universities and Colleges Sport-University Pool Council) Nine-ball Pool Championships which were held at Rileys Birmingham and Rileys Solihull this weekend, and to put it lightly, the teams didn’t get off to a very good start in the university pool season.
On Thursday 1 December, the Individual Championships took place in both venues, and two out of the twelve players, Chris Potter and Charles Stokes, made it to the last 64, which was a good start to the long weekend.
1st Team – Left to right
Chris Potter, Thomas Aspinall, Louis Hatton and Charles Stokes
In regards to the Team Championship event which were held on the Friday the 2nd and Saturday the 3rd, all three teams were eliminated at the same stage, being two wins away from making the Championship knock-out stages and one win from the Trophy knock-out stages. Unluckily, the first team had a tough draw, losing to eight seed Sheffield 1st in their final game of the tournament.
David Lomax in the third team had exceeded expectations and became a dark horse throughout the competition, winning one game meant he qualifyed for the second round of the individual event, winning one of the games in the team event.
David Lomax
In terms of the individual performances in the team event, two out of the twelve players did not lose a single game. Second team player Michael Ji won a game and was winning in two games that were stopped early due to the team match coming to a halt. Chairman of the Pool Society, Louis Hatton won all games in the team events, only dropping one frame (5-1, 5-0 & 5-0).
Louis Hatton
Overall, the results were slightly disappointing as it felt like the first team underperformed, however, all other elements of the weekend went a lot better than had anticipated. Now the club looks forward to the Eight-Ball UK Championships which are being held at the end of February.
