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Aqeel Shows no Sign of Heel
by Martin Rydland
On Sunday November
1st the LSE Pool Club hosted the second tournament of the year.
9-ball was on the agenda this time and was held at Riley’s
Victoria where the corporate whores that they are had actually replaced
the normal pool table cloth with a gory, bright red and Coca-Cola
logo! After a brief state of panic, cursing furiously at what the
world has become we got underway with the group stages. As usual,
the format of the competition was: last years’ orgasmic duo,
Martin and Lee seeded directly to the quarters, group-winners also
directly through to the quarters and runners-up having a playoff
for the last two spots. Because this tournament was the only real
9-ball session we had time for before choosing teams for the Championships
in Liverpool it also doubled as the team try-out. Needless to say,
the way people were playing our confidences for success in the Beatles
capital are very high.
The group stage was intense with quite a few upsets
from the very beginning. Snooker maestro and 8-ball wonderboy Alpesh
was expected to go directly through to quarters, but his angles
were a little off and when the blue n.2 ball got stuck in the jaw
for the 90th time, you could truly say that was the pool version
of being “blueballed”. Newcomer Yibo showed his stuff
and took the first place spot in front of Alpesh who went of to
beat group 2 runner-up Sahil 5-0 in the play-offs. Sahil had placed
a strong second only one point behind Law Master student Aqeel in
group 2 after a display of some rather tricky 3-ball runouts and
was thoroughly pleased with his performance.
Self-styled LSE God of the universe Alvin saw a
nerve-wrecking final 3-2 victory against Jerrold in the final game
to clinch 2nd place behind supreme Piotr from his grasp. Because
Alvin is the best pool player under the sun it was nice to see him
actually go through to the final stages for once. It’s like
when you see an autistic boy really wanting to skateboard and actually
doing an ollie. It warms your heart. Will whittling a whopping win
last week whistled whimsically while winning willingly again in
his group, but in the end Dan Steene won the group after a final
3-1 show-down for the group win. Nerves were in check, and the play-off
with Alvin could begin. After a close score up until 2-2 Will decided
show why he won the Fresher’s tournament and within minutes
the scoreline had changed to 5-3.
Will was not out of the woods yet because the jerks
at the pool committee (i.e. me) had decided that no only do runners
up have to play an extra game to get the the final rounds, but they
also have the dubious pleasure of playing the two seeds; Martin
and Lee. Both were nice and warmed up having just completed a race
to 18 money match for the whopping sum of £30, Martin clinching
victory 18-15. Lee had however played very well indeed and I was
expecting a close and exciting game between two LSE giants. In the
greatest LSE Pool Club upset of all time Will demolished the Lee
Machine 5-0, dismantling him completely within the 15 minutes and
all who looked upon him was astonished. In the other game Martin
was running around nervous as he faced Alpesh in his quarter final,
but then he remembered that 9-ball is only a game of luck and requires
no skill whatsoever and thus fits perfectly for blondie (actually
his nickname in high school). A quick 5-2 victory and that was the
end of that. Quick and dirty.
Yibo, having defeated Piotr 5-3 in the quarters
went on to face Martin and luck rolled again in the blonde tornado’s
favour. 7-1 was the score after 20 minutes of play and Yibo praised
himself lucky that he actually had a life and did not play pool
8 hours a day. To be fair Yibo did get pretty unlucky at times,
but the thing about 9-ball is that you cannot miss the shot. Miss,
and you lose. Simple as that. A blind French surrender monkey can
pot the nine when it sitting in the jaws, so make sure you don’t
let him.
Dan Steene lost out for the second time in two tournaments
in the quarter finals, this time against Aqeel who showed a clever
display of snooker tactics and sexy clearances. Aqeel is coming
up to be the clear-cut champion of LSE pool this year through his
magnificent displays, so now we just need to convince him to actually
play in the tournaments… He went on to play Will in the semi-final
and was able to squeeze through after Will started fiddling with
his balls while it was still even (interpret that as you wish).
In the other semi-final Yibo was thrashed 7-1, but
once again it all came down to being able to take down that final
9-ball and just smash it in. Yibo failed. Miserably. But in all
honesty he was playing very well up until the 9-ball, but sadly
that does not count for anything. The scoreline could easily have
been more in the vicinity of 7-5 with a little bit more luck…
The final was an epic showdown between good and
evil. Well, not quite, but it was a tense battle all the way up
to 6-6, when Aqeel just decided to say bye-bye and make 3 quick
racks in succession to take the first of his two LSE pool victories
this year. Highlights include a spectacular 3-9 carom from Aqeel
and some pretty amazing clearances from both players. At the end
of the day, the author had played a solid 67 racks of pool and was
thoroughly exhausted. Still, that is what pool does to you. It becomes
an addiction, just like any of us die-hard fans can testify to.
Congratulations to Aqeel for an amazing victory and to the players
who made the LSE teams to participate in Liverpool next week.
Group Stage Results
Group
1
| |
|
Will
D |
Dan
S |
Total |
| Dan R-DeF
|
|
2 |
5 |
7 |
| Will D |
8 |
|
2 |
10 |
| Dan S |
5 |
8 |
|
13 |
Group 2
| |
Aqeel |
Sahil |
Gary |
Will X |
Total |
| Aqeel |
|
4 |
2 |
4 |
10 |
| Sahil |
1 |
|
4 |
4 |
9 |
| Gary |
3 |
1 |
|
2 |
6 |
| Will X |
1 |
1 |
3 |
|
5 |
Group 3
| |
Yibo |
Alpesh |
Ken |
Phil |
Total |
| Yibo |
|
3 |
4 |
3 |
10 |
| Alpesh |
2 |
|
3 |
5 |
10 |
| Ken |
1 |
2 |
|
4 |
7 |
| Phil |
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
3 |
Group 4
| |
Jerrold |
Piotr |
Alvin |
Rob |
Total |
| Jerrold |
|
3 |
2 |
2 |
7 |
| Piotr |
2 |
|
4 |
4 |
10 |
| Alvin |
3 |
1 |
|
4 |
8 |
| Rob M |
3 |
1 |
1 |
|
5 |
Playoffs
for last 2 spots in knockout:
Alpesh 5-0 Sahil
Will D 5-2 Alvin
Knockout
Stage
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