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| This interview took place immediately following the BCA Open 9-Ball Championships where Sarah earned her first WPBA point. | |||
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Sarah: Pretty well. I got beat by Karen Corr. I won my first match then got beat by Karen 9-3 but obviously you learn from matches and I was playing one of the best players in the world. Number two at the moment. Then I won a couple rounds and then lost to the current world champion, Julie Kelly 9-7. She played really really well against me. She ran 3 racks and it is pretty devastating when you are stuck in the chair and can't do anything about it. She played really well. I am just looking forward to the next tournament. AZB: A lot of the fans online may not know who Sarah Ellerby is, so can you fill us in? Sarah: Sure. I am from England and have been playing English 8-ball pool in England for 11 years. I've won 80 titles up to now and am a former European Champion. I've been over in America since the 17th of January qualifying for the WPBA tour. I've qualified for most of the events up to now and my next event is now Charlotte. AZB: I've seen your name on a lot of regional tour results and regional tour qualifiers. Can you tell us what you have done on the regional tours since you got here in January? Sarah: My first tournament I finished fourth. That was the Northeastern Women's Tour qualifier for the BCA event and it was held in Lancaster. I was a little disappointed with the finish but I think you learn from things like that and it was my first real tournament playing full time in America. Then I went down to Florida and won the BCA qualifier down there. I beat Nikki Benish in that event twice and I that was a really good win for me. Then I went back up to the NEWT tour to play in their season opener and I won that one. Then I went over to Albuquerque New Mexico where I finished third. After that I won the season opener down on the Florida tour and beat Jeannie Seaver 11-3. AZB: That doesn't happen very often. Jeannie is quite a player. Sarah: Jeannie is a great player. She is a very strong player but at the end of the day, I think I had the breaks in that match. The next time we met, she beat me 7-5 so that's how it goes. That is 9-ball. AZB: I understand that this is not the first time you have been over in the states? Sarah: No. I came over two years ago on holiday just to see what the game was like and how good the players were. They basically kicked my butt when I was here. I went back to England for a couple of reasons. One reason was that my mother got breast cancer so I went back home and started working in the prison service as well as practicing very heavily. I was practicing 5-7 hours a day for a year. Then I received an invitation to play in Japan in the All-Japan championships and from 74 of the best players in the world, I finished 5th. I was really pretty surprised with that. I beat the defending champion there and I was pretty impressed with myself. AZB: You worked in the prison service. What was that like? Sarah: It was pretty good. It was a good career. I was working in the prison service for two years. My friend Jackie was trying to talk me into playing pool in America. I wasn't really getting any breaks in England because there is so much politics in England. There was a main tour in England that I played on for two or three years and one other girl and myself won most of the tournaments. In the end, the other girls were getting a little sick of it and they refused to play in any of the tournaments if we played in them. So they decided that if you made money at the game, which I was at the time from playing exhibition matches, they classified you as a professional player and you are basically banned from every tournament. So the only tournament I could play in was the world championship that last year. With only one tournament I could play in, I couldn't really get going and make any money at it. I couldn't get the exposure I needed to make a living so I decided to look at another career. That is why I looked at the prison service and I was there for two years before I left. I took a year off and came over here to see what was going on with the tour. I knew that Allison had done really well and I knew that Karen was her way up as well as Julie and a few other European players. I decided then that I would give it a go. I would practice for a year and come over here and take it by storm. AZB: Now you say they classified you as a professional over there. Some of the fans may not be familiar with what it takes to be classified a professional and allowed to play on the WPBA tour without winning qualifiers. Can you explain how that works and where you are at in that process? Sarah: At the moment, my professional status in England doesn't count for anything in America. When you come over to America, you have to start at the bottom and win qualifers. To get into the actual WPBA Classic tour, you have to win a qualifier or be the highest finishing non-professional player. This is really really difficult because there are so many good players. I found out in the last two tournaments I played in that there is no easy draw. Although, I have had a really tough draw in the last two tournaments. Every match is going to be hard and the girls games seem have grown in leaps and bounds from where they used to be. There are so many ladies that want to play on this WPBA tour, I really think it would be for the best if the WPBA opened the tournaments up to 64 players. AZB: Now you said you played English 8-ball. How is that different from American 8-ball? Sarah: You play on a bar box table and we play on a similar table but ours is more like a minature snooker table. The pockets are extremely tight and the balls are even smaller than a snooker ball. The rules are also a little different. We play with reds and yellows and the 8-ball. The tournaments are also single elimination so it is a little bit different. In England there are several different rules and several different organizations. So, when you play in the world championships, you play under a different set of rules. If you play in the European Championships, there is an even different set of rules. When I was ranked #4 in the world, I couldn't play in any tournaments. I couldn't play in the world championship for the first 3 years. I was ranked #2 on one tour and #1 on another but I couldn't play in the world championships for 3 years. AZB: Why was that? Sarah: They basically said that if you didn't play for England and represent your country, you had to go thru all the qualifying stages. And even though I was ranked #2 and #1, I couldn't play. That happened for 3 years and I was getting a little sick of being treated like that when I was one of the best in the country. I was European Champion at the time but I couldn't play in the world championships so I went down and played in the qualifiers. I qualified for the England team. Although I have never won the world championship, I have played in it three times and got through to the Quarterfinals each time. It was just a little demoralizing to have to go thru all that even though I was the European Champion. AZB: I'll bet. So, you came over here and you are trying to get going on the WPBA tour. You got your first point at this tournament. You need four points to get your pro status. Is Charlotte the only other event you have a qualifier for right now? Sarah: Yes. I have a couple qualifiers coming up. I have one in Denver and one in Florida. The one in Denver is on the Hunter tour and the one in Florida is the Ladies Florida Tour. I am going to try to qualify for the rest of the tournaments this year and hopefully there will be an amateur nationals and I hope to do well in that. If they have an amateur nationals this year, my goal is to do well in that. A win in that tournament gets you an invitation to the WPBA Nationals and I really want to play in that. AZB: What got you started playing pool and what players do you really admire in the game today? Sarah: Well, I first started playing pool in England when I was 12 or 13. My brother got a pool table at home for Christmas and I started playing a little against him and it just went from there. He was playing for the county which is kind of like playing in a league but you play for your county instead. My county was North Yorkshire in England. I went along one time to watch my brother play and the ladies team was short so they asked me if I wanted to play. I had really only played at home with my brother and never really thought about playing seriously. I was actually riding race horses for my dad in England at the time. I also almost qualified for the English swim team and Judo team but I had to pull out that because of injuries. So I was really thinking of doing those things instead of pool. I agreed to play for the team that day and I won my first match. They asked me then if I wanted to stay on the team for the rest of the season and I agreed. Within 6 months, I was ranked #1 in North Yorkshire which was pretty cool. I was ranked #1 and had already beaten the #2 ranked player in the country. Six months later, I had won my first title. I won 16 titles in a row after that and went unbeaten through those 16 tournament. When I was first starting, I watched Snooker players like Allison and Karen but I was actually more a fan of Ralf Souquet and Oliver Ortmann and Ewa at the time. They were still in Europe when I was starting out and I heard much more about them at the time. Of course, now, Allison Fisher is an inspiration. She is such a good player and an ambassador for the sport. So is Karen Corr and now there is Julie Kelly. Jeanette Lee is very well known over in England and she is a great player and a great personality. There are so many great players and so many people you can say you admire. I admire quite a few of the girls who play on this tour like the up and coming new players like Megan Smith and Stacy Hurst is a good new player. Jeannie Seaver is another good new player. Then you have players like Tiffany Nelson. There are so many good players. It is definitely the best tour in the world for women. It is an honor to be playing against players the likes of Jeanette Lee and Allison and Karen. AZB: Hopefully soon, other players will be naming you in that crowd. Sarah: I hope so. This year I hope to do very well. I have learned so much in this tournament from playing players like Karen and Julie. Mentally, I hope to be able to prepare myself now for Charlotte. I have one point towards my pro status which is actually a lot of pressure. Without sponsorship, it is really tough to play on this pro tour. Once you get there it is worth it. It is worth it to be sitting here watching the matches but I don't want to be sitting here watching the matches. I want to be down there playing in them. I have learned so much from this tournament and so many people have come up to me and said things like 'You are going to finish in the top 16 without fail'. I don't want to finish in the top 16, I want to finish in the top 5. Once I get through a couple of rounds, I think I will be alright. AZB: What is your big goal for this WPBA season? Sarah: I have a goal to finish in the top 5 this season. AZB: In one tournament? Sarah: More than one. But I really just need to look towards Charlotte right now. I could say that I just want to get my pro status this year and that is a goal but I want to work really hard on my game and watching Karen just thrash me was a real learning experience. Let me put it this way, when I go out there next time, it isn't going to be as easy for them. Even when Karen beat me 9-3, she missed balls and I didn't capitalize. When I played in Valley Forge, Vivian beat me 9-8 and I was up 8-7. She is good player and you have to give these players respect because this is what they do for a living. There is a lot of pressure out there when you are playing pool for a living and I know that. It is pretty hard. AZB: So, do you have any sponsors at the moment. Sarah: I havn't got any sponsorship at the moment. I do have an endorsement with Hunter Classic Custom Cues and I also have an endorsement with Instroke who supplies me with the Instroke Bunjee Jump cue and a case. I am also now a player representative for AzBilliards. AZB: You are out looking for sponsorship? Sarah: Yes. I am looking for sponsorship at the moment. I have been getting out to the boothes here and talking to people and hopefully I will be at the trade show in July. So, if anyone wants to come out to see me, that is where I will be. AZB: As a player rep for AzBilliards, we will have info online about you. We will have your calendar so people will be able to see where you are going to be and follow how you have done in various events. They will also be able to send in questions for you if they have them? Sarah: Yes, if anyone has any questions, send them in and I will be happy to answer them. Also, I am interested in any support at the upcoming tournaments. I will be in Charlotte and hopefully I will qualify for Albuquerque and Chicago. I also just received an invitation and will be going to Japan in November for the Japan championships and the UCC tournament afterwards. So I am really really looking forward to the end of this year. AZB: Well, from what I have heard from some of the ladies out there, I expect we will be hearing a lot more about you the rest of the year. Sarah: I sure hope so. AZB: Good luck the rest of the way. Sarah: Thank you.
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