After three days of play, with a full field of 128 elite quality players in the Main Event at the GB9 event in Harrow, Imran Majid has done the unthinkable and won for the third time in a row. It shouldn't be possible should it? There's too much luck needed in nine-ball to have a dominant champion isn't there?
Well... Apparently not, but the journey wasn't without hiccups, not least the final match which went hill-hill with both players missing the final nine ball once, after Majid left himself too straight on the eight to get good shape on the nine. He missed a long thin cut playing from near the rail, then Hundal missed the only shot available to him, a table length bank into the opposite corner pocket!
Both shots were very makeable, but nine ball is all about the pressure, and these were the hero shots, the ones that count, the "make or break" shots, the ones that nine ball is all about - these two shots made this the best GB9 final so far... After three days of play the title, the money, the ranking points, the glory - everything hung on this one last 21/4 inch yellow striped ball. Majid executed a perfect cut down the opposite rail to send the nine into oblivion and his star into orbit. Nine ball pool at it's best - absolutely thrilling!!!
In an interview before the final Imran said, "Well I think to start off with I've got a big advantage playing on these tapped in conditions, I use a cut break and it works very well."
"Most of the time I'm getting a shot on the one and I'm never going to scratch, whereas other people are putting it down to luck to get a shot on the one ball and scratching a lot of times, you know hitting the ball hard and they don't really know where the cue ball is going sometimes so I think I'm three racks up before I start any match."
Three wins out of three tournaments and only six events in a season, is it too early to be mentioning the possibility of a Grand Slam? Well... Majid is already looking forward to the next GB9 event, the GB9 Yorkshire Cup to be held at the beautiful seaside town of Scarborough.
"The club looks very nice", he said!
