The final tour stop of 2014 for Europe’s largest wheelchair pool tour was held at the Wheelchair Pool Academy in Stoke Mandeville from 15-16 November, with the Predator British Wheelchair 9-ball Championship, which attracted a strong field, including a new player on tour John White. This was the final event for some of the tours players before heading off to the World 9 Ball Championships in Finland from 21-23 November.
Fred Dinsmore became only the 3rd player in the tours history to top the tour rankings at the end of a season, as he won his third event in a row defeating former no 1, Roy Kimberley 7-3. Dinsmore went into the event knowing only finishing above Aslam Abubaker and Tony Southern could keep him in the top spot.
Dinsmore got his campaign off to a good start with a 7-0 whitewash of Nicky Oliver, and then hammered a out of sorts Southern 7-1, who then went on to lose 7-6 to Daniel Lee to drop out of contention for the top spot, and finish the season in 3rd place.
Dinsmore then lost 7-5 to old rival Roy Kimberley in the winner’s qualification round, and had to beat Danny Luton 7-3 in the loser’s bracket to get into the semi-finals, where he faced his main rival for the top spot, Abubaker. Dinsmore flew through the match with a 7-1 win to advance to the final, and ensure his position as no 1.
In the other half of the draw, in the semi-final Kimberley beat the up and coming Lee 7-5 to advance to his first final in over 12 months.
This was a repeat of their earlier match, however this time Dinsmore prevailed to run out a 7-3 winner, winning an incredible 3rd event on the trot, out of only 4 events entered this year.
After the final, Dinsmore said of his win “I would like to thank all the BWPPA Committee and the tournament director Al John. On a personal note obviously I'm delighted to end the year at no 1, and win the Ikon cue worth over £500 kindly provided by our friends at Predator. In addition to thanking Predator, I would like to also thank all the other sponsors of the tour and my own sponsors, Predator Cues, Volturi Cases, Ger Dunphy Snooker and Pool, Pinnacle, Z9, Kamui and Celbridge Snooker.
The Challenge Cup final was won by Southern, who beat Keith Hance 5-2, but it was Frankie ‘Hot Wheels’ Gillen who took the overall 2014 challenge top spot, and with it the ‘Poison cue’ from tour sponsors Predator cues.
Aslam Abubaker also won a ‘Predator Sport cue’ for his final ranking position of 2nd.
Tony Southern won a ‘Jump Cue’ for finishing 3rd
Roy Kimberley won a cue case for finishing 4th.
Phil Hendrickson won a personalised Talisman Case for finishing 5th.
Daniel Lee won cue case for his 6th place in the rankings.
A video of the main event final is available here, pictures of the event are here in the BWPPA gallery.
SEASON REVIEW
Well done to Fred Dinsmore for taking the no 1 ranking in 2014, and winning 3 ranking events (events 3, 4 and 5).
Aslam Abubaker and Tony Southern each won an event as well.
Congratulations to Daniel Lee, who has finished at no. 6 in his first season.
We have had some new players this year, and had a record 29 players on tour this year, and we hope to continue this trend and see more new players next year as we move into 2015.
The 2015 BWPPA tour is scheduled to commence on 20-21 March 2015 in Stoke Mandeville. We will be hosting 3 events a year there, and also 2 events in Barnsley, back at the Escape Pool Bar.
We would also like to add our congratulations to Matt Duffy who became the first British player to reach the world 9-ball final where he lost 9-6 to 4 time champion Henrik Larsson (Sweden), a magnificent effort by Matt.
Of the other BWPPA players, Fred Dinsmore came 3rd, Tony Southern and Danny Luton came joint 5th and Roy Kimberley finished 7th.
If you would like to be a part of Worlds’s largest wheelchair pool tour, please keep checking on www.bwppa.com and www.pro9.co.uk . If you need any more encouragement to join the BWPPA you could represent Great Britain in international tournaments, plus all new BWPPA players enter their first event for free!
All of the BWPPA would like to extend our gratitude to all of our sponsors Predator/Poison Cues, Talisman Billiards, Kamui tips, The Gentlemen’s Night Out, Magic Ball Racks, AB Wallace Trophies, Simonis Cloths and Riley’s snooker & pool clubs, and the Escape Pool Bar.
We are looking forward to their continued support for 2015 and beyond.
We also are always looking to expand the sponsorship side of the tour, so if you or your company would like to become one of our sponsors, please visit
http://bwppa.com/contact-us-page/
