Success for Gibraltar at International Sabadell Pool Open 2009

Gibraltar Pool Association players once again proved their superb form at an international event.  A team of four G.P.A. players participated for the first time in an International Pool Open in Sabadell, Catalonia,  from 19th June till 21st June 2009, in a superb venue called ‘Snooker Sabadell' with excellent pool tables under the new ‘Blackball' regulations.

‘Los Picapiedras' Team consisted of Cristina(Tina) Marquez, Paul Cartwright, Jesse Ignacio and Kevin Dalli.

Day One initiated with the ‘Individuals' event, where Tina had to battle it out against a strong ladies/men individual event, leaving her little chance to get past the first round with her realistically short experience at international level. As regards knowledge of the game, Paul Cartwright did not deliver in this opening event losing in the first round by a very small margin to a less experienced Sabadell player.  Kevin Dalli's form was superb, though only managed to qualify into round two of the tournament.  It was to be Jesse ‘El NiÅ„o' Ignacio's evening, who excelled in his opening day by cruising past Diego Garcia(Tournament Director) to reach the last Quarter-Finalists, managing to beat the latter by a small margin.

Day Two was the ‘Scotch-Doubles' event where Tina and Paul experienced a speedy exit in the first round losing 4-1 versus a Pair from Vic in Catalonia.  A different story altogether evolved for Jesse ‘El NiÅ„o' Ignacio paired with Kevin ‘The Wizard' Dalli; this magic Doubles Team from Gibraltar managed to win match after match versus strong opponents to finally end up playing the grand final versus a team from France.

Jesse and Kevin played pool to such superb standard to the point where French opponents Barnet & Jardin were already against the ropes losing 4 frames to 1.  At only one frame away from Jesse and Kevin becoming ‘Scotch-Doubles' champions, Jesse committed a foul in favour of the French team.  To team captain's surprise, Barnet(France) picked up the cue ball without requesting it from their opponents, causing a major controversy in the match.  Although this action carried serious consequences for the French team, because of the language barrier between players, Kevin and Jesse decided to let things be to avoid  spoiling what was already a superb weekend of pool for the Gibraltar players and friends alike.  To everyone's surprise, the French team managed to clinch frame after frame after frame, to the point where Kevin and Jesse lost the battle 5 - 4 in the end.

Fortunately for the Gibraltar Doubles team, it was still a great achievement to become Finalists in this discipline obtaining trophies plus €600, making all those present proud of the Gibraltar team's accomplishment.

Day Three was the Four-Man Team event. This venture proved to be less successful than Day Two, but the Gibraltar team ‘Los Picapiedras' still managed to show their top form having to play a deciding extra set of three frames, after drawing their first and only match 8 - 8 versus a team from Vic in Sabadell.  Although the team did not progress to the second round, they surely managed not to leave unnoticed by their performance.