The 3rd ALP 9 Ball Billiards Tournament was held on July 15, 2007 at Playdium Bowling and Billiards Corporation at Araneta Avenue, Quezon City.  Among the ALPers who participated in the tournament were ALP president James Kevin Ty, Edward Eli Tan, Henry So, and Rich Pijuan.  Unfortunately, last year 2nd placer Henry So had to make last minute withdrawal from the tournament because he had to tend the his father  who just got out of hospital last week due to mild stroke. He thus  lose by default and true to his sportsmanship conduct,  he will still pay his participation fee of P500 as he has already committed to play in the event.

Pre-game meeting to discuss the rules of the game was initiated by James Kevin Ty at around 3:15pm.  After all the participants agreed to the proposed rules.  Game proper started at around 3:30pm.

The event started with a double round robin race to 3 match (Best of 5 series) elimination round that pitted each player against the rest of the group.  The elimination round took more than 2.5 hours to conclude because of quality skills being showed by the players! The purpose for the elimination round is to select the top 2 players that will advance to the championship round wherein the score card will be reset and a single round of race to 7 (best of 15 series) to determine  this year's  9 ball champion. (Click image below for larger pic.)

Rich Pijuan shows James and Edward that he can fare well in the 9 ball tournament.  Eat your hearts out, I'm no pushover :) LOL	Edward Tan had a hard time against Rich  in the elimination round.
Edward Tan aims for a 6-9 combination during his match with Rich in the second round elimination match.	James Kevin Ty improves his pocketing skills as the series goes through the finals.

After the exhausting  elimination round, James Kevin Ty and Edward Tan top the round with identical 3-1 win-loss score, followed by Rich Pijuan with a 0-4 score.   Although Rich didn't win a match set, he was able to scare Edward with one of their own series with 2-3 score  (Edward got saved because Rich scratched her cue ball when he was shooting for the 8th ball!), and she was very happy with her first time tournament result and promised to be back next year to give the participants a run for their money as she will practice harder :)  Rich settled for 3rd place for this tournament.

The championship  round was sort of a massacre! James defeated Edward with a convincing 7-2 score to secure the crown for the 3rd year in a row! Edward lose steam and confidence after James had a 9 ball on the  break in his first game and followed up with another 2-9 combination for a 2-0 early lead.  Edward was able to clinched his first win in the 4th game.  James ended the match with again another beautiful 1-9 combination to clinch the championship.

James Kevin Ty and Edward Tan competed in the championship round wherein James won the match with a convincing 7-2 score to clinch the 9 ball title once again for the 3rd straight year!

(L-R) 2007 9 Ball winners - Edward Tan (2nd) , Rich Pijuan (3rd) and James Kevin Ty (Champion)

The awarding of the trophies as well as P1000 to the champion will be awarded on the August 5 monthly meeting at Manila Planetarium.   Congratulations to James, Edward and Rich for winning the  ALP 9 ball tournament! More power!

COMPLETE  TOURNAMENT RESULTS :

FINAL RESULTS:

JAMES KEVIN TY - CHAMPION

EDWARD TAN - 2ND PLACE

RICH PIJUAN - 3RD PLACE