THE PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
FIRST COUSINS REMOVED AND CUP OF WOE TOO FOR POTTS
There will be new winners of two of this season's IPA professional events after surprise defeats for two defending champions.
Certainly, Tom Cousins will regret not being able to mount a stiffer challenge in the Professional Cup. The Hereford based star was delighted by last year's success over Adam Davis in the final.
However, he failed to get beyond the last 32 stage of this year's competition; the early rounds played during Tour One at Blackpool.
Cousins went down 8-0 to former European champion Oly Bale who is one of five players guaranteed their place in the quarter-finals to be played at Tour Four at the end of August.
Bale followed up by beating fellowWelshmen Ben Davies 8-5 and next meets 1998 world champion Carl Morris.
Morris has certainly found his form in 2011 having reached the European Championship final in Malta. And here he enjoyed excellent wins over Warren Hodgson and Marc Farnsworth. Both matches ended 8-6.
Bristol's Ben Flack, like Cousins, is another of last season's champions. However, the reigning European Professional title holder crashed out 8-6 against Steven Kane.
The last 32 also brought defeat for reigning world championMick Hill. His demise to Adam Daviswasn't amajor shock but the Stoke star's margin of victory-8-3-was a surprise. Davis next plays Lee Kendall or James Croxton while Gareth Potts takes on Ian Hubbard in the last 32.
42
Those latter two games will be concluded this weekend and so too will be another meeting between Kevin Barton and Rob Chilton. They clashed in the last 16 of the Vauxhall Grand Prix where Barton edged through 8-7.
Potts will be looking for a longer stay in the Professional Cup than he managed in the Vauxhall Grand Prix.
The former world champion opened up with an impressive 8-4 win over Marc Farnsworth but then came unstuck against Cousins, losing 8-5. Flack didn't fare any better in the Grand Prix than he had done in the Professional Cup, losing 8-7 to Adam Davis who has designs on the professional number one spot this year.
Davis now plays Cousins in a repeat of last season's Professional Cup final. Indeed, the duo enjoyed several intriguing matches in 2010 and their VGP quarter-final should be no different.
Former world champion Phil Harrison is also through to the last eight. Knocked out of the Professional Cup by Clint I'Anson, he defeated Jez Graham 8-6 to earn a match-up against Barton.
Such is the competitive nature of the professional ranks that no player so far is guaranteed to be in both quarters. And that's why prolific Professional winner Ronan McCarthy is pleased to still be in contention.
McCarthy defeated Steven Kane 8-6 and Andy Jones 8-4. But he's now waiting for a log jam of matches to be completed before he knows whether he'll face Morray Dolan, Neil Toms or Lee Clough in the quarter-finals at the Golden Cue weekend in May.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52