The Massé New Zealand Pool Team arrived back home safely in New Zealand this week with some amazing results. Big congratulations to the team for doing their very best and coming home with a remarkable total of 9 trophies and a VNEA All Star Award, making this year the most successful World Championship to date!
In the singles 8-Ball and 9-Ball tournaments, New Zealand was present in the top four of every tournament. Standout performances included Kimberley Cullen, Manfield Kwong, Temple Geayley and Werner Fontien.
Manfield played exceptionally well in the Men’s 8-Ball Championship winning 3rd place and Werner Fontien winning 4th place in the Men’s 9-Ball. Outstanding results given they were playing in a field of over 600 of the world’s best players.
New Zealand continued to shine in the Women’s 8-Ball and 9-Ball Championships thanks to brilliant play by Temple Geayley and Kimberley Cullen. Temple won a fantastic 2nd place in the nail-biting final of the Women’s 8-Ball and Kimberley was right next to her, winning 3rd place. Kimberley continued her winning streak by achieving 2nd place in the Women’s 9-Ball Championship.
New Zealand also made it to the Scotch Doubles Finals, which is a tournament with teams of one male and one female player. Werner Fontien & Brooque Pologa won 3rd place together and Chris Bowman & Kimberley Cullen won fourth place. New Zealand was the only country to have two teams in the Scotch Doubles Finals and it was great to see these teams on the podium at the awards ceremony!
If that wasn’t enough, later at the VNEA Awards Banquet, Kimberley Cullen was presented with the VNEA All-Star award, recognising her star performance throughout the tournament. She has now joined the class of the ‘Elite’, which was only awarded to 5 players out of approximately 5,000!
We’d like to thank every player for taking the time out of their busy lives to represent Massé and New Zealand in the 2017 VNEA World Pool Championships in Las Vegas.
We are proud to have such dedicated, hardworking and talented players representing our club and our country. Their hard work has paid off and each player should be proud of their contribution to the team. Well done Team New Zealand!
Final Scores and Placings:
Men’s 8-Ball Singles Championship
Manfield Kwong – 3rd Place
Women’s 8-Ball Singles Championship
Kimberley Cullen – 2nd Place
Men’s 9-Ball Singles Championship
Werner Fontein – 4th Place
Women’s 9-Ball Singles Championship
Temple Geayley – 2nd Place
Kimberley Cullen – 3rd Place
Scotch Doubles 8-Ball Championship
Brooque Pologa & Werner Fontein – 3rd Place
Kimberley Cullen & Chris Bowman – 4th Place
Men’s 8-Ball Teams Tournament (5 player)
Delta-13 Breakers – 17th Place
Players: Werner Fontein, Chris Bowman, Manfield Kwong, John Harrison, Tony Vittle
Women’s 8-Ball Teams Tournament Regular (4 player)
OB Cues Southern Stars – 17th Place
Players: Temple Geayley, Kimberley Cullen, Brooque Pologa, Tammy Johnson
Men’s 8-Ball Teams Tournament Sports Division (5 player)
McDermott Shamrocks – 25th Place
Players: Calen Anderson, Logan Walsh, Peter Kingi, Peter Cooksley, Ross Bennett