Deon Rawlings has again stamped his authority as one of the best juniors in New Zealand. Winning the New Zealand Junior 9 Ball Championship for 2019, this is Deon’s 2nd consecutive win after taking the title last year as well. Fresh from his outstanding 4th place in the senior 10 Ball National Champs, Deon beat the other junior star, Zabian Jeram, by 7 frames to 5. These two players don’t really know how good they are! They have the talent to become professional players and we could do with a few more Marco sharks in New Zealand.

Massé is very lucky to have one Marco shark lurking around to inspire all of our juniors, and to show them that dedication and the right attributes are key to becoming world class players. The proliferation of Massé’s junior development program is starting to pay dividends with our juniors starting to make their mark on the senior division. These kids can really play.

A big performance from player of the day, young Harlem Hoggart, saw him come 3rd equal overall. Auckland’s Sheridan Burmester also put in a great effort to achieve his best tournament result, finishing 2nd in the Under 16 age group. Pukekohe’s Janni Beekman and Hamiltonian Jack Beggs have also shown big improvements since being named in the New Zealand Junior Development Squad.

Watch out for these future stars next year: Cam Stokes, Manthan Patel, Tyler Falepeau, and Laqueisha and Aaliyah Clifford. See you all at Massé’s junior prize giving on Sunday December 8.

Here are the results of the Championships:

Under 13
1st – Jack McDonald
2nd – Rhys Stevenson
3rd = Jack Beggs and Harlem Hoggart

Under 16
1st – Zabian Jeram
2nd – Sheridan Burmester
3rd = Alexandria Endres and Rachael Harwood

Under 21
1st – Deon Rawlings
2nd – Kieran Dempsey
3rd = Cameron Stokes and Deon Stevenson

At this stage Marvin and Ronald haven’t decided where they will go, but Marco has decided that he will return to the USA again early next year to play in the Derby City Classic which is held just outside of Louisville, Kentucky. Congratulations to all players that took part in the Tour, and especially our winners who we’ll be supporting where ever they play in the world!

get down to your local masse next week, for your chance at a region title!

We will play all matches on Saturday the 23rd, except the final itself. That match will be played at 2 p.m. on Sunday December 8 at Massé Hamilton, and will be immediately followed by the final of the Country of Origin tournament. Both of these matches will be shown live on the new Sky Sport NZ channel, Sky Sport Next. These matches will be the first cue sports content shown on the channel as part of our partnership with New Zealand Sport Collective and Sky Sports Next!

That’s not all in terms of VNEA 8 Ball this year though, as it won’t be long and the 2020 New Zealand team to compete at the 40th Anniversary VNEA World Pool Championships in Las Vegas will be named! What more could you ask for, Las Vegas, 250 pool tables, 3,500 plus competitors, a week and a half of playing pool? There’s maybe one thing, and that’s that New Zealand defends the Teams World Cup that it won in the 2019 final against Germany!

#SkySportNext
#NZSportCollective
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