We had a huge weekend at Massé Hamilton a couple of weekends ago with the final of the 2019 VNEA New Zealand Teams 8 Ball Championship, and the Country of Origin tournament. Here’s a quick report from Jimmy ‘The Professor’ Henry on the weekend’s play:
SAVED THE BEST TILL LAST
Massé had a very successful weekend by bringing back the Country of Origin tournament, which was bigger and better than ever! We had 24 teams representing their countries with pride. Everyone looked great in their uniforms and all games were fast and exciting. Dark horses Manfield Kwong, MingHsuan Lee and Mark Chiu who represented Taiwan, destroyed everyone on their way to the finals without a loss. On the other side of the draw were the “Three Wise Men” from New Zealand – Jimmy Henry, Chris Bowman and Healey White. After losing early to the Samoa, they got to work and laid down a path of destruction, not letting anyone get close to taking their second life. “The match was over before we played our last round” said Captain Henry thanks to the lead off player, the great white, Healey White with a 95% run-out strike rate. The Three Wise Men definitely saved their best till last in the final. With 3 dry breaks from Taiwan, NZ capitalized and shut them out to go 30/3 ahead. Then Bowman and Henry had break and clear runs to win the match 50/3 with 4 more rounds to go!
VNEA GRAND FINAL
It was a clash of the 2 west Auckland sides, the Hitters (John Ulkd Harrison, Jimmy Henry, Chris Bowman and Anthony Van Wijk) vs the Spotters (Richard Alfonso, Marvin Padrigo, Roldan Largo and Joe Pologa). Team Spotters got off to a good start winning their first 2 games, but then John Harrisons did a break and clear and turned the tide. After that it was pretty much all one way traffic and in the end, team Hitters only needed 4 balls in the final round to take the Championship title and $10,000!
DRAWN PAIRS AND JUNIOR DRAWN PAIRS
Richard Alfonso and partner Harold Tudtud won the senior end of the year drawn pairs, beating Alex Hale and Craig Bardsley. This is Richards third time winning this event and Harolds first. Both men are from the Philippines and only had 1 close match on their way to securing the title.
After a successful prize giving the junior drawn pairs got under way. A surprise combination of Rachael Harwood and Marcus McCool took the honours beating another unexpected pairing of Isabella McKenzie Lakopo and Rhys Stevenson. Well done to both teams on a massive effort getting to the finals.
Have a great Xmas break, stay safe and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year!
The Professor
Check out the highlights video below:
