Tommy gun shoots down 'Great' Alexander

THE 8 Ballers International series event one saw the semi finals took place on Saturday 6 of March in Racks Pool Centre Ballybrakes Business Park in Ballymoney.

It was almost an all Ballymoney affair as the fates conspired to keep the popular figure of world number nine Morray Dolan away from the action, a traffic Jam allowed Gareth Johnston a walkover into the semi final against Thomas Morrow, whilst the other semi final saw the evergreen Chris Mulholland Take on the Jersey based Chris Alexander.

Tommy and Gareth are great friends away from the table but there was no love lost in this encounter as Tommy put in another classy show taking his chances early on he raced into a commanding 4-0 lead and despite Gareth taking out a nice clearance to get off the mark Tommy ran out a convincing 7-2 winner.

The other semi proved similar in that Chris Alexander produced a run of finishes to put daylight between himself and Chris Mulholland and with ‘Chuggie’ missing a few chances he was soon trailing by six before registering with a good clearance but another missed chance was to be his last with Chris Running out an easy 7-1 winner.

It may have been the first of the tour finals but this will be a tough act to follow as a spectator I was glued to this encounter. Chris showed his style in racing to a three nil lead with some classy shots in what were three scrappy frames. Tommy levelled things up in similar style as he took the next three with chances for both players. Then the final really took off in spectacular style as the next four frames went with the breaks making it 5-5 in what could only be described a breathtaking display of attacking pool. Then Tommy was the first to make a mistake off which Chris took out another good clearance to lead 6-5 needing just one more frame and it looked over from the break only for him to run out of position letting Tommy in who took out a majestic clearance to level under extreme pressure and it went down to the wire. The last frame saw a good split for Tommy who sealed the number one spot with a fine finish in an edgy last game to take victory over a very brave Chris Alexander.