Pro9 - Europe's No.1 Pool Player Resource

THE GB9 BRITISH GRAND PRIX
Rileys American Pool and Snooker - Solihull
Hobs Moat Road
Solihull
West Midlands
B92 8JN
www.rileysltd.com
www.gb9balltour.com - Visit for LIVE scoring!
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Friday/Saturday/Sunday 25-26-27 September 2009

Ultimately, the weekend belonged to one man - congratulations Darren Appleton.
Photograph courtesy of Andrew Warden, www.belleza-photography.co.uk
Rileys Solihull plays host to GB9 British Grand Prix

GB9 - Britain�s official professional 9 ball pool tour is now established as the toughest and most respected national pool tour in Europe with a line up of players that reads like a "Who's Who" of European cuesports celebrities. 2007 World Pool Champion - Daryl Peach; European Number 1 - Mark Gray, 2008 World 10 Ball Champion - Darren Appleton, London's finest - Imran Majid and Raj Hundal, even snooker legend Tony Drago plays on the GB9 tour.

Here's the report from the latest event, the GB9 British Grand Prix from Solihull in the Midlands, and it's a story of one man really - Darren Appleton, and here is the story, in his own words.

"I'm very happy to win, I've had a good run on the GB9 this year, I've played 5 tournaments and had 3 wins and 2 runner-ups and now I've won the most GB9 events - 3 Main and 3 Pro events... It's just a shame I couldn't make all the tour stops as I'd most likely be No. 1 on both lists."

"I went to Solihull in good shape and played really well in the Pro event. I beat (Karl) Boyes 9-7 in the Quarter-Final and had a great match with (Chris) Melling in the final where I played perfect and won 9-8. There was around 11 break and runs between us!"

"The main event was much tougher as I was really tired. I scraped through my first 3 matches, then from the Quarter-Finals I hit a gear, beating (Daryl) Peach 9-0, and then (Michael) Valentine 9-2 in the Semi-Final. In the Final I again played faultless, beating (Mark) Gray 11-2."

Winning that match made Appleton only the second player to ever win a "double" at a GB9 event, winning both Main and Pro events, and the first person to win three consecutive events.

"I will be at the last event at Barnsley so hopefully I can keep my run going. It's been a great year for me, so many top 8 finishes world wide along with 7 titles and 8 x "2nd places" and the standard on GB9 continues to improve. As we all know we have so many good players in the UK now, and maybe there's up to 8 players capable of winning anywhere in Europe - even around 5 or 6 players capable of winning a world title."

"Besides the Philippines we probably have the strongest nation in the world with regards to strength in depth and amount of titles we've won! The GB9 has come a long way in the past two years and I'm sure the future will get better - so many thanks to all the staff and GB9 for doing a great job and giving us a good tour to play on!"

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