Site News
Topic: New Blogs Coming Soon!

I've invited some World Champions and other noteworthy players to share their thoughts and plans with us by writing a blog for Pro9... So far I've had the invitation accepted by

Imran Majid
Daryl Peach
Raj Hundal
Karl Boyes

I'm hoping Darren Appleton will reply soon, but he's busy in Manila at the moment.

I'd like to feature some other European celebrities too, and I'm just waiting for replies, but I was wondering...

Who would YOU like to see blogging for Pro9?


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Authorised Pro9 forum advertiser/sponsor

Shir says the buttons are too big? What do you think?

From a personal point of view I'm really looking forward to the insight into the players and their thoughts and experiences.

Regarding the size of the buttons I do actually agree that they are probably too large. Presumably you are reliant on revenue generated from advertisers in order to run the site yet your button "Advertise" is (all things considered) half of the size of the blog links! I don't see what harm the current button size for the blogs does though so its all a matter of opinion.

lol thanks Dave! Lol I meant that they looked too big compared to the other buttons...
And the font in it looks a bit "blurry" / "grainy"
lol not sure what the word for it is...
Maybe it's only showing like that for cause I just woke up...

All good feedback - appreciated Shir!

Yeah, I think I might have another crack at them later, I like the flag and single name idea, like "Daryl" is an English "brand" - no more description needed! Obviously there's more info inside the blog when clicked if needed, but everyone knows who you're talking about when you say Elvis, Kylie, or even Ronnie - and it's the same when we talk about Imran, Karl and Raj.

I'd love to get some more European stars to blog for us...

Who would YOU like to see blogging for Pro9?

Why would raj be included with the likes of these players ie daryl and mikka?

I'm really pleased to have got Raj on board with this.

Perhaps you don't know, but in 2005 Raj was the youngest player ever to have won Matchroom's World Pool Masters at Doncaster, beating Rodney Morris 8-7 in a thrilling final. He's a multiple UK Pro Tour event winner, former IPT player, and currently plays in many of the large Dragon Promotions events from which I'm hoping he will provide some great insights. He travels the world with his game, and was recently made an honourable cuesports patron for the Afghan Heroes Charity, was voted "Most Up and Coming Sports Personality of the Year" at the UK Asian Awards, and is currently featuring regularly on BBC Radio 6.

I won't go on, but I'm sure Raj will as there's always something going on surrounding him PR wise.

It's true, he's not afraid to speak his mind, and has strong opinions about a lot of things. He might not be popular with everyone because of this, but I'm guessing Raj's blog will be one of the more provocative and regularly updated of the blogs.


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Authorised Pro9 forum advertiser/sponsor

Was the world pool masters a 16 man event more than 5 years ago? Surely the talking should be done with the cue. Anyone can talk a good game but hanging on to the coat tails of a 5 year old win is questionable. The up and coming player award?????

I think it's an honour to even be invited to play in the World Pool Masters, let alone at that age. I appreciate it was a long time ago, but it is a noteworthy achievement and will always be quoted - I'm quite confident that there's enough currently going on pool-wise in Raj's life to make a really interesting blog.

Raj should love the haters too... It's all good PR in the end, although to be honest, part of the reason that I've started these blogs is so that these celebrity players can share their experiences with us at Pro9 without getting dragged into petty squabbles with people who may have their own agenda. Everyone can choose their favourite blogs/bloggers - hopefully there will be some that you WILL enjoy. I think a good variety of players, nationalities, ethnicity, ability/disability and sex will prove to be a real eye opener for us all.

Hater I'm not, actually I quite like raj and beleive that he is good for the game as we need characters etc my only issue is that we are aiding the propaganda train by including players that may not we worthy at this time to be put on such a pedistal. In my opinion we already have daryl and mika surley other names to sit along side should be darren, karl, earl, etc and I also wonder how the likes of mark gray European no.1, chris melling, craig osbourne etc feel as these are all players of the moment who are consistently winning and progressing to the latter stages of the tournaments that they enter. You said you were very pleased to get raj, did you ever think he may say no? By having raj's blog I do think it will acheive the most hits but maybe not for the right reasons. If hits etc is what we are looking for you could always bring back darkside!!!!

Hi Dave,

Is there a way for you to squeeze all of Mika's Blog so its readable on one page, and not scroll over to finish the rest of the sentence...pain in the fool to read if you ask me

Would make it alot easier

Dave,

Something is wrong with the presentation of Mika's blog. Don't know if it's just a Chrome thing, but either the blog is too wide or your window is too narrow, because it's missing some of the text on the right side, looks like about 6-8 characters or so.

Loving the idea of the blogs btw.

Was it joe Johnson that raj pipped in the up and coming Asian awards?

I have been turned down by some of the players on my "wishlist" so I'm obviously grateful to the players who have accepted my invitation/request.

While I was composing my previous post, I realised I hadn't invited a wheelchair player, and I've now corrected that and hopefully he'll accept and we'll be able to get an insight into that side of the game too, so some good has come from this feedback, for which I thank you.

I have invited some of the players you mention, but at the moment I'm only sorting out 8 blogs and whilst I want to feature a good selection of British players, I also want to feature some other European's too.

All website owners want more hits, and whilst I am quite active about promoting the features and articles at Pro9, I'm proud that I'm not as cynical as some people believe me to be, and I don't like/encourage friction in the forums at all - it does nothing for the site, the forums or or it's potential income. What it does do is put people off posting because they're scared they might get slammed in the forums.

I want people to enjoy posting here, and I want Pro9 to be a place where people are happy to show their parents around - hence we don't tolerate bad language/trolls etc.

Hits, yes... But not at any cost!

Who would YOU like to see blogging for Pro9?

@MonkeyBoy and DementedViolinist:

Yes, I've mentioned that to Mika already.

The Cyclone?

I've always thought that getting a disabled player on board is a fantastic idea, though not necessarily a wheelchair player. Autistic pool players struggle to no end with the game, at least in my experience

Great idea to get a disabled player on board Dave, great work as always.
And for the record i love my fan base and followers from all around the world, but i do love the small percentage of haters too. I wish they would all get in touch with my management so i could send them VIP tickets to watch all my matches too. Its nice to have both and yes i am out spoken and have a swagger not seen in Europe ever before, but i won't apologize for being unique as its a gift in itself.

As for achievements your more than welcome to look at my site under the relevant section www.Rajhundal.com , the only thing missing is the World Pool Championship title and the rest well no one in UK has done at the age i did it all and some achievements no one around the world yet. (btw i haven't played a WPC since Daryl/Daz won and im still only 28years old).

As for the Masters let me know if theres anyone besides myself or Daz who have won this world title from the UK yet? Daryl won the European Masters and ask him how hard that was let alone the World Masters. So i will claim the honours that go with the win as its my god given right.
Ralf Souqet and Efren Reyes won the World Championships many many years ago, alot longer than when i won the Masters, please go and tell them they are not World Champions. They will always be World Champions in my eyes even long after they retire and im sure everyone feels the same, unless they have personal issues or just are clowns who don't show respect where and when its due.

As for me winning the Most Up & Coming Sports Personality at the British Asian Sports Awards promoted by Sony at the Grosvenor House, London it was a big honour and a huge event that was televised and even some of my friends like Amir Khan were awarded and he felt this was a great achievement so naturally i did too. I don't think its right for someone hiding behind a username on a forum to try and tarnish an achievement when theres a good chance you(Maverickk) would never even get an invite to such an event let alone ever be nominted for an award unless 'Forum Clown of the Decade' was a category. Btw show Joe Johnson some respect too as pipping him would also be an achievement but the guys i beat i did not pip at the post, it was a landslide victory i was told by Sony and the guys i beat were:

Adam Khan: F1 Driver for Renault
Adil Rashid : England Cricketer

So not bad for a Pool Player and really it was a huge day for Pool and then myself, as i always put the game first.

So Maverickk to be Top Gun instead of being a little Water Pistol please grow up and act professionally and we can move on, you are also more than welcome to come see me at an event for a picture and an autograph anytime if you haven't got one already.

"Don't Player Hate, but Congratulate"

Enjoy your Sunday as i'm loving mine.

Raj Hundal
World Pool Masters Champion
www.Rajhundal.com

I just wish you could actually win something soon so at least all we read is at least a little justified, if you really do think you are an up and coming player then I look forward to seeing what is to come from team hundal, the management team and it's VIP tickets etc.

Quality read
Personally I not a fan of the blogs as I don't really care.
I'd much prefer a chat facility like the facebook chat it the other 9ball site !

If people want to read blogs they will sign up to twitter.

Just my opinion