Eurotour stop 4 in Austria

Posted at 5:12 PM, 18 June 2008 to Online pool

Well it all started on wednsesday, a trip to Austria (900km) and it took me 11 hours by car. Together with Huidji See, Brian Beekers and Tony Drago we arrived at 6:30 PM 
I was totally excosted and felt lile sleeping after this trip and short nights. But we had a meeting with the dutch selection and afterwards with the Eurotour organizers.

We talked about sanctionizing tournaments which is very important for the future of pool. So hereby I would like to ask all tournament organizers to sanction their tournaments or
else the pros like me would not be able to play in it. Iam saying this but iam still VERY dissapointed i cannot play in the Lugo open in Spain.  Which holds a very big pricepoule.

Back to the tournament. Iam not going to tell about all the matches. because in the beginning of the tournament it was hard work for every shot and every game.
I won 4 matches and lost 1 in the qualification stage, without really playing well.
At the last 32 i played Markus Juva from Finland. I made some good shots and no bad errors. (9-5)
Last 16 against Richard ‘Indiana’ Jones, i tried to work hard for every shot again because nothing clicked in my system. He was really stroking and hitting the ball very nice. I came behind 5-1 and had to do something to turn it around. I focussed real hard on all shots and took some more risk on some shots and somehow it clicked again. I won 9-6 without making anymore mistakes.

Quarter final against the current number 1 Mark Gray. I started of very well (5-1) he came back to 6-6 and i slipped and missed :(. 7-6 in his favour with him breaking.
He broke dry and i ran out. i broke and ran. And he broke dry again. I ran out for 9-7.

Semi Final. I hoped to face Niels in a possible final but when i looked at the draw i saw i had to play him in the semis.
We had a 2 hour break so we went to eat something. I was quit relaxed and it showed in our match. I won 9-2.

Finals: from the experience i know you cant expect anything so just play your game and hope for the best. I really didnt make any mistakes in the whole match except for
one safety to myself but i kicked it resafe again :). I won 9-2 and dont think i was this happy before by winning a tournament.
In the years ihave seen how tough it is to win a tournament like the Eurotour so iam very pleased to have 4 titles under my belt now. going for 5 now

Iam really aiming for the Mosconi cup this year.
But still the Eurotour in Weert to go to see who finishes number 1 at the cutoff for the Mosconi. Mark Gray is holding the best cards. But i certainly have a chance.

A lot of straight pool training coming up for the European Championships and the World championships.
See you at the European Championships in Willingen Germany.

Nick