Well that's a wrap on Season 1 of the National Snooker League brought to you by Predator !!!.. We started in March with 121 players plus 3 juniors representing 13 clubs across 5 Canadian provinces and 3 USA states all competing for the largest prize ($52500 CDN ) in the history of North American Snooker.
36 players made it to the championships on Friday June 12th and by Sunday morning we were down to 3 juniors, 4 Main Event players and 10 shootout competitors.
Before the tournament begun the odds of winning for the main event players dramatically changed as pretournament favourite and USA Champion Renat Denkha, was forced to withdraw as his flight from Chicago was cancelled. A big loss for the tournament as he is such a great player, but a chance for the his opponents to advance...
As championship Sunday came down to the business end of things three juniors remained. Rajvardhan Patil (Ontario Canada), Beck Rogersson(Manitoba Canada) and Hriyan Dassani (BC Canada) battled it out in a 6 red round robin format to leave Raj and Beck take centre stage to play for the championship. In the end it was Cliff Thorburn's student Raj Patil who took the honours winning the very first NSL Junior Championships in style with a break of 43 and pocketing a cool $1000 for his efforts. Beck took second place pocketing $400 and played exceptionally well given the fact he used a borrowed cue. Hriyan who is an incredibly good cueist for such a young player took third spot and $100. All three players conducted themselves perfectly and all three showed incredible skill. The future looks bright !! The NSL congratulates these future stars and thanks their parents for their participation.
Next up was the highly anticipated Predator Double 10 Shootout. Ten players played to take home the first ever Double 10 trophy plus a cool $1000 for first and $500 for runner up. After 10 or so matches in a wild and rowdy atmosphere, two players remained standing: Jesse Fox from Ottawa Snooker Club and Mike Daher from JAR Calgary. In the end it was Mike who mastered the countdown clock and the raucous crowd to take the title. We congratulate both players and thank everyone for making it an electric atmosphere.
Before the main event started the high break prize for $500 was announced and later presented to Cheukyin Kwan
of Mater Q for an incredible 132 total clearance on Day 1 ! The championship saw 6 tons in all with the 132 taking the top spot. Congratulations Cheukyin and all the NSL centurions.
We also saw the "Club Champion" announced and the honour went to Shooterville in Burlington Canada for their aggregate score of 15 points in the Championship. Owner Paul Azevedo picked up a cool $1000 . Well done Paul and Shooterville !
For the main event, the four that remained standing on Sunday morning were NSL number 1 seed Albert Kenny of JAR Snooker Calgary Canada, Nitin Sharma the number 5 seed from QMasters147 Brampton Canada, Jason Williams number 7 Shooterville Burlington Canada and Phil Snache from The Corner Bank Toronto Canada.
Semi final one saw Albert and Nitin take it to a deciding frame after 6 exceptional frames that featured one century and several one visit frames. In the decider Albert came up short in a final clearance attempt to leave Nitin in to mop up and win this thrilling match 4-3. In semi final 2 it was a more tactical match that saw former Canadian Champion Jason Williams win by a scoreline of 4-1 over former Canadian Seniors Champion Phil Snache setting the stage for what would be an exceptional final with a huge contrast in styles. Jason's measured tactical play versus Nitin's explosive potting and all-in shot making approach.
After 6 frames the two were inseparable but then things started to happen for Nitin and he capitalized on his chances. In frame 7, following an unlucky in-off from Jason, Nitin seized the moment and knocked in a statement break of 95 to just need one frame for the biggest prize in North American history. Frame 8 saw some tight safety and tactical play, but Nitin started hitting the centre of the pocket again, striding around the table like a man on a mission he started potting them from everywhere on the table and there was no stopping him. He hit the finish line as quickly as he started and got the job done in style. What a tremendous exhibition of potting we saw. The NSL congratulates runner up Jason Williams for a valiant effort, He collected a cool $10,000. But in the end it was Sharma to reign supreme as the Inaugural winner of the NSL Championship collecting a record smashing $25000 for his efforts !!. Congratulations Nitin and to all snooker players in Canada and the USA ! Snooker is back and the future looks bright!
Thank you to our hosts for the event Master Q. Carter and his team did an outstanding job in providing the best conditions for snooker we have seen to date.
We also thank title sponsor Predator for their support as well as all or partners, fans, players, clubs and all sponsors.
On behalf of the entire NSL team we thank you and wish you a great summer. September/October can't come quick enough and we can't wait to show you what we have in store for Season 2 !
Stay tuned !!
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