Craig Osborne the 2011 Northern Masters Champion

New ground in British pool will be broken on Friday 13th July 2012. At the Puma Hotel in Daventry, the best American pool players in Great Britain will lock horns to contest Britain’s first ever professional 10-ball pool event at the 2012 GB9 Northern Masters.

For some time now, the code of 10-ball pool has been gathering pace across the globe with many players and fans alike considering it to be the ‘toughened up’ cousin of 9-ball. Whereas 9-ball is generally seen as a quick fire and cut-throat game, 10-ball rewards those whose safety games and tactical brains excel. A lot of the rules for 10-ball are the same as those found in 9-ball. These include pushing out after a dry break, three fouls resulting in loss of rack and for those of you who might be unfamiliar with the code, however, here is a brief rundown of the differences between 10-ball and 9-ball.
As is surely obvious from the name, 10-ball is played with 10 balls instead of 9. The first player to legally pot the 10 ball, however, still wins the rack.

The biggest difference of them all – 10-ball is a call shot game. Any shot not deemed to be an obvious, straight-line, single ball shot – combinations, banks and caroms for instance – MUST be nominated accordingly before a shot is played. If either a ball instead of that which was nominated falls into a pocket or the nominated ball falls into a pocket not nominated, the incoming player has the option to either play on or pass back to their opponent. If a ball is legally and correctly pocketed as nominated, even if other balls were pockets in addition to that which was nominated, the striker continues his innings. On the break off shot, however, no call is required and any potted ball entitles the breaker to continue at the table.

The 1-ball is racked on the spot, not 10-ball. This is one of the more common mistakes that new players come across when first playing the game.

Lastly, whilst not a rule change, the length of matches will vary slightly to that of regular GB9 events. All matches will be a race to 8 racks instead of the usual 9. The main event final will also be shorter – a race to 10 instead of the usual 11.
The bold and radical move by GB9 to host a ranking 10-ball event has been met with approval by top name British players.

Craig Osborne, defending Northern Masters champion and World Mixed Pairs semi-finalist, will be in familiar territory when he takes to the table. “I’m really looking forward to the event. My practice won’t change too much to be honest as I normally practice 10-ball even for the 9-ball events. The game throws up more of a variety of shots than 9-ball: more jumps, more safety shots, more kicking and intricate positional shots. I think most money players would say it’s a ‘proper’ game”.

Also backing the new event in the GB9 calendar is regular GB9 player and newly crowned 9-Ball World Champion, Darren Appleton. Having won the inaugural World 10-Ball Championship back in 2008, he knows exactly what it takes to conquer this code of American pool.

GB9′s Chairperson, Andy Warden, is naturally excited for the start of the competition and hopes that players will warm to the format. ‘The GB9 team are always looking to bring something new and exciting to the tour events and hosting the UK’s first ever professional 10-ball event certainly ticks the right boxes. It will be fascinating to see how the players of all levels adapt to the different dynamics that the game brings”.

10-ball pool isn’t the only new addition to the GB 9 Ball Tour for this event. Just last week the tour struck a partnership with OB Cues making them the official cue sponsor of GB9. Shane Sinnott from OB Cues had this to say about the deal, “OB Cues are delighted to be on board with the GB 9 Ball Tour. We already have Phil Burford playing with our cues from Great Britain and he often tells us how gruelling tour weekends with GB9 can be, coming up against some truly world class players. We always aim to deliver the best for him, and hopefully other tour players will see and use for themselves the products that we pride ourselves upon”.

This exciting new competition will begin at 4pm on Friday 13th July, with play taking place throughout the weekend until the evening of Sunday July 15th. Some of the best cueists from Great Britain and further afield will be looking to snatch the title off of 2011 champion Craig Osborne. Whoever comes away with the title, a truly outstanding display of pool and engrossing match play is guaranteed. Entry to the Puma Court Hotel (formerly the Barceló Hotel for reference) is free of charge as ever, so there is no reason not to come along and see for yourself just how good 10-ball pool can be.

If you can’t make it down to the event don’t forget to follow the action LIVE on CueSport TV - it is available on pay-per-view for £2.95 in advance reverting to £4.95 over the weekend.

GB9 will also be providing Live Scoring of the event throughout the weekend.