Big guns australia

[BoBnoGG!n]

just updating the world on this, but here in Australia, cue sports aren't the biggest thing. only a hand full of halls and clubs around, n most of them being licensed, its hard to get it going for youths.
having said that, there are tournaments for pool and snooker happening all the time, with a large underground community of committed players such as myself!

Anyways, 8 days from now, it will be Friday the 1st of April, and that brings me to my point. A mate of mine, Ben Nunan along with another fellow, Travis Crawley have organised the most 'richest' money tournament in Australia in the past decade. a 20 000+ dollar prize pool, with 10 000 going to first place.

Hopefully, we're going to have live streaming for it, when it happens, but at the very least, we're going to hav 4 cameras running for the whole tournament (over the weekend) recording matches and posting it online. if anyone doesn't know, Australias main cuesport video site is www.cueball.tv and its run by a mate of mine.

anyways, this tournament is 1000 dollars buy in for Pro's. 500 dollars for intermediates and i myself being an amateur, only had to pay 250. we've got 37 runners at this stage. close to half of them being Pro's which is where most of the Prize money is coming from. if anyone is keen on watching or wanting to see potential of english pool players in australia, u can watch everything on cueball.tv.

www.bugguns.com.au is the site with all the info on it!

should be awesome! lookout for this thread if anyone wants any more info! =]

[forcefollow]

Very cool. You should post an announcement on the forums at azbilliards.com.

[danam1]

I watch cueball.tv all the time, and I quite enjoyed watching this years Geelong open final.
I also think the quality of video has improved lately.

ATB
Danny

[eaoin11]

Good thread! Cueball.tv is brilliant and events like big guns are a godsend for pool (US and UK style) in Australia. Australia's top 10 players or so are very good to watch, including Ben Nunan, Ron Kelly, James Delahunty, Mark Robertson (Neil's Bro), Justin Sajich, Rusty Wheeler then guys like Shawn Bud or Johl Younger who can rock up to pro tourneys of any of the three main cuesports and have a chance to win....and quite a few others who are great performers in this kind of format.

For an indication of how good our top players can be, I'd recommend Ron Kelly vs Ben Nunan in the Three Man Challenge...great contrast of styles but both very good to watch. I think there was a pretty good one between James Delahunty and Justin Sajich too.

This tourny is a great test of endurance, with three full days of race to 11 matches from start to finish.

[BoBnoGG!n]

oh yeah, i cant wait! its gonna be huge

forcefollow: i think azbilliards would already know about this, since they are sponsors of cueball.tv i think. i know theyre advertised on cueball.tv so surely they already know about it.

danny: yeh, the video quality is all recorded in HD these days. only a few years back the quality was half of wat it is today, and yes, the geelong open final was very good. My mate benny won that, he also won the Big Guns tournament last year taking 10k home. this tournament moves around australia each year im predicting, since last year it was on the gold coast, now its in Melbourne. who knows where itll be next year im just glad to be apart of running it! second time round! one day invites might even be extended to players around the world?!

eaoin11: ron kelly has the absolute best composure of anybody ive ever seen in this sport, never gets worked up or flustered, plays his game, not his opponents, like a champion! he's made top 16 in the world before, so he is argueably one of the best, if not, the best this country has to offer atm in 2shot. altho quinten is pretty awesome too lol
ben is an absolute freak at it tho. the other night he doubled a ball off the end cushion, into a ball on the side rail to pot it for the corner pocket. and he called it too. freakiest shot ive ever seen! should be spectacular to see it all

anyways, ill post up where and when you can watch it live, if we get that up and running! cant wait, only 7 days left!

[eaoin11]

Wow, seen him come off the bottom rail like that but to call a kiss of the red as well...

Ben's also a great all round cueist, winning a lot (if not all?) of the big american 9 ball and 8 ball titles, and I think he's a century break snooker player as well.

[BoBnoGG!n]

didnt just call a kiss, called to hit the side rail, kiss, THEN go in the corner pocket haha yeh hes an absolute freak!

tell ya what, a lot of people dont know this but he is an EXCEPTIONALLY good snooker player, junior oceania and australian champion. from wat i hear, he use to play on par as juniors with the robertson brothers. he just got more involved with pool as he grew older. seen him knock in close to centuries like its nothin, a very very fast fluent player.

[Inoffthered]

didnt just call a kiss, called to hit the side rail, kiss, THEN go in the corner pocket haha yeh hes an absolute freak!

tell ya what, a lot of people dont know this but he is an EXCEPTIONALLY good snooker player, junior oceania and australian champion. from wat i hear, he use to play on par as juniors with the robertson brothers. he just got more involved with pool as he grew older. seen him knock in close to centuries like its nothin, a very very fast fluent player.

But it all comes down to this... it's one thing to knock in tons and tc's when the world's not watching. It's another to dish up from 50-60 behind with 5 reds left. I don't doubt his snooker skills, but so often in these type of threads pool players have to make a point about how "oh, he's an awesome snooker player, but he decided to play pool instead". There's way more money in snooker ( although the tour has been in decline for some years now ) and the bottom line is... if anyone is THAT good at snooker, they still choose pool for a reason. Most prob. because they just can't cut it above a certain level.

Someone of Ronnie's class is "exceptional" ( although 'how exceptional' is up for debate ). Not to be picky, I just think ppl pay compliments too easily. ( Nothing wrong with saying someone's a decent player, we all just need to keep our feet on the ground ).

[BoBnoGG!n]

thats very true mate! completely agree with ya!
but having said that, there is 3times the amount of money in pool as there is in snooker, if you look at leagues, small comps (weekly, monthly) and 'big' tournaments. he was ranked number 10 in the world for english 8 ball last year, and has been winning tournaments and stuff since he was 16. shame snooker scene here in australia isnt bigger

[Inoffthered]

thats very true mate! completely agree with ya!
but having said that, there is 3times the amount of money in pool as there is in snooker, if you look at leagues, small comps (weekly, monthly) and 'big' tournaments. he was ranked number 10 in the world for english 8 ball last year, and has been winning tournaments and stuff since he was 16. shame snooker scene here in australia isnt bigger

Yes, but you mean in the amateur ranks, correct? It's unfortunate he lives too far away to have a realistic crack at snooker ( pro game ), but Quinten & Mr Robertson have shown what can be done if you really are THAT good and believe in yourself.

[eaoin11]

Yes, but you mean in the amateur ranks, correct? It's unfortunate he lives too far away to have a realistic crack at snooker ( pro game ), but Quinten & Mr Robertson have shown what can be done if you really are THAT good and believe in yourself.

PfffT! is about all this post warrants...

[TheRowdyOne]

I wanted to run a small comp in our town where first prize was entry into Big Guns, flights to Melbourne and Accom. but a busy work schedule and not much interest meant it was a no-go. It would be good if we can get more notice on a 2012 tournament so I can nut out a satellite comp for it. Not that I'm saying there wasn't enough notice. Chances of beating some of the 'Pros' are very slim, but it's an experience to play against them.

[eaoin11]

I wanted to run a small comp in our town where first prize was entry into Big Guns, flights to Melbourne and Accom. but a busy work schedule and not much interest meant it was a no-go. It would be good if we can get more notice on a 2012 tournament so I can nut out a satellite comp for it. Not that I'm saying there wasn't enough notice. Chances of beating some of the 'Pros' are very slim, but it's an experience to play against them.

That's a great idea, I think that happened for the gold coast Big Guns right?
Would be great to have that prize sponsored to keep entry costs down.

[grimreaper]

This will be a good comp for sure good luck to the boys from the West:snooker:

[TheRowdyOne]

That's a great idea, I think that happened for the gold coast Big Guns right?
Would be great to have that prize sponsored to keep entry costs down.

Yes it did. I know N.Q. ran a satellite comp to get into the Gold Coast one, I have a feeling there may have been one more but I'm not 100% sure.

IF there were allot more satellite comps to gain entry for us 'Amateurs' then all of a sudden instead of having 36 Entries you have 64 and prize money goes up to $35 000. Keep the comp format constant and advertise it properly in a couple of years you may be able to Televise it on Pay or Free to air, like the US Pool Open does in the USA. Suddenly prize money goes up to $50 000 and you have international Entries.