Alcaide Wins Grand Masters of 8-Ball

Spaniard David Alcaide won the inaugural 8-Ball Grand Masters in Cambridge, England over a recent weekend. Is Eight Ball competition at long last moving into its proper international context?

The tournament last month featured more than two dozen of Europe's best pool shooters including Tony Drago, Niels Feijen, Nick van den Berg and Britain's Imran Majid.

The emphasis was certainly one of pool endurance—the grueling play featured nearly six hours of pool on the first day for each player, followed by 12 hours over the subsequent two days depending on match outcomes. Matches were each a Race To 8 Games format, with the winner breaking and best of 5 sets, making for long hours bent across each table.

The players certainly got a run for their entry fees, also. Each superstar added £500 of their hard earned cash. The field of 32 thus created £16,000 (approximately $31,400) in prize money including the £6,000 ($11,750) first place boon. How many other sports struggle to create prize money from the players themselves.

Alcaide looked impressive from the start and in his first match ran out an entire set to win 8 games to zero, his opponent never allowed to shoot! Alcaide continued with racks 9 amd 10 to begin his next set. The semifinal rounds included three close colleagues dueling for position, as Imran Majid, Rico Diks and Tony Drago all call Riley's Victoria in London their home tables of call, and knew their opponents' games well.

The final went the distance with Alcaide taking the cash, trophy and the title 3-2 sets over Imran Majid. I hope many more events like this will help propel 8-Ball to the exalted status it deserves and I commend the players for their spirit of enthusiasm at this grand battle event.