Imperial Mints pot black in Nottingham

Over the weekend of the 27th-28th October the Imperial College English 8 ball pool team began their preparations for BUCS success in February 2013 by participating in the third English Universities Pool Championships in Nottingham. Team Imperial (the so-called ‘Mints’) were confident of success and arrived at the tournament ready to rumble. There were 128 entrants for the individual tournament and 25 University teams in the Team Championship.

Max Chalmers – or “Chamlers” as the organisers misspelt it – was the first Imperial member to play in the first round of the individuals against an inexperienced Will Dean (York 2). Chalmers won a cagey opener, however Will Dean levelled the scores after Chalmers accidently potted the black in the second frame. In the final frame Chalmers edged ahead and didn’t look back to send Imperial into a winning start.

Next up was team captain Shyam “Sharm-el shaken, not stirred” Pankhania who brushed aside his opponent Jason Dalton (Captain, Nottingham Trent) 2-0 and then Elwin “the Whirlwind” Carlos was given a tough test but some very competent tactical play saw him progress to the next round after a 2-1 victory against Dan Younger (Nottingham 3). Unfortunately Rob “Rob-ot” Speller and Ed “The Grinder” Graham met tough opposition and couldn’t quite secure victory. In the round of 64 Carlos and Chalmers battled through with 2-1 victories. The Captain made it a round without casualties by securing a “shyamtastic” 2-0 win over Laurence Shaw (Nottingham 2). This set up exciting last 32 encounters which were to be played later on Saturday.

The team were in high spirits for the start of the Team Championships group stage in which Imperial were drawn against Plymouth 1 and York 2. This rubbed off in the first match as Imperial stormed to a 7-3 win over Plymouth. However, It looked like complacency was setting in against York when, in the second and final group match, the team let a 4-1 lead slip back to 4-4. Cool heads were required from Chalmers and Speller in the last two frames and they delivered to send Imperial into the last 16 as group toppers.

It was late in the day and a jubilant team went for dinner at Nando’s, which is somewhat of a Nottingham tradition for the team now. However, play was not over yet as the organisers decided that the last 32 of the individuals should be played before the day was finished. All players were certainly fatigued by this late stage in the day after being awake for nearing 20 hours, but adrenaline kept them going late into the night.

Carlos had a tight match with Adam Sykes (Manchester Metropolitan 1) in which he fought back to 2-2 after going two frames behind but was disappointed to lose 3-2. Pankhania met a talented opponent in Todd Neilson (Manchester Metropolitan 1) who ran out a 3-0 winner and Max faced Ben Parslew (Manchester 1), Carlos’s conqueror last year, and lost 3-1. Each Imperial player had established their A-game at the business end of the tournament but they were simply outclassed.

The tournament entered Sunday and Imperial continued their pursuit of championship success with a last 16 knockout match against the University of East Anglia 1 (UEA 1). A poor start left the team trailing 4-0 and from that point something special was required and Speller delivered it. The frame he played resembled more a game of chess than a pool frame where he used his genius to win it and keep Imperial alive at 4-1. Some dogged play from Pankhania and Chalmers closed the score to 5-3, however UEA secured a 6-3 victory.

Although Imperial had aspirations to win this year’s tournament, it must be said that they improved considerably from last year. The addition of “The Grinder” brought solidity to the team and “Rob-ot” provided the stroke of genius that was missing last year. One thing is for sure, the ‘Mints’ reputation is growing and the team look forward to further improvement in the future. Many thanks should go to Nottingham University Snooker and Pool Club for organising the event. For further details of events, as they happen visit ICU Snooker online.