Dutch pool legend Alex Lely visited Mickey Flynns American Pool Club in Cambridge to support the UK's first ever straight pool tournament, and as a warm-up he organised a 10-Ball challenge match with local hero and Tournament Director Richard Jones.
Lely scored the first rack but then Jones seized on a mistake by his opponent and took an early 5-1 lead. Lely composed himself and clawed his way back into the game eventually levelling the scores at 10-10 in this race-to-21 mini-marathon.
After a short break, the Dutchman show his true class and when the scores reached 12-10 in Lely's favour, he appeared to become a new man as his confidence rose and it looked like he would never miss.
Lely "hit the wall" at 19-12 - struggling to get the final two racks to seal the victory, and Jones took advantage of the pressure switch by making a huge come-back.
This video is the final rack, with the scores at 20-18 to Lely, Jones is running out when disaster strikes, and puts an end to his chances.
I don't know why, but they ended up playing for £720 each, I thought maybe they had agreed the amount in Euros maybe and that's why it was such an awkward figure, but it's not neat in Euros either!
wwwPro9CoUk 3 years ago