It was the night that the Poolmania champ thought he may have won first back to back titles and become the first to do so since Greg Davies’ four title romp at the start of the tournament’s inception. However Chris Phillips was halted in his quest for two on the trot as the night belonged to Karlito Kool – the new King of Pool.
Karl Manley took the title in a tense encounter with the previous champion, beating both him and Davies in the latter stages to seal a hard fought campaign. In a topsy turvy group stage, Manley emerged as the group winner after 3/4 wins, only faltering to the other favourite to progress, James Carling, who actually failed to reach the semi finals. Chris Phillips managed to win the other group by pipping Greg Davies to the post with a head-to-head advantage, which meant Davies faced Manley in the semis while Joe Newbury, the surprise runner up in Manley’s group was paired up with Phillips. Both group winners took their games respectively and Manley went on to beat Phillips in the final.
With this victory Karl became the fifth winner of the title, carrying on a four game trend of a new winner in a Poolmania tournament.
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Karl deserved to win this one having played excellently in the final.
King Karl then turned up for Poolmania 9 with a Poolmania 8 Champion T-shirt on – which made others jealous as it had an 8-ball on it for the 8… very nice indeed!