As predicted by the pundits the group B of the Joy Heyball Masters Division One Tour Qualifier ongoing in Lagos ,Nigeria is living up to its group of death tag.
At the end of game day 4 which was expected to produce a winner, the group which comprises former Snooker Champion Wale Osomo, SPPA top ranked player Christoper Abiodun, Adebayo Adekunle and Subday Ekundayo, three of the players tied on 2 points which necessitated the best of 3 racks round robin to be played on Saturday at Nicon Town Recreation Center, Lekki.
The player that emerges after the run off will facing Shehu Bamidele who topped group A in the final that will climax the 5 day tournament.
On Friday which was day 4 of the tournament, action had begun in group B with Adebayo Adekunle beating top seeded Christopher Abiodun 5- 1 in a must win contest for Adebayo who already lost his first game to Sunday Ekundayo.
After winning the first rack, Adebayo missed his shot on the 8 Black that sat at the top right pocket causing the ball to spin off the pocket right tip which forced it to move to the down side tip of the center left pocket.
Christopher Abiodun displaying a sense of mastery subsequently potted the Black Ball side shot into the right side pocket with the cue ball that was seating against center diamond of the upper right cushion.
The third rack was a Ding-Dong tactical display on the 8 Black to determine who will set up the ball for the opponent.
Adebayo finally showed his banking skills as he potted the 8 Black into the upper right pocket with a bank shot with Black using the upper Left cushion into the upper right pocket. The match ended 5 -1.
With Adebayo Adekunle spirited victory against Christopher he was set to square it out with Former National Champion Wale Osomo in his last match.
In that game Adekunle breezes to his first two rack win showing enough intent against a much more experience player in Osomo.
Unfortunately, he was panelized for deliberately and intentional contacting his opponent with an intent to displace it to a disadvantage position which saw the technical director imposed the stiffest loss of rack penalty against him.
As expected Wale Osomo mounted a spirited come back into the match with a Golden break in the fifth rack to the applause of the spectators and went further to win the sixth rack to level the match 3 – 3.
Adebayo went unassailable to win the 7th and 8th rack winning the match by 5 -3.
A fatigued Wale Osomo finally conceded his final game against Sunday Ekundayo after losing his first 2 games and having no point.
All is set for the finale on Saturday which is loaded with runoff and the winner takes all decider which will produce Nigeria’s sole representative to the 2023 Joy Heyball Masters Division One Tour taking place in Lanzhou City of China later in June.
