Ine Helvik

Hi!

Strange how fast the time flies. I feel like I just played the 9-ball championships and it is now 2 months ago. I have not had any time or strenght to acutally write something. Strange, but that is is sometimes.

I ended on third place in the womens 9-ball championships and 25th in the open division. I am not very happy, but Line played great in the semis and I did not have the rolls on my side. The cameracrew following Line and the microphone did not help:)

The new season started much better:)

I am playing in division 1 this year and will use the norwegian ranking tournaments to practice. I will travel much more in Europe and play the womens tournaments, we have now got 5 stops that will make up a European ranking together with 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball in the EC.

The first ranking tournament was in Haugesund and I went undefeated to win it. I played really well, we played 8-ball and I felt in complete control almost all the way. The only close match was with Trond Kenneth Eikeskog in the semis, he is a snookerplaying poolplayer:) We had a good time, Tor Bjerke, Stein Espeland and I. I have missed being on the road with my clubmates:)

Next tournament was the Italy womens 10-ball open. This tournament was one of the five that will count towards the european ranking. Katrine Grotle and I met up in Frankfurt and flied from there to Verona. In Verona we picked up the smallest rental car I have ever seen to go on the highway to Bolzano, a Peugeot 107.  Next time I am in Italy I will have a bigger car!! It is a little bit scary to not have any power and be the size of a fly inbeetween all the fast and furious cars in Italy…. We got there alright though, we actually had a good laugh on the way. The tournament started saturday and I won my first match against Roberto Russo, ITA, with 7-6 puh. Next match against Natasha Seroshtan, RUS, did not go so well . I played good, but kept on breaking dry. Natasha did the most out of her opportunities and won 7-4. On the loosers side I met Sara Rocha, POR, and I did not play good at all. I pulled myself together and and won 7-4, but that was a struggle. And the struggle continued into the loosers qualification… My opponent was Teresa Bachler, AUT, and that was an upphill match all the way.  I fought and fought, but it was no good. In the end I lost 7-5 and ended up on a dissapointing 17th place. Caroline Roos from Sweden won, atleast we kept the victory in Scandinavia:) Well done Carro!

The Norwegian championships womens division in 8-ball and 10-ball was this weekend and that is a completly different story. I went undefeated through both championships and is norwegian champion in both divisions for 2012. We were not that many participants, and Line Kjørsvik was not there, but still, you have to play to win. In 8-ball I played against Mona Bergstø in the finals and won 6-4. In 10-ball I played against June Therese Håndstad in the semis (6-1) and Camilla Jacobsen in the finals (6-3). I also have to mention that Heidi Bratthammer, one of the players helping me in the poolhall, got her first medal in 8-ball.  Congratulations with third and bronze:) All in all it was a good tournament and all the players from Svithun did a good job. Camilla Jacobsen silver in 10-ball and we all had a really good time. Hope to see you girls back in my poolhall soon:)

Now I am concentrating on getting ready for the European Championships en the end of march. Line Kjørsvik and I make up the women team and the mens team is Kristoffer Mindrebøe, Mats Schejtne, Matey Ullah and Roger Rasmussen. Our terrific coach Jörgen Sandman will offcourse join us and so will Katrine Grotle, our sportsdirector. This will be a good trip!!! I just got news that they will use breakbox in 9-ball and 10-ball, which means I will have to practice on the breakshot before I go. It is kind of strange breaking differently from what works the best for me and this weekend I have a 10-ball ranking tournament to play.. I think I will leave the break like it is to after the weekend:)

Time to open the poolhall and get some PAT in!

For those of you who do not know what that is, go to http://www.pat-billiard.com/ 

Have a great day!

Ine:)