Celebrated Nigeria Heyball (a.k.a Chinese 8 Ball Pool) players Adegbite Aderibigbe emerged the winner of the 2024 Joy Heyball Masters Grand Final’s Nigeria-quailfiers. The ace Heyball Pool players beat Babatunde Rasheed a.k.a Tarton 13-10 in a naïve breaking finals that take place on Saturdays 10th February, 2024 at the Nicon Town Recreation Center, venue of the event.
For making the finals both players earned themselves an automatic qualification to compete amongst other qualifiers from around the world for the 2024 2024 Joy Heyball Masters Grand Final’s holding in the prestigious Qinhuagdao Olympic Center in the city of Qinhuagdao, Hebei province, China.
Adegbite popularly called “Boss” in the Pool community drew first blood in the Race to 13 racks winner breaks event when he in a wave of attacking maneuvers and accurate shooting he took the first two racks thereby leading his opponent 0 – 2. Tarton quickly level up he match at 2-2 before the end of the first session.
Upon return from the first rest break, Tarton continued on his winning strick as he took rack 5 and 6 thereby leading the match 4 – 2 before Boss had to rely on determination and wealth of experience on the table to mount a quick response by taking advantage of his opponents near misses to level the match 5 – 5 at the end of second session Rack 10.
Then the match entered a phase of alternating victory for both players resulting in a score of 7-8 with Boss having a one rack lead that at the end of the third session, Rack 15.
Experience counts like in all other competitive sport. Boss relying on the advantage of his experience of previously participating in the Joy Heyball Pool Masters event and playing on the high quality specially craft Joy Table for Heyball became difficult opponent to overcome as he racked up 4 successive racks thereby leading 12 – 8 at the end of the forth session.
The match which had lasted for 3 hours 30minutes was then forced into fifth session with Adegbite having just one rack to victory and Tarton wanting to achieve a major comeback by winning 4 successive racks become the match ended 10-13 after 23 racks had been played.
With this victory Adegbite Aderibigbe breaks history as he becomes the first Nigeria to win the Grand Final Nigeria qualifier’s.

2024 JOY HEYBALL MASTERS GRAND FINAL’S NIGERIA QUALIFIER

Group 1

  1. Babatunde Rasheed
  2. Adekunle Adebayo

Group 2

  1. Nsikak David
  2. Waliu  Nojeem
  3. Lawani Nosayaba

Group 3

  1. Igwe Orji
  2. Abiodun Christopher
  3. Adekunle Macarthy

Group 4

  1. Bamiidele Shehu
  2. Adegbite Aderibigbe
  3. Animashaun Damilola.

Results

Preliminary Round

Format: Round Robin

Race to 5

Group 1

Babatunde Rasheed vs  Adekunle Adebayo   5 – 2

Group 2

Nsikak David vs Waliu Nojeem 5 – 2

Waliu Nojeem vs Lawani Nosayaba  5 – 3

Lawani Nosayaba vs Nsikak David 5 – 1

Group 3

Igwe Orji vs Abiodun Christopher 5 – 4

Abiodun Christopher vs Adekunle Macarthy 5 – 1

Igwe Orji vs Adekunle Macarthy  5 – 1

Semifinal/Playoffs

Race to 9

Semi’s 1st

Winner 1 vs Winner 2

Babatunde Rasheed vs Waliu Nojeem 9 – 4

Semi’s 2nd

Winner 3 vs Winner 4

Igwe Orji vs Adegbite Aderibigbe 9 – 6

Finals

Babatude Rasheed vs Adegbite Aderibigbe 10 -13