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Oh Boyes! Ace Karl pockets World title
Blackpool has another world pool champion after Karl Boyes won the WPA Etisalat World 8-Ball title after a thrilling final in the United Arab Emirates.
Boyes beat Holland's Niels Feijen 13-12 in a nailbiting final in Fujairah, having earlier taken seven successive frames to lead 11-4.
Boyes, 27, said: "I don't know how I managed to finish in the final frame because I was struggling to walk. My legs were like jelly!
"If I'd have lost from so far in front I don't know if I could have played again!"
The Dutchman's fightback began when Boyes went in-off on the break in the 16th game and Feijen won five frames in a row.
Boyes, from North Shore won the next but his opponent hit back with three more frames to force the decider at 12-12.
Boyes held his nerve to win his first major title, having reached the semi-finals of the nine-ball equivalent in 2007, when another Blackpool player Daryl Peach was crowned champion.
Boyes added: "I've wanted a major so much. I was disillusioned after doing so well in 2007 . There seem to be so few events, so I went to college and did plastering.
"However, a friend from Leicester offered to sponsor and manage me just as I finished the course, so I have given it 100 per cent."
Boyes also believes that losing five stone, with the help of personal trainer Tony Mayes, has made him leaner and meaner around the table.
He added: "I feel great. It has given me discipline and helped me mentally as well as physically in matches."
Though this was Boyes' first individual world title, he did join forces with Peach in the GB squad which won the World Team Championships."
Boyes' girlfriend Lynette Horsburgh won the women's World 8-Ball title in 2008.
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Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
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