Shooters 8 Ball Update: Fragoso Hangs Tough …!!!

Peter Chin, With Jesse Piercey and Adrian Fragoso

Submitted Article:

The final event of the Shooters summer schedule was held on August 22nd & 23rd and this time took the format of good old-fashioned 8 Ball on the 9 footers. The tournament was billed as a “Traditional 8 Ball Tournament” and attracted a diverse field of 58 players including almost a third of the field who have never before or very seldom played in the usual 9 ball events at Shooters Snooker & Sports Club. The attendance was again surprising for an event held in the summer and might be an indicator of an untapped interest in 8 Ball tournaments. It was also an event that attracted many players from outside the GTA including contingents from London, Guelph, Midland and Newmarket.

Once Saturday play was complete, the undefeated ‘A’ side returnees were Jago Raghoo, Jesse Piercey, Teen Yan and Romeo Zulueta while over on the ‘B’ side, Greg Plester, Roderick Sy, Kevin Oliveira, Stuart Mactaggart, Ronald Giron, Norm Santos, Adrian Fragoso and Brad Guthrie were able to make a return appearance on Sunday after having one loss during Saturday’s play.

In the first of the Sunday ‘B’ side matches Greg Plester defeated Roderick Sy, Stuart Mactaggart toppled Kevin Oliveira, Norm Santos edged Ronald Giron and Adrian Fragoso beat Brad Guthrie in a tight hill/hill match. The ‘A’ side matches saw Jesse Piercey defeat Jago Raghoo while Romeo Zulueta had a win over Teen Yan. Back on the ‘B’ side Plester topped Mactaggart and Fragoso won his match against Santos to secure 5/6th place. These results set up an ‘A’ side final between Piercey and Zulueta and ‘B’ side matches with Plester facing off against Raghoo and Fragoso taking on Yan. Raghoo dispatched Plester while Fragoso had a win over Yan to set up the ‘B’ side semi-final where Fragoso outplayed Raghoo to qualify for the ‘B’ final.

In the ‘A’ side final Piercey had a win against Zulueta, sending Zulueta to the ‘B’ side to face Fragoso. In the ‘B’ final, Fragoso continued his strong play by easily handling Zulueta. This set up a tournament final that featured an undefeated Jesse Piercey versus Adrian Fragoso who had lost his first match of the tournament and had clawed his way through the ‘B’ side with steadily improving play.

In the tournament final, Fragoso proved that his solid play to make it to the tournament final and his “creds” as the 2014 Canadian Amateur 8 Ball Champion were well deserved by defeating the always dangerous Piercey.

Congratulations to Adrian Fragoso on his tournament win and to Jesse Piercey for his strong play throughout the tournament. This was Adrian’s first win of any kind at Shooters and his first tournament final at Shooters.

Thank you to all the participants for a great weekend of competitive pool. Next up for Shooters is a new season for the successful and long running ‘404’ series and for the newly successful Amateur series of 9 Ball events. And based upon the success of the summer tournaments there are more of the ‘one-off’ events scheduled during the 2015/16 season at Shooters. Tournament qualifiers are also being run for each of these ‘one-off’ events. Check the Shooters Snookerclub Facebook page for details and times.

* Correction: This was a true double elimination tournament. Meaning Fragoso had to beat Piercey twice. Because of the late hour and fatigue the two finalist decided to split the cash and call it a day.