By: Luc Paquette & Tino Barbieri
This past weekend in Sept-îles Falcon Tour stop #5 took place. 29 players participated, including 21 amateurs, since only 4 professionals have dared to venture the long road which separated them from the event and 4 Semi Pros, 3 of which were from the region of Sept - îles, responded to the challenge. Only Danny Hewitt, Alain Parent, Sylvain Grenier and Francis Crevier, as well as the semi-professional Eric Hamel, were the representatives outside the region for this event. The opening draw gave the top guns a run for their money while Alain Parent the only pro in the top half of the draw won his matches with ease. Sylvain Grenier and Junior Hervieux, a former provincial champion, clashed in the first round. Francis Crevier and the winner of the last three stops, Danny Hewitt, clashed in the second round. At the end the cream always rises to the top and the 4 professional players finished in the top four positions. Now let’s take a look at how it all went down for the “Fab Four’s”.
The first round gave us some very good matches. Danny Hewitt vs Claude Caron, a AAA player and former AA Provincial Champion. Hewitt won the match by a score of 9-3 and awaited the winner of the match between Francis Crevier and Eddie-Eric Fontaine. Crevier won 9-4. Sylvain Grenier beat Junior Hervieux 9-4 then faced off against Eric Fontaine (not to be confused with Eddie), who had received a bye in the first round. Alain Parent, who seemed to be favoured at the top of the draw, cruised by his opponents by a score of 9-2 against Edgar Mercier. Parent’s domination continued with a white wash (9-0) against John Guanish, and two 9-4s against Guy Leblanc and Jean-François Lapierre which got him a spot in the Hot Seat Match. The long-awaited second round match was undoubtedly between, the winner of the first stop Francis Crevier and the winner of the last three, Danny Hewitt. Hewitt got this one with a 9-4 victory and a third round match, waiting for the winner of the Grenier vs Fontaine match-up. Grenier took this one by a score of 9-6 which sent him for battle against Hewitt in the third round. Grenier who came 2nd in Jonquière (FT Stop #2) vs Hewitt, failed to defeat Hewitt in the last 3 consecutive times they matched up this season, this time by the score of 9-4. Hewitt continued his momentum with a 9-1 victory over Nelson Santerre to reach the A side finals against Alain Parent.
Crevier and Grenier had not said their last word and made their trek on the B side. Crevier put it into overdrive and defeated Joe Shacanadish 9-1, Denis Bouchard 9-3, Guy Leblanc 9-1, Yvon Hervieux 9-0 and Nelson Santerre 9 - 5, to finally meet his match and played for the 4th spot vs Sylvain Grenier, who on his end was all business with wins over Dave Simon 9-2, Junior Hervieux 9-5 and Jean-François Lapierre 9-3. In the match vs Crevier , Grenier appeared to be heading for the finish line with a lead of 8-4, but Francis Crevier methodically marched back by winning 4 consecutive games to make it a “Hill-Hill” battle. Crevier who had a hard time making balls off the break, finally gets one in the decisive game, but a positional error on the 2 allowed Grenier back to the table. Grenier was facing a difficult shot on the 2, he went all offense missed it and pulled a rabbit out of his cue by placing the cue ball behind the 5. Crevier was not able to get out of this mess and Grenier thanked the pool gods for his victory to reach the B side finals. Now playing for 3rd against Parent who got steamrolled by Hewit 9-3. Grenier, who was in fine form this Sunday, sent Parent to the showers with a 9-4 win to reach “LA GRANDE FINALE” against Hewitt. Will this match put an end to a sequence of three consecutive defeats against Hewitt in tournament? Would he end Hewitt’s sequence of 3 consecutive wins on the tour?
With a race to 11, the score was 2-2 in which Grenier made the first move in winning 3 straight to take the lead 5-2. While everything seemed to indicate that Hewitt would win the next game, he missed an easy 7 in which Grenier took full advantage of this opportunity to take a 4 game lead. A combo on the 9 in the following game gave him a 7-2 lead. Hewitt was not done and turned it around to take 3 straight. At 7-5 a bad kiss on a ball caused a scratch for Hewitt and in return Grenier ran the table and took a 3 game lead. A 4-9 combo by Grenier took him to 9-5. Grenier, who seemed to be playing with confidence was two games away from winning his first stop of the season. At the 15th game, Hewitt played a safety that forced Grenier to play by the rails. He managed to kick the 4 in by one rail which lead him to run the table and now on the hill. Hewitt had his back against the wall at had to win the next 6 games to keep his winning streak alive. He came up short and Grenier; who is the founder of the Academie de Billard Sylvain Grenier, won his first Quebec Falcon Tour stop of the season by a score of 11-6.
In the second chance tournament, 16 players (a tour record) participated in the event and it's Dave Simon who defeated Éric Fontaine. The winner of the Falcon Cue valued at $1,000 was Gaston Ouellet, while Mario Thibault won the $ 50 gift certificate curtesy of The Winning Stroke. The Falcon Tour wishes to thank Isabelle, Annick and the entire staff at the Tuxedo Bar, as well as all the players and spectators who participated in the event. The next Rendez-Vous will be January 16-17, 2016 for the Falcon Tour Levis Nile Guay Memorial in which there will be 2000$ added. The Falcon Tour team wishes you a Happy Holiday Season. For more information about the Falcon Tour, please visit our website at www.Falconcuesquebectour.com. For information on the Academy of Billiards Sylvain Grenier, please go to www.academiedebillard.com.
Payouts
1st Sylvain Grenier $1,000
2nd Danny Hewitt $700
3rd Alain Parent $475
4th Francis Crevier $300
5-6th Jean-francois Lapierre $160
Nelson Santerre $160
7-8th Yvon Hervieux $100
Junior Hervieux $100
2nd chance tournament
1st Dave Simon $300
2nd Eric Fontaine $200
3rd Eddie-Éric Fontaine $140
4th Gilles Giasson 90$
5-6th Alain Michaud $45
Magloire McKenzie $45
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