Falcon Tour Stop #7 Tailgators: Hewitt edges out Aupin to Claim 4th Win of the Season

Danny Hewitt photo courtesy of Shelley Anne-Marie Doran

By: Markus Noé

January 27-28th, Tailgators located in the Meriviale Mall in Neapean Ontario hosted the 7th stop of the Falcon Québec Pro Tour. 36 players came to participate with again the majority of players being from Québec. Chris Dempsey and Jason Robichaud two of the best players from the East Coast made the trek from New Brunswick , while Andy Aupin, Alain and Johnathan Lessard were the furthest traveling players from Ontario coming from Sudbury. My small homeroom of Rack-M-Up Billiards which only has 10, nine foot tables and one snooker table showed up in numbers as we had 7 who made the hour trip to Ottawa. Out of those 7 we had every class represented from C through to Pro.

Going into this weekend we knew that some regulars on the tour such as Joey Cicero, Alain Martel and Martin Daigle would be missing due to prior engagements. Also there was a semi pro tournament just outside of Montreal that kept regulars such as Marco Caron and Eric Cloutier away. However with so many players within reasonable driving distance to Ottawa, Ontario 36 players was a disappointing turnout for organizers. 

Perhaps that the Ottawa Barbox Championships which is historically well attended and filled again this year was only a few weeks before played a factor, it should be noted that Tailgators main focus and most popular game is Barbox 8 Ball. However it was a bit baffling to myself that there was  significant amount of good amateurs to high ranking players who frequent and play the weekly leagues at Tailgators that did not attend.

In contrast the Falcon Tour as been averaging just over 40 players in each event this year. This includes pool rooms outside the densely populated cities of Montreal, Ottawa or Québec. The most disappointing part for people looking to grow this tour and promote pool overall, is that Tailgator's has such a big and beautiful venue in a prime location. It is basically directly between Québec City and Toronto and a few hours from Montreal. Between this area lies a huge percentage of  Canada's top players. If you factor all of this in, the potential for successful Pro Tournament is staggering.  I am mentioning this not to be critical, however to point out the importance of the Falcon Tour and a room like Tailgators is to the potential growth of pool. Ottawa/Gatineau has three great venue's in the region, Tailgators, Terminus, and Dooly's Ottawa. 

The Falcon Tour is the only Pro Tour in the country, it has been successful in Québec and New Brunswick in its first 3 years. If it takes off in the Ottawa/Gatineau region then it can potentially use this momentum to spring board itself into the Greater Toronto Area and then who knows. The issues for professional non handicap tournaments in Ontario is well documented and here is a solution. A common complaint in all tournaments and tours is there is not enough money to be won. However it is near impossible to grow and attract more sponsors that can help with added money if players do not show an interest. In cities like Ottawa/Gatineau, Montreal, Québec and Toronto fields of  64 to 128 are very possible especially with a staggered entry fee. The first move however needs to be made by player participation so organizers of the Falcon Tour Danny Hewitt and Luc Paquette have a strong product to show to potential sponsors. The saying "If you build it, they will come" comes to mind here.

Now that my little rant is over lets get to business. At the end of the first day there was not much report in the way of upsets because outside of Dany Nguyen and Danny Hewitt it was a fairly evenly matched field. Of course they met in the first round with Nguyen coming out on the short end of a 9-2 loss. The Falcon Tour plays down to the final 8 on day one. One of the final 4 matches on the winners side on day 2 included Pierre Normand vs Roger Miller which Normand won 9-8. The other was Hewitt vs new pro Seb Laramée, Hewitt won this one 9-5.

Andy Aupin photo courtesy of Shelley Anne-Marie Doran

On the losers side Andy Aupin a very capable but lesser known pro was charging through the bracket. After suffering his first lost to Hewitt he won his four next matches as follows;

Aupin 9 vs Alain Lessard 5

Aupin 9 vs Roger Miller 3

Aupin 9 vs Dany Nguyen 6

Aupin 9 vs Normand 4

This run on the losers allowed Aupin a second crack at the most dominate player on the Falcon Tour, Danny Hewitt. The final was a tightly contested match as Aupin fought back from an early deficit to tie this extended race to 11 at 10-10. Hewitt ended up taking the last game winning his 4th event out of 7 total tournaments this season. Congratulations to the winners of this event and thank you to Curtis Houlden and Morgan Bristow for providing an ideal venue for the tour. Finally thank you to Shelley Anne-Marie Doran for the great photo's her entire album of the event can be found at the Tailgators Facebook Page. 

The next event will be held near Québec City at Marco Sanschargin's pool room a well known local promoter. It is called Dooly's Neufchatel.  I will be in attendance to play and cover the event in detail, if you are interested in being a sponsor please feel free to contact me through Facebook either on the Cue Sport Nation Facebook page or my personal one. Look forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks!