2nd Annual Archer Cup Dates May 20-23

By Markus Noé

Spring has sprung and that means we are well into the second half of the pool season here in Canada. As the weather increasingly gets better many players will soon be trading in their pool sticks for golf clubs. Since 2010 usually in the late spring, the team at Even Time have put on the Classique de Billiard des Appalaches in Thetford Mines Québec which has been very popular among amateurs and professionals.

The Classique has divisions from "B" to Semi-pro with each division having the option to play both 9 and 10 ball. Last year to replace their current pro division they introduced the Archer Cup 10 Ball tournament in honor of the American legend Johnny Archer. It was well attended by some of the best players living in North America including Thorsten Hohman, Johnny Archer and Mike Dechaine. For Canadian top pro's John Morra, Erik Hjorleifson, Danny Hewitt and Alain Martel were all present. In previous years, before it was called the Archer Cup, Ralf Souquet, Jayson Shaw, Jeremy Sossei and Shane VanBoening have made appearances. After talking to one of the main organizers Marco Sanschargin he has informed me that he will be reaching out to a lot of these players again and is hopeful for an even more stacked field this year.

In addition to the Archer Cup there will be an open 9 ball tournament to give players another chance at some cash. Registration for all divisions can be done at www.eventime.ca   . These tournaments are capped at 32 players in each division and tend to fill up fast so I recommend reserving your spot as soon as possible. I have participated in the amateur divisions the last two years and I can attest from experience these tournaments are well run and the playing conditions are first class. If you are a die hard fan of pool, in your down time between matches you can walk into the pro arena and be treated to some of the best players in the world. They will also be playing for a projected $6500 for first with a full field which will add the intensity. If you have any questions you can contact Marco Sanschagrin through Facebook . For details on last years event you can read the full report here

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Strokers Billiards: Hjorleifson Wins 5th Annual Jamie Weaver Memorial

Runner up Jeff Dick with winner Erik Hjorleifson 

By: Erik Hjorleifson

This past weekend in London, Ontario the 4th Annual Jamie Weaver Memorial Tournament was held at Strokers Billiards. Jamie passed away at a young age but as was evident in the turnout and display of emotion, he touched many peoples lives in a positive way. I met him on a few occasions and remember him as a player that had a great love for the game and played pool with a very creative style.  The tournament has grown from about 70 players in its first year, to a full field of 128 only four years later. Much of the success of the event can be attributed to Jamie's friend Anita Chan. 

This is no ordinary tournament; a delicious and free homemade full spread buffet is facilitated by Anita and the Weaver family.  Complimentary door prizes which are donated by Jamie's friends and family and drawn off free of charge. This is one tournament where every player truly leaves feeling like a winner and it is evident in numbers as this is also the highest tournament in terms of participation every year in Ontario. The amount of work put in by Anita, the weaver family and all of the people behind the scenes cannot be missed. 

Anita would  like to acknowledge Ronda from Strokers Billiards, Glen Weaver Fisheries and the Weaver family, Greg Plester who promoted the tournament and collected pre-paid entries. As well as Jeff Dick for running the Calcutta, Joe Chadwick shuttle operator, Tyler Terashita t-shirt sponsor, Anitas Daughter and her friend Jill who helped with the decorations, Heath Manning with Manning cues, Mark and Dolores Weaver who contributed $500 in added prize money and everyone who made the tournament a success.

Joe Chadwick

The tournament kicked off at 7 o'clock Friday night with Jeff Dick taking on the difficult task of auctioning off the 128 player field. Jeff was a natural and raised $10 000 total prize money including the biggest bids going on myself, Rob Hall, Andy Aupin, Jeremy Bolahood, Adam Monture and many other players that went in the $100 to $200 range. Players came from all over Ontario including as far as Sudbury, Jamie's best friend and top player Greg Gauthier made the trip all the way from New Brunswick to honour his friend. After a ceremonial toast to Jamie an opening break was done by tournament organizer Anita Chan.

The format for the tournament was handicapped 9 ball with a low handicap of 4 and a high handicap of 13. Entry fees were staggered between $30-$75 and it was rack your own winner breaks format. Play was on 16 Dufferin tables with Simonis cloth and Super Aramith balls. I must say that the tables were in the best playing condition that I have seen them in since I have been going to Strokers. The first round of play was completed on Friday night, tournament directors Heath Manning and Ronda Drew Clement did a great job of filing the players through all weekend. First round casualties included Andy Aupin, last years runner up Brittany Bryant, Naomi Williams and last years winner Ken Stutz.

Saturday play began at 10:00 am and play continued on all day until about 2:00am. Match highlights included:

Ephram Day over Rob Hall

Erik Hjorleifson over Justin Kluznik

Jeff Dick over Nick Blancher

Justin Kluzik over Tom Hogan

Adam Monture over Dave Lettner

Josh Rundle over Jesse Piecey

Tyler Nearing over Dave Parker

George Phillips who defeated many good players on the day including Naomi Williams and Andy Aupin

12 players would come back on Sunday including myself vs Jeff Dick and Jeremy Bolahood vs Adam Monture on the winners side and 8 players who would start the day in 9th to 12th position.  Me and Adam Monture would go on to the winners side final. The winners side final would be a memorable one with the score at 8-8 in the 13-9 race. I was able to come back and win the last 5 games for the hill-hill victory. 

On the losers side Jeff Dick whose play all weekend had noticeably improved, continued his strong play when it got down to the nitty gritty defeating Pod Shognosh, Jeremy Bolahood and Adam Monture in succession. The final was a 13-8 race between my self and Jeff Dick (battle of the redheads) Big Red vs Little Red . I got off to a very strong start in this one playing close to flawless getting out to a 7-1 lead and from there Jeff was able to win two more. He played great all weekend and his table demeanor and approach to the game reminded me of a pro.

Thanks to everyone who put in the countless hours to organize this wonderful tournament, a generous sum of money was also donated to Teen Challenge with proceeds from the tournament.

1st Erik Hjorleifson     $800 

2nd Jeff Dick                $535

3rd Adam Monture    $380

4th Jeremy Bolahood $230

5th Guy Tremblay                   $170

       Pod Shognosh

7th Justin Kluznik       $120

       Dave Lettner

9th Craig Gould          $100

       Sam M

       Jesse B

       George Philips

13th Andy Aupin        $70

        Paul Duell

        Bryan Hooker

        Maureen Van De Ven

Player Auction:

1st $3200

2nd $2000

3rd $1275

4th $800

5th$500

7th $320

9th $200

13th $125

Corner Bank: Hjorleifson Battles back to Win Falcon Cue Tour Stop #2

Tom Fraser & Erik Hjorleifson 

By: Erik Hjorleifson

This past weekend The Corner Bank in Scarborough, Ontario played host to the second event of the Falcon Cues Ontario tour. The event features a $65 entry with handicaps ranging from "A" to "Pro". A players race to 5, AA race to 6, AAA race to 7, Semi pros race to 8 and 9 and pros race to 10. The tour is an alternate break rack your own format with $2000 added in each event. For the second tour stop participation rose from 24 to 37 players. The tour has been billed as the most competitive tour in Ontario, offering a format where players of all skill levels can put themselves to the test.

John Morra was not in attendance for this event as he is in the west coast preparing for the World Chinese 8 Ball Championship. He has been fairly successful on his trip, posting a win at the Hidden Spot 10 ball shootout in Calgary and a 3rd place finish at Malarkys in Tacoma, Washington. He will be leaving for China on Wednesday. This left the field on the weekend with 3 pros, myself, Mario Morra and Andy Aupin from Sudbury, there were also about 10 Semi pros in including Charlie Brown from B.C. who was in town visiting family.

Saturday play proved to be interesting as a good majority of the on paper favourites were grouped on the bottom half of the draw. Match highlights from Saturday included:

Mario Morra over Andy Aupin

Jeremy Bolahood over Charlie Brown

Jay Georgie over Erik Hjorleifson

Mario Morra over Ben Crawley

Tom Fraser a player who has been away from the game for a few years came in as a AA handicap and surprisingly advanced to finish the day on the winners side including a win over Semi Pro Sumon Sarkar. Carlin Sanderson and Jay Georgie also advanced along with Mario Morra to make up the final four on the winners side. Eight players would also come back on the losers side to make up the final 12 players who were all in the money.

On the Sunday the tight action started off from the get go with Andy Aupin facing off against Jeremy Bolahood. This match which was a 10-8 race with Aupin coming back from 7-5 down to make it hill hill only to have Bolahood break and run in the hill game. Jeremy would also win his next match hill-hill to advance to the final 6. I also won my first 2 including a 10-4 win over Charlie Brown ending a strong run by Charlie. In the winners side semi finals Jay Georgie continued his impressive play defeating his second pro level player of the tournament in Mario Morra. Georgie is more known for his accomplishments on the bar table but he was proving capable on the 9 foot as well this weekend.  As the players battled off I would eventually meet up with Jeremy Bolahood in the fourth place match who has been one of the most consistent winners in the past year in the Ontario tournaments. I caught a gear in this match and moved on to the losers side finals with a 10-1 win.

Tom Fraser defeated Georgie in the winners side final setting up a rematch between myself and Georgie who defeated me earlier in the tournament. By this time I was catching a pretty good stroke and I came out with another 10-1 win. In the true double elimination format I would have to bet my opponent twice, I made very few errors and the couple times when I did I got a little fortunate and I won both sets 10 -2. Tom had a great tournament, this is the second time in two weeks that I have seen a player who has had a great result despite not being in regular competition. Tom is a golf professional and his mental game seemed very strong and without having the practice of being in competition this was a big factor in his strong play this weekend.  Special thanks goes out to room owners John White and Jim Wych for running another smooth tournament and Falcon Cues for their generous donation of a $1000 value cue which was raffled off at the event and added to the prize fund.

Payouts: 

1st Erik Hjorleifson $1100

2nd Tom Fraser         $700

3rd Jay Georgie         $500

4th Jeremy Bolahood $350

5th Mario Morra        $230
       Carlin Sanderson

7th Bill Delkos
       Charlie Brown     $150

9th Andy Aupin           $100
       Sumon Sarkar
       Marius Nakas
       Ben Crawley

 Player Auction

1st $1000

2nd $600

3rd $350

4th $240

5th $130

Falcon Cues Québec Pro Tour Season Finale Announced

By: Markus Noé

The first weekend of April Dooly's St- Hyacinthe will host the Grand Final of the newly formed Falcon Cues Québec Pro Tour. This has been the first Pro tour in Canada in nearly a decade and it has been a great success, with stops all over Québec and Eastern Canada. It has been so successful in fact that the owners of the Corner Bank in Scarborough Ontario has formed a similar tour.

Dooly's St-Hyacinthe is located about 30 minutes east  of Montreal and boasts some of the best conditions I have seen. The field is open to all players even if you have not competed on the circuit, there is an extra charge for circuit registration please revert to the poster above. The organizers Danny Hewitt and Alain Parent  have made it easy for amateur players to participate as well. There is staggered entree fee's for Pro, Semi-Pros, AAA and under as well as a second chance tournaments for all players AAA and below on Day 2. The entry for this tournament is $30 the races are to 3 and the format is double elimination with $1000 added. Generally the top 5 players get paid with $500 going to the winner.

I recently spoke with Parent and he informed me that all the money collected via circuit fee's will be added to the pot. Meaning all the money left over from promotion and other "start up" costs. as this is their inaugural season. This is a breath of fresh air as most circuits claims the extra money as "administration" fee's and players often never see that money again.

A good chunk of the best players in the nation will be attendance as the success of the tour and the added money has gotten their attention. The usual Québec top players will be in attendance such as Danny Hewitt, Alain Martel, Martin Daigle, and Sylvain Grenier. From Ontario the #1 Canadian player John Morra along with his father Mario have also confirmed.

Other big names who the organizers are trying to attract are the two most recent Turning Stone Finalist Mika Immonen and Erik Hjorleifson. Also Thorsten Hohmann has been contacted, each of these players have said "maybe" so it looks like fans and players who are eliminated early will be treated to some world class pool.

Word of interest has been sent from out west as one of last years Canadian representatives at the World Championship Shannon Ducharme, could fly from Winnipeg. From the east coast Chris Dempsey, Kyle Richards and Colin Maloney have also expressed their desire to come to this event. The field is limited to the first 64 players registered, it will be treated on a first come first serve basis. With a 64 player field the total prize pool will be over $10,000 For more information you can contact Alain Parent through Facebook or visit the Falcon Cue Quebec Pro Tour page.   There will be at least one member of Cue Sport Nation there as I will be in attendance to play and cover the tournament. Hopefully by then we will have our Polo shirts available so make sure to contact me to make your order. Look forward to seeing you all there.

cuesportnation.com 

Canadian Snooker Tour: Dave Parker Wins in London

London local Dave Parker was too strong this weekend in his home town, plowing through to win The Canadian Snooker Tour #33.

In the end , it was Kevin Brown who made it to the finals, but he could not answer the final bell and had to settle for another strong second place.With only a few weeks to go before the end of the season, a full field battled it out in London with new players coming down from different directions, Vishal from Brampton, Lobsang from Toronto, and a host of others came in to join the action.

Looking forward to seeing more action in Sauga this Sunday with a host of players ready to come and compete.

The Corner Bank: Pegg Wins the King of the Hill 8 Ball Tournament

Chris Pegg

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

Tournament season is in full swing at The Corner Bank, in Scarborough, Ontario. The weekend of the 20th saw the first "Sleepless in Scar Bro' " team 8 ball tournament. 20 teams participated and from what I saw on social media players had a great time competing in this event. This past weekend marked the reincarnation of a long running tournament called the "King of the Hill" which originally ran out of Orangeville, Ontario. 

The 2016 version at The Corner Bank was a $60 entry, $1000 added, race to 5 8 ball on the 7 foot tables, alternate breaks. No pros were allowed in the first event but as would be seen the on paper favorites are not always guaranteed a successful event on the bar table. The event drew 96 players close to an all time high for Ontario in the past few years. Notables included Rob Hall, Al Logan, Marc Dumoulin, Jeremy Bolahood, Brian Belobradic and Rob Brandenburg among many others.

The player auction got underway at about 10:30 Saturday morning. Canadian bar table legend Rob Hall went off as the first blind bid favorite for the healthy price of $700. Al logan, Brian Belobradic and Rob Brandenburg were also in the discussion as favourites to win the tournament. Many of the players went for 3 figures and a few that didn't go in the blind bids topped out at over $300 including Jeremy Bolahood and Chris Pegg. When all the dust cleared the player auction reached a total of $7500 and the battle was set to begin.

Things got off to a surprising start as dark horse George Cornelius and Rob Hall faced off in the first round with George pulling off an impressive 5-4 win. Al Logan met up with Brian Belobradic in the second round and Brian showed why he has the reputation as one of the top bar table players in the province coming out with a 5-3 victory. Rob Brandenburg met up with Brian in the next round and Rob came out ahead in this one.  This particular bracket was stacked with tournament favorites and in round 4 Brandenburg would face off against  newcomer Ben Crawley originally from Australia, now living in Toronto. Unbeknownst to many was that Ben was a former World Junior English 8 ball champion and was one of my picks to make it near the end. Ben made his presence felt with a 5 3 win over Rob sending him on to the final 16 on the winners side.With 16 tables on hand the tournament directors John White and Jim Wych did a great job of filing the 96 players through the board and by about 2 am we were down to our final twelve.

Final 8 on the winners side included:

Ben Crawley

Chris Pegg

Marc Dumoulin

Brittany Bryant

Norberto DeCarlos

Jeremy Bolahood

George Cornelius

Aaron Nie

Returning on the losers side were

Rob Brandenburg

Naomi Williams

Alfonso Chiong

Chris Russel

The women were making their presence felt in this tournament as they have in many tournaments over the past year. Naomi Williams had a strong finish ending up tied for ninth and Brittany Bryant finished 5th. These two ladies are definitely in the top ten in North American Women's pool and they have been showing that they are right in the mix with the best men in Ontario as well. It was getting down to the "nitty gritty" and with the caliber of players left in the field there were many matches that could have gone either way. Chris Pegg CPA league operator and bar table legend from Scarborough was moving along quietly all the way to the winners side final with a notable win against Jeremy Bolahood in the final 4 on the winners side. Dark horse Norberto DeCarlos also had some good wins with a surprising 5-1 win against Marc Dumoulin and another strong win against Ben Crawley to book his spot in the winners side final against Pegg. As players were eliminated on the losers side the 4th place match came down to George Cornelius against Ben Crawley, Ben came out ahead in this one leaving Cornelius with a well deserved 4th place finish.

In the winners side final Chris Pegg continued his strong play defeating DeCarlos sending him down to Crawley, who after a loss in the winners side final four was able to regroup and make it all the way back to the final with a 5-2 win. In this double elimination format Pegg would have to be beaten twice, it was a tooth and nail battle with Pegg coming up with a stellar combo bank on his second last stripe in the last game to take the match 5-3. Notably to me Pegg, although coming from a wealth of experience, has not competed in a lot of tournaments in the past 5 years and for him to show the nerve to finish the job off on Sunday was very impressive to me. Congrats to Chris and a job well done to The Corner Bank as they have really raised the standard and interest level in competitive pool as of late. Action will continue this weekend at the Corner Bank with the second stop of the $2000 added Falcon Cues 9 ball tour.

Ben Crawley and Chris Pegg. 

Tournament payouts

1st Chris Pegg $2000

2nd Ben Crawley $1400

3rd Norbeto Decarlos $800

4th George Cornelius $500

5th/6th Brittany Bryant $300

                Jeremy Bolahood

7th/8th Rob Brandenburg $200

               Aaron Nie

9th/12th Naomi Williams $150

                Alfonso Chiong

                Chris Russel

                Marc Dumoulin

Player Auction

1st $3400

2nd $2100

3rd $1240

4th $850

5th/6th 420

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