1st Annual Pat Cormier Memorial Pool Tournament

Submitted by Jayson Goyer

It was a great time for all in Belleville this past weekend who participated at  Pat Cormier Memorial pool tournament at Mr. Zeds Billiards Room. There was 30 entrants from Belleville, Picton, Brockville, Kingston and Trenton, A special thanks to Brandon Cormier for running things as smooth as possible and to Lois Cormier and the Preston family for their generous door prize donations,

Kingstown Brewery gave sizable prize donation,  and Pizza Hut Belleville also donated prizes.  We would like to also thank Kim Bracken and Lisa Knell for doing an awesome job running the 50-50 draw selling over $500 in tickets WOW ! Also a special thanks to George (grey bush) Sokolowski for Mc-ing the best dam player auction I have ever been a part of in Belleville collecting over $1,000 cash payout, and a special thanks to Peter for letting us take over his pool room for 2 days.

Results 
8 Ball 1st prize $700 Devin Buttle
2nd $420 Ron Bradshaw
3rd $260 Steve Winter
4th $160 Stan Wilkinson
10 Ball 1st prize $700 Ron Bradshaw
2nd $500 Jay Goyer

And over $350 raised for the Children's Hospital.

3rd Annual Ashton Twins Classic Dates!

By: Markus Noé

The Ashton Twins Classic which is only in it's third year now has quickly become the second most prestigious female event in Canada, outside the Canadian Championships. This event has attracted named players such as Brittany Bryant Emily Duddy as well as both of the Ashton sisters themselves Joanne and Beverely who are accomplished players in their own right.

The Hidden Spot pool room in Calgary is the premier place to play in the area and a beautiful venue for a big event. It is rumored that the added money will be around $10,000. Joanne Ashton has announced the dates to be June 14-18 more details to come!

2nd Annual East Coast Canadian 9 Ball Open Announcement!

Thomas Martin, the main promoter of pool in the East Coast of Canada at the moment has announced his second edition of the East Coast Canadian 9 Ball Open. This past November was the inaugural event which saw 238 players descend upon his pool room of RailBirds Billiards Inc in Halifax Nova Scotia.

 When this tournament was first announced last year, it caused an immediate stir as it was easily the biggest prize pool played in Canada in at least a decade. The large amount of added money attracted world class players all around the globe including, Mika Immonen, John Morra, Imrad Majid ,Alex Pagulayan and Erik Hjorleifson to name a few. By all accounts this was a well run world class event.

Immonen beat Morra in the final to win the inaugural event in a close match. Once again this year the field is open to 256 players and with the buzz created from the precious event this one should be even better. If the poster above cannot answer all your questions please contact TJ Martin at 902-402-7954.

Drummondville: Daigle Wins Largest Falcon Tour Field of the Season

Winner Martin Daigle, Director Danny Hewitt, Runner up Dan Normandin and second chance winner Darren Auclair 

By: Markus Noé

The Falcon Québec Pro Tour saw the biggest turnout of the season with 55 players descending upon Billiard Heriot in Drummondville, . The field boasted 12 pro's and a healthy number of high level Semi-Pro and AAA players. What added to this this tournament was the 34 amateurs that participated in this non-handicap event. This demonstrates that the staggered entry fee system that the Falcon Tour organizers Danny Hewitt and Luc Paquette have implemented is working.

With so many pro's and other top players in attendance it made it possible for upsets to occur. In Québec Alain Martel, and Danny Hewitt have been so dominate for so many years now its almost a guarantee that one of them will win the tournament if they are both in the field and no big out of province names show up.

Recent third place finisher at the Turning Stone Classic and finalist this year on the Falcon Tour Joey Cicero was the first big name to be upset. He went down in the first round to the Québec Junior Champion Tommy Cayer 9-7. Cicero did not have his best match however Cayer showed his potential by not playing scared and taking advantage of the opportunities given to him. In his next match he met up with one of the fastest rising female players in Québec Valerie Bedard who recently returned from a successful trip to Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento, California. This was for the NAPT Division 2 (North American Pool Tour) stop, Bedard cashed in this event in the 9-12th position. She was apparently still in form as she got by Cayer 9-7 and in her match had Pro Martin Daigle down 4-1 before eventually losing 9-4.

Marco Caron

Top players such as Nicholas Charret, Harold Rousseau, Yan Lalande, Ghislain Champagne all found themselves out well before the cash, which goes to show you the caliber of the field. Semi-Pro players Marco Caron and Daniel Gagné both had impressive performances in this tournament and eventually met up on the losers side in the 5/6th position. Caron beat two Pro's on his winners side charge, Harold Rousseau and Ghislain Champagne. Gagné who lost early on the winners side won 4 matches on the losers side before ending Caron's tournament 9-6.

Daniel Gagné

 Gagné then went on to have an impressive win over Alain "The Dancing Bear" Martel 9-5 in the 4th place match. In the third place match he met up with Martin Daigle who just suffered his first lost to Dan Normandin another former 3rd place finisher at the Turning Stone Classic. Daigle went on to end Gagné's impressive run 9-7 and earned his rematch with Normandin.

Daigle would not be denied in this extended race to 11, as he won 11-7 to earn his first Falcon Tour victory of the season. Congratulations to all the winners, I would also like to thank Danny Hewitt and Luc Paquette for putting on a great event. The next Falcon Tour will be held in Edmundston New Brunswick this weekend March 10-11. Finally I would like to thank my main sponsor for this tournament Doug Disotell and Rack-M-Up Billiards.