2017 Canadian Championships Men's Open Results & Summary of the week

By: Markus Noe

Summary:
Last week May 23-29 the Black Lake arena in Thetford Mines Québec hosted the 2017 CBSA (Canadian Billiard & Snooker Association) Canadian Championships. Within the last year the EvenTime Production team headed by Marco Sanschagrin has joined up with the CBSA to produce the Canadian Championships.

Most would know EvenTime from their annual tournament Classique des Billard Appalaches which features tournaments over 4 days from C classe to Pro. The CBA  recently celebrated its 9th anniversary and wrapped up just two days before the Canadian Championships. They also run the Archer Cup which have seen some of the best players in the world participate. Every year the EvenTime team invest more money and makes improvements whether with scheduling issues, equipment and so on. The big plus is that these promoters really value input from the players and use that to improve their events year after year.

While speaking with Sanschagrin he admits that they would not be where they are without their sponsors, especially the city of Thetford Mines. This year with the help of their sponsors EvenTime invested another $50,000. $20,000 of which went into the rigging for the lighting alone which you can see in the picture below.

The little inside information that I received this week is that EvenTime has put in a bid to host the Canadian Championships for next 5 years. This year was a trial of sorts to see how things worked out in Thetford Mines. Overall I would say it was a success as this was the first year since I started following pool, that the venue was big enough to host all the Canadian Pool Championships at once under one roof. This includes all the Open and Amateur events. Numbers could have been higher throughout all the divisions however unfortunately this week ran right into the popular VNEA leagues in Vegas. However this week was still a far cry from the low numbers of the past and in just two years we have seen significant improvement from the CBSA.

I would like to take a moment to Congratulate the CBSA board for a successful event and for the hard work that I saw John White, Randall Morrison and Alain Parent do.

The entire EvenTime team deserves some recognition as well for an amazing venue and atmosphere. I know the team is big and I am leaving people out, however these 3 are the ones I have dealt with. Congratulations to Marco Sanschagrin, Roger Doyon and Michel McCutcheon for an amazing job this year. I look forward to seeing what they have for us in the future.

Results:

Adam Monture

8 Ball 

The Open Championships began Tuesday May 23rd with 8 Ball. In what could be considered a fairly good underdog story. Long time player Adam Monture who before this week was ranked a Semi-Pro in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) broke through and snapped of the title undefeated. Since we started Cue Sport Nation Monture has taken down some serious events winning close to $10,000 at a time, twice. This is a perfect example of the talent "bubble" in the GTA. With world class players such as John Morra, Alex Pagulayan, Jason Klatt, Erik Hjorleifson all calling Toronto home at some point in the last 10 years, it has really stepped the talent level up. To the point with the big four being so dominate it has impeded the ranking progressions of others in my opinion, but it has not stopped their development as players. This is of course is just my opinion but I believe it is what has allowed for a monster talent and player like Adam Monture to fly under the radar for so long.

Last year was the first time I met Monture in person and this year I had the luxury of spending more time speaking with him and seeing him play. If you have not had the pleasure yet he is one of the good guys, a real class act on and off the table and an incredible shot maker who shows little to no nerve. Good luck in China! Also it should be noted that Monture is the first player not named Klatt, Hjorleifson, Morra or Pagulayan who has broken through and won a Canadian title in sometime. This goes to show you just how impressive this victory was. Here is a list of his victims on route to his first national title .

Monture 9 Bagot 5
Monture 9 Massender 6
Monture 9 Aupin 4
Monture 9 Hjorleifson 4
Monture 9 Morra 4
Monture 9 Klatt 7 

While celebrating his big win, here is what Monture posted on Facebook, " I would like to Dedicate my 8 ball Championship title to my father if it wasn't for him I don't think I would of even picked up a cue and thanks to On the Snap , cool kids and thanks to all my friends and families who cheered me on."


9 Ball

John Morra

On may 25th the Canadian 9 Ball Championships got underway. This to me was the most intriguing tournament of the bunch because a lot happened throughout the tournament. John Morra had an undefeated run to finals beating Alain Martel, Justin Kluznik, Francis Crevier, and Jason Klatt. Former Canadian 10 Ball Champion and runner up at the 25th edition of the Turning Stone Classic Erik Hjorleifson made a significant charge on the losers side to make the final after losing 11-3 to Luc Salvas.

Hjorleifson caught fire on the losers side with no one really getting close. He had wins over Kluznik, Monture, Klatt, Martel, and Daigle on his way to meet Morra. The final was thrilling as either player was able to gain more than a 2 rack lead at anytime. With the scoreline 14-14 race to 15 it was Hjorleifson who was breaking for the title. He had a successful break and the table looked like it would not be a problem. However a positional error from the 4 to the 5 ball which can only be described as a mental error left him a tough shot on the 5 which he missed. Morra quickly pounced and added yet another Canadian Championship to his resume.

On a side note John Morra did not RETIRE! He simply stated early this year he will be taking a break to pursue other interests which he has done. What he really meant more or less is that he will no longer be playing 40 tournaments a year and spending 8 plus months on the road anymore. He has done this for a decade and with a new beautiful fiancee at home and other opportunities arising he will be picking and choosing when he plays more carefully in the future. Congratulations to John Morra who once again showed his class over the rest of the field this week, good luck in Qatar.

10 Ball 

Jason Klatt 

On May 27th the Canadian 10 Ball Championships got underway. The story of this tournament was how Jason Klatt and John Morra showed their world class stamina and cut through the field with ease. After a long week of pool most of the feild showed fatigue however these two well traveled pro's showed almost no drop off. Both players went undefeated to the winners side final. Klatt had an easier path to this point in terms of scorelines as no one was able to get past 5 games. While Morra had to fade two double hill matches against Danny Hewitt and Martin Daigle. However in the winners side final Morra won easily 10-3.

Klatt met up with Alain Martel for the second time that day in the losers final. Winning again 10-7 to earn a rematch with Morra. The final was a much closer affair with Klatt wining 10-3. Congratulations to Jason Klatt on his win. Currently there is no World 10 ball Championship scheduled. There are rumors that China will pick this up as well as the 8 ball, if so Klatt will be our representative!

We will post the Women's Open Results and Amateur results later this week. As well as the Speed Pool, 14.1 and Bank Pool Results.

I would like to once again thank my sponsors for this event! 

                                                   Touhey Management

Corner Bank: John White Wins his 3rd Canadian Snooker Title

Winner John White, Photo by Alex Marsilii

By: Erik Hjorleifson

This past week The Corner Bank in Scarborough played host to the Canadian Snooker Championships. The corner bank features 8 beautiful Schender tables. This year the lighting was also improved and was it so bright you could see a difference throughout the make up of the entire room. This years field contained many past champions including John White, Tom Finstad, Alan Whitfield and Ed Galati. Other hopefuls looking for their first title included Charlie Brown, Jason Williams, Rajesh Maru, Kristal McCleod and Alex Zhang. This years tournament featured a special incentive of $20 000 for anyone that ran a perfect game sponsored by Harley Davidson. There were a couple of attempts by Ed Galati who made it to 8 consecutive blacks as well as Tom Finstad who also reached 8. Al Whitfield ended up with the high run honours and the $500 prize with a run of 122.

This year the CBSA (Canadian Billiards and Snooker Association) decided to go with a single knockout format as opposed to the round robin events that we have seen in previous years. The first three rounds were best of 7 with the quarter finals best of 9 semi finals a best of 11 and the finals a best of 13. First round losers were also entered into a consolation tournament in which Alex Zhang defeated Phil Snache in the final.

The first round saw Kristal McCleod from the east coast pull of an impressive win over former Richler Cup champion Alex Zhang. Blake Martel the lone representative from Manitoba also started his impressive run to the quarter finals with a win over the very capable Rob Wadell from Ontario.

In Round two the seed players were in action and two former Canadian champions in John White and Ed Glati were set to face off. In this match John put the field on notice that he would be a force to reckon with coming away with a 4-1 win. Jim Gourlie also defeated local player Hussain Rahimi 4-3 and Tony Renda from Missisagua also pulled off a sizeable upset against Jason Williams one of the  tournament favorites 4-2.

In the Round of 16 former champion Al Whitfield was eliminated by former top player Rajesh Maru from Toronto who showed that he can still play. Two of the final Quebec hopefuls faced of with Andre Roy defeating Jacques Cote.

The most closely contested Quarter Final match was between Rajesh Maru and Fern Loyer who has had many strong finishes in 2016 including a third place finish at the Richler Cup held in Burlington the first week of May. Fern's experience would give him the edge in this match as he advanced by a score of 5-3. John White, Floyd Ziegler and Tom Finstad also advanced to the semis.

The Semi Finals saw three former Canadian Champions and possibly one of the best players to never win the Canadian Championships in the mix. These players have been battling for the last thirty years and all have more experience than most players could ever dream of. In both matches the losing side got out to a two nothing lead but John White and Fern Loyer came back strong with six straight wins each to book their place in the final.

The final was set for mothers day starting 2:30 eastern time. Fern Loyer would be looking for his first Canadian title in probably his twentieth attempt maybe more and John White would be looking for his third overall and second in the last 3 years. Both players were out for battle and in the first 10 games no one held more than a two game lead. At 5 all John White was able to find the x factor to get over the line with a 7-5 scoreline in an epic match that took appproximately ten hours. Huge congratulations goes out to host room owner and 2017 Canadain Champion John White "the guy that never practices" and trust me I'm around the room a lot and that is no myth, the stamina and mental toughness that you have to have to survive these ten hour battles especially in snooker is something that only comes from years of prior experience.

Special thanks also goes out to CBSA president Randall Morrison for facilitating the tournament and providing the fans with a free stream beginning to end.

1st John White               $5000 plus World amateur expenses
2nd Fern Loyer               $2000
3rd/4th Tom Finstad     $1500
               Floyd Ziegler
5th/8th Rajesh Maru     $500
               Blake Martel
               Derrick Claus
               Andre Roy

Crevier Wins Falcon Cues Pro Tour Grand Final

Runner up Dany Normandin, Tour Director Danny Hewitt, winner Francis Crevier.  

By: Markus Noé

On the weekend of April 29-30 Dooly's Valleyfield hosted the Grand Final of the Falcon Cues Quebec Pro Tour. This marks the conclusion of the second year of this tour under the direction of Alain Parent, Danny Hewitt and Luc Paquette. The tour featured 13 regular season stops which were spread out over three provinces. Some tournaments were as far away as 12 hours from their home base of Montreal but these organizers despite having full time jobs, families and one with health issues made it to all the tournaments themselves and promoted pool. Before the formation of this tour there was virtually nothing for elite players to participate in Quebec, and Eastern Ontario. I would like to congratulate them on their success and thank these three for their tireless work and filling this much needed void in our pool community.

57 players descended upon Dooly's Valleyfield to participate in this Grand Final. This room is easily one of the nicest in the area and was made even better by having all their tables changed to Simonis Tournament Blue cloth days before this event. The format in this circuit is races to 9 on both the winners and losers side, alternate break 9 ball call shot and break from the "box."

All the top players from the talent rich province of Québec were in attendance such as Francis Crevier, Alain Martel, Danny Hewitt, Sylvain Grenier to name a few. Ontario was represented by Andy Aupin, Jared Amyot and Jean Theriault. The Average Falcon Tour stop has seen around 32 to players which has been good but at times the top 5 positions have been a bit predictable and upsets far and few in between. With the extra players who came to participate for this $4000 added event it set up the potential of some upsets which did occur.

The biggest one to mention would be Danny Hewitt who over the past two years has won well over 50% of these events, did not make it to the second day. He was eliminated by two strong semi-pro's Yves Gaudreault and Sebastien Cousineau. The other upset to the disappointment of the local fans was Luc Salvas not being able to make it to the second day losing to Eric Cloutier and Sylvain Grenier finishing in the 9th-12th position.

The top 8 players were brought back on Sunday to see who would be crowned Grand Final Champion. On the winners side it was Andre Pelletier vs Francis Crevier and Dany Normandin vs Norm Pomanville. The first losers side matches of the day included Jean Theriault vs Yves Gaudreault and Alain Martel vs Slyvain Grenier.

Crevier won a close match 9-7 against Pelletier and Normandin eased passed Pomanville 9-4. Grenier eliminated Martel and Gaudreault did the same to Theriault. The next round of matches pitted Crevier vs Normandin in the winners side final which Normandin won 9-2.

Back on the losers side Grenier faced off against Pelletier in what could be considered the most entertaining match of the tournament. Pelletier is a pro who played his most pool in the 1990's and saw a fair degree of success. As of late he has had a resurgence and showed his strong mental in this match. Grenier started off on fire and quickly gained a 6-0 lead which in alternate break usually in all fairness means the match is done. However before you can blink it was 7-7. When the score was 8-8 Grenier did what champions tend to do, he seized the moment broke a perfect rack and carefully ran out for the win.

Grenier's run on the losers side would end in the 4th place match as Gaudreault continued his impressive performance wining 9-8. Crevier was waiting for him in the losers side final and made quick work of Gaudreault 9-2. He carried this momentum into the final winning the extended race to 11-3. Congratulations to Crevier for adding another big win to his resume. The Falcon Tour does have one more stop at Dooly's Levis May 13-14 for the top 16 in points during the regular season. This is a $1500 added event. I would like to thank Parent, Hewitt and Paquette for giving me everything necessary to cover this tournament and for being one of Cue Sport Nations sponsors. I look forward to covering next season of the Falcon Tour.

1er 2,000.00 $     Francis Crevier

2e 1,460.00 $     Dany Normandin

3e 1,000.00 $      Yves Gaudreault

4e 725.00 $         Sylvain Grenier

5-6e 500.00 $          Norm Pomainville

                                André Pelletier

7-8e 300.00 $          Jean Thériault

                                Alain Martel

9-12e 180.00 $    Martin Daigle

                                  Carol Audet

                                  Jeff Blais

                                  Luc Salvas

13-16e 100.00 $    Nicolas Charette

                                  Sébastien Laramée

                                   Éric Cloutier

                                   Pierre Normand

17-24e 50.00 $        Charles Lamb

                                    Jean Vaillancourt

                                    Justin Miller

                                    Maxime Villeneuve

                                    Keith Nelson

                                    Sébastien Cousineau

                                    André Goyette

                                    Andrew Aupin

Corner Bank : Arsenault Wins OBSA 9 Ball Championship

Rod Arsenault

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

This past weekend The Corner Bank in Scarborough, Ontario played host to the OBSA (Ontario Billiards and Snooker Association) amateur 9-ball provincial championships. The event carried a generous $3000 in added prize money with the top four finishers receiving partial expenses to the Canadian amateur championships in Thetford Mines, Quebec taking place the last week of May. This provincial Championship was a culmination of an effort put forth between Greg Plester OBSA board member and OBSA board members and room owners John White and Frank Kakourous. This year saw the return of the OBSA as active promoter of cuesports in Ontario seeing them hold 10 regular season events at rooms all across Ontario. Paul Duell won the regular season points race with Brad Guthrie finishing second. It is a great breath of fresh air to see the game being organized at a provincial level with an official governing body after a long absence of OBSA run events. The OBSA also saw the players move towards the A, AA, AAA, Semi pro and Pro categories that mirrors the handicap system in Quebec which has proven to be quite successful. Minimal handicaps were the most common format for the regular season events and the provincial championships was a non handicapped event . Winner breaks with the 9 ball racked on the spot was used thoughout all events. 


Fifty five players came out to compete at the corner bank, play started Saturday morning and a healthy player auction of $4500 kicked off the festivities.
Saturday match highlights included:


Rod Arsenault over Paul Duell
Brad Guthrie  over Greg Plester
Naomi Williams over Dave Robertson
Kenny Chen over Naomi Williams
Wayne Tate over Kenny Chen
Ronald Giron over Tom Fraser


12 players would come back for play on Sunday with Rod Arsenault facing off against Wayne Tate and Jeet Khandai against Sumon Sarkar on the other half of the bracket. Rod and Sumon would emerge from these matches to set up the winners side final. As the Losers side dwindled down Naomi Williams finished a great run on the losers side after losing first round finishing fifth.  Jehlar Fenandez filled out the second fifth place spot, Wayne Tate came back all the way to third defeating Naomi Williams and Jeet Khandai along the way before falling to Sumon Sarkar which set up a rematch of the winners side final between Sarkar and Arsenault. In the extended race to 11 finals Sarkar got out to an early lead but it was all Arenault in the end taking home the title.


Special consideration also goes out to Che Lemmon for receiving the most improved player award.


1st Rod Arsenault $1400
2nd Sumon Sarkar $1060
3rd Wayne Tate      $780
4th Jeet Khandai    $540
5th Naomi Williams $380
       Jehlar Fernandez


Player auction $1800
                           $1200
                           $700
                            $400
                            $215

Strokers London Ontario: Wood Wins Weaver Memorial

Winner Chris Wood 

By: Erik Hjorleifson

This past weekend Strokers billiards in London played host to the 6th annual Leave it to Weaver Teen Challenge Pool Tournament.  For the fourth consecutive year the field sold out at 128 players (prepaid spots with a waiting list), making it the largest field for any tournament in Ontario. The success of this event is truly a team effort between tournament promoter Anita Chan, owner of Strokers billiards Ronda Drew-Clement and the Weaver family who also generously added $1000 (extra $500 this year) to the prize fund. Special thanks also goes out to Stu MacTaggart, Taylor Chan and Dolores Weaver for their countless hours of help. For anyone that has not attended the tournament it is always a first class affair with so many added touches like a homemade buffet provided by the Weaver family, friends of Jamie or volunteers. Free door prize drawings that include donated gifts and gifts bought by the Weaver family. Fifty-Fifty draws and extra draw tickets in support of Teen Challenge a charity organization that provides support for teens at risk with addictions are ongoing throughout the weekend. At the end of the weekend nobody leaves empty handed and that is something that can rarely be said at your everyday tournament.

Every year a ceremonial toast is performed in honor of Jamie who was an avid billiard enthusiast and a great friend to many in the London pool community and around Ontario. It is always a great celebration of remembrance that gives everyone involved a chance to remember someone that meant so much to many and brightened so many lives.

As in past years the tournament was a three day event and after the opening ceremonies got underway Jeff Dick took on the daunting task of running through the 128 player Calcutta. Big names in the field this year included myself, Chris Wood, Andy Aupin and Adam Monture along with hometown favourites David Parker, Tyler Nearing and Jesse Piercey. Two of Jamies friends Greg Gauthier  (Jamie's best fiend) and Adam Cudmore also made the trip all the way from the maritimes.  A bidding war ensued for the pick of the field and finally a record breaking buy of $1300 received the honour. From there many more blinds were sold and after all players were auctioned off a record breaking total of $11270 was up for grabs.

The first round of 9 ball play began on Friday night on sixteen Dufferin tables with low handicaps of 4 and a high of 13, it was a double knockout bracket and winner breaks. With the huge field of players play continued non stop all the way past midnight on Saturday and tournament director Heath Manning and Ronda Drew-Clement did a great job of filing the players through efficiently.

Match highlights from Friday and Saturday included 

Dj McGinley over Jesse Piercey

Chris Wood over Jason Williams

Erik Hjorleifson over Tyler Nearing and Adam Monture  

Andy Aupin over Mike Fisher

Twelve players returned on Sunday including myself vs Chris Wood in one winners side semi final and Paul Duell against Steve B from Windsor on the other half of the bracket. The match between me and Chris turned out to be very hotly contested going right down to the hill game where a long safety battle ensued with Chris finally getting the best of it. Paul Duell also advanced to face Chris in the winners side final. As the B side narrowed down Tyler Nearing continued a great run after losing second round defeating Stu Mactaggart, myself and Adam Monture in succession. Monture had a strong fouth place finish defeating Andy Aupin along the way. Chris Wood continued his fine play in the winners side final defeating Duell to take the hotseat. Duell showed some great heart coming off a loss finally ending a ten match winning streak by Tyler Nearing who finished in an impressive third place. 

The final would be a true double elimination format with Duell needing to win 9 games to Chris' 11. After Chris took a seven a 7-2 lead in the first set Paul dug deep and made a great comeback setting up a final set for all the marbles. Unfazed by his first set loss Chris came out strong in the second  set and didn't let up finishing off the deal with a convincing 11-1 win. Chris is a legend on the Ontario, North American and international scene who is strong at all games and has a huge wealth of experience. Despite taking some time off in recent years he showed that he still has what it takes and I can assure you that a win in this field is no easy task especially playing at one of the highest handicaps, huge congratulations goes out to Chris and welcome back to the winners circle.

This is such a great tournament and the attention to detail and effort put forth by Anita and her team is always evident and results in a great time had by all.  

In closing tournament promoter Anita Chan added:

My envision is to celebrate Jamie’s life, help save a life and or to encourage people to get help and to have an awesome tournament.

Everyone pitches in to make this tourney a success.  Everyone commits to something whether it is their entry, a donation of a prize/cash or to help make food etc.. 

Each year, more and more volunteer to do something!  It really shows the “power of positive” and team work.  Thank you just isn’t enough!  See you all next year!  I know Jamie is up there smiling ear to ear!

                                       Tournament            Auction

1st Chris Wood                $1125                       $3620

2nd Paul Duell                 $725                          $2500

3rd Tyler Nearing            $500                          $1500

4th Adam Monture         $400                          $850

5th Erik Hjorleifson         $300                          $500

       Steve Arnold

7th Andy Aupin                $200                          $300

       Stu MacTaggart

Top 24 paid

Rack-M-Up Billiards Raises $1100 for Epilepsy of Ontario

From left to right, Clayton Disotell, Jean Vallaincourt, Jay Cuggy, Doug  Disotell, Amanda Collins, Andy Menke

By: Markus Noé

During the weekend of March 18-19 Rack-M-Up Billiards hosted the inaugural Break for Epilepsy Charity 9 Ball Tournament. The idea for this came from the owners Doug Disotell and Amanda Collins. Disotell has seen first hand the hardships his niece Payson Boucher has undergone with her own battle with epilepsy, because of this he decided to see what he could do to help an important cause.

This was an amateur handicap event with players racing to their number. A beginning player would be a 5 and would need to win 5 games in order to win the match. The numbers went up to 9 depending on skill level. With the help from social media the response for this event was overwhelming. So much so Disotell was forced to extend the field past the originally posted 32 maximum as 36 players confirmed. The cap was at 32 because of the limited amount of tables available which would cause some delays however after a brief discussion it did not make sense to turn down raising more money. 

The entry fee was 60$ with $10 going as donation to the tournament. Tommy Fagan (82) long time player at Rack-M-Up Billiards once hearing about the charity event asked himself what he could do to help. On his own accord he went around his community and asked businesses and friends to donate what they could and between cash and gift certificates Fagan raised an extra $250. This combined with a 50/50 draw and some other personal donations brought the total up to $1100 raised for the charity. 

Being that that this was a two day tournament the idea was to play down to the final 6 and bring them back Sunday. Throughout day 1 there was many surprises as many of the favourites to win the event did not make it out of the day. Players like Justin Miller, Do Gauthier, Kirk Pawnis Marc Ducharme, Charley Sypes and Mike Mitchell all suffered early exists. 

This was a double elimination meaning you if lost two matches you were out. On Sunday the losers side match ups began at 11:00 am With Jay Cuggy beating Markus Noé and Andy Menke getting by Paul Daoust. Former owner of Rack-M-Up Billiards Clayton Disotell made a charge through the winners side bracket and went all the way to the winners side final. There he met up with a strong AAA player from Gatineau Jean Vallaincourt. Disotell continued his charge and won a close match securing his spot in the grand final. 

On the losers side of the bracket Cuggy edged out a very game Menke in a close match with Menke being eliminated in 4th place. Vallaincourt made quick work of Cuggy in the losers 9-3 giving him another shot at Disotell. However between Disotell good shooting and a few moments of good fortune he was not to be denied and walked away with the final to win one of the biggest local tournaments in some time. 

Special thank you goes to:

Mark Baker 50.00 gift card's from the Squire Shoppe

Sara Proulx Gift basket from Salon on Second

Jay Cuggy 20.00$

Mike Joannette 5.00

Bill and Tom Fagan 100.00

Connie Aube 20.00

Bob Gauthier 20.00

Kelly Geneau 10.00

Denis Lalonde, Cornwall Automotive service 25.00

Jack and Jean Lawson 30.00

M&J Rochon 20.00

Nelson Ayotte 20.00

Clayton Disotell 100.00 

Doug Disotell and Amanda Collins 80.00

Henry Barkwell 20.00

Pat Piquette 10.00

Maureen Fagan 20.00

Payouts:                             Calcutta

1. Clayton Disotell $600       $575

2. Jean Vaillancourt $360     $425

3. Jay Cuggy         $260       $300

4. Andy Menke    $180         $200

5/6. Paul Daoust/$120 $150

       Markus Noé $120 $150

7.Charley Sypes/Mike Mitchell $75  

   

 

NAPT: Menard Battles Back to Double Dip Williams in Sacramento

Menard & Williams 

By: Farla Samanovitch

Hard Times billiards in Sacramento California hosted an amazing 9 ball tournament with 54 women. They battled it out for $10,400 in prize fund and invites to all NAPT ( North American Pool Tour) division 1 pro events for next year.

7 Quebecois made the trip to play. It started with a round robin format from which 32 would emerge and play a double elimination main event. Of the 7, Veronique Menard, Venus Belanger & Farla Salmanovitch made it out of their brackets to the last 32 with Veronique going undefeated in her bracket.

Menard made it all the way to the hot seat match only to be defeated in a hill hill thriller versus Susan Williams.  Unfortunately the match was lost because Menard mistakenly touched the cue ball with her cue while stroking to shot on the 8 ball at 6-6 for the match. She then beat Liz Lovely in the B-side final to get another chance at Williams.

In the final Veronique would have to double dip her to claim the title and she did so in fine fashion 7-4 both sets. The venue was one of the best pool room set ups I have ever seen with a separate tournament room filled with Brunswick gold crowns that were well maintained and a wall of comfortable bleachers for the spectators. This event was extremely well run by the NAPT organization and look forward to the next one.

Top 3 Payouts:

1st Veronique Menard $1,500

2. Susan Williams $1,200

3. Liz Lovely $900