(Cross-posted from RSB) I know everyone on the other side of the USA is all down at Valley Forge right now, but over here in darkest Southern California the WPBA's annual tour stop has arrived at the Viejas Casino in Alpine, San Diego. I went down to the Pro-Am charity tournament they have before starting the tournament (Benefiting Breast Cancer research). This is the first time I have been to one of these events.
We played a little tournament where 3 amateurs were picked at random and put in a team with a Pro as captain. We then played against 3 of the other teams 9-ball for 20 minutes and whichever 2 teams won the most games overall went on to play a final match. My team was captained by Vivian Villarreal and we had lots of fun but did not make it to the finals. We were playing alternating shots, so if you made your shot then next person in your team took the next shot and so on. You get encouraged to shoot fast and wild as winning as quickly as possible is important. Unfortunately Vivian had to
follow me and I kept leaving her bad position, but I did manage one nice 5-9
combo.
Jeanette Lee was busy demonstrating her mastery of sharking techniques, makes you wonder what would happen if her and Keith McCready ever matched up.
After the tournament they took sign-ups for "Challenge the Pros" games. I played Karen Corr 2 games. In the first rack I was only kept in the game because of the awkward position the 1 and 4 were in. We played around for a while but once the 4 was out of the way Karen ran out like a well-oiled machine. However in the second rack I made the wing ball on the break, got a fairly nice spread and managed to run the rack. I was helped by the brand new Simonis 860 cloth and Centennial balls on the tables. (Gold Crown IVs) This allowed me to make a slow thin cut on the 1 ball from near the side pocket up into the corner pocket. On most tables I play on with slower cloth and dirty balls the shot would have died a foot or so from the corner. So my record is even against Karen, I guess I'll just have to wait until next year to try and settle it once and for all.
I chatted briefly with Tiffany Nelson who's sponsored by cuemaker Thierry Layani, who I had the pleasure of meeting (and getting remorselessly beaten by) in January in LA. Also there was Lisa Oldfield, who I had played a few times in the tournaments at Danny Ks. Turns out she had won a qualifier and was playing in the tournament, so I wished her luck. Given that she's drawn against Allison Fisher in the first round she's going to need it! (UPDATE - Lisa got wiped out by Allison, but Tiffany got through her first round match and plays Vivian Villareal next.)
I'll be back down on Sunday to watch the finals, so it's a fair bet I'll be getting to watch Karen and Allison play again
--
Aunty Dan
------------------------------------------
"For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoisted with his own petard."
- W. Shakespeare
------------------------------------------
We played a little tournament where 3 amateurs were picked at random and put in a team with a Pro as captain. We then played against 3 of the other teams 9-ball for 20 minutes and whichever 2 teams won the most games overall went on to play a final match. My team was captained by Vivian Villarreal and we had lots of fun but did not make it to the finals. We were playing alternating shots, so if you made your shot then next person in your team took the next shot and so on. You get encouraged to shoot fast and wild as winning as quickly as possible is important. Unfortunately Vivian had to
follow me and I kept leaving her bad position, but I did manage one nice 5-9
combo.
Jeanette Lee was busy demonstrating her mastery of sharking techniques, makes you wonder what would happen if her and Keith McCready ever matched up.
After the tournament they took sign-ups for "Challenge the Pros" games. I played Karen Corr 2 games. In the first rack I was only kept in the game because of the awkward position the 1 and 4 were in. We played around for a while but once the 4 was out of the way Karen ran out like a well-oiled machine. However in the second rack I made the wing ball on the break, got a fairly nice spread and managed to run the rack. I was helped by the brand new Simonis 860 cloth and Centennial balls on the tables. (Gold Crown IVs) This allowed me to make a slow thin cut on the 1 ball from near the side pocket up into the corner pocket. On most tables I play on with slower cloth and dirty balls the shot would have died a foot or so from the corner. So my record is even against Karen, I guess I'll just have to wait until next year to try and settle it once and for all.
I chatted briefly with Tiffany Nelson who's sponsored by cuemaker Thierry Layani, who I had the pleasure of meeting (and getting remorselessly beaten by) in January in LA. Also there was Lisa Oldfield, who I had played a few times in the tournaments at Danny Ks. Turns out she had won a qualifier and was playing in the tournament, so I wished her luck. Given that she's drawn against Allison Fisher in the first round she's going to need it! (UPDATE - Lisa got wiped out by Allison, but Tiffany got through her first round match and plays Vivian Villareal next.)
I'll be back down on Sunday to watch the finals, so it's a fair bet I'll be getting to watch Karen and Allison play again
--
Aunty Dan
------------------------------------------
"For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoisted with his own petard."
- W. Shakespeare
------------------------------------------