Jason Klatt
On an annual basis, the Canadian Billiard & Snooker Association (CBSA) sanctions and conducts our national professional billiard championships for top level players. The Canadian Cue Sport Association (CCS) is responsible for conducting the national amateur billiard championships.
In July of 2013, the CBSA and CCS announced a ‘combined’ Canadian Championships. With this alliance now formed, we expect to see increased growth and direction in our national events. On April 14th, 2014, all of Canada’s very best players – at all levels – were brought together, for a week long celebration of great pool. Both Associations are commended for their efforts in making this happen. Players from across the country entered these events with the hopes of being the next Canadian Champion.
The CSS had a strong showing of players with 104 teams in the 8-Ball event, 26 teams in the 9-ball event, 141 players in the 8-Ball singles event, 56 players in the 9-Ball singles and 25 teams in the scotch doubles event. That is a total of 773 players in all. The complete results for the CCS tournaments will be posted soon on their website.
Stage I of the CBSA championship was held at Shooters Snooker & Sports Club in Toronto. The top players from each group moved on to stage II held at the Delta Hotel in Meadowvale, Ontario. In the women’s 9-Ball event, Brittany Bryant defended her national title for the forth consecutive time. Brittany went undefeated with a 11-7 victory in the final match over Naomi Williams.
In the women’s 10-Ball, it was Brittany Bryant who stole the spotlight once again. Brittany bounced back from the B-side to take the title with a 10-4 win over Denise Belanger. It is obvious that Brittany has been the dominating female force in Canada for a number of years now. We have big expectations from her on the international level.
In the men’s divisions, the Bonus Ball team of John Morra, Jason Klatt and Erik Hjorleifson shared the three titles up for taking. A revitalized John Morra has been training hard both on and off the table. His efforts were rewarded as he won his seventh national title with a solid 11-3 performance over Jason Klatt in the 8-ball finals.
Although Jason Klatt suffered a first round loss in the 9-Ball event, he kept his eyes on the finish line. Jason faced John Morra once again in the finals. This time, Jason came out on top in a thrilling 15-13 final.
In the 10-Ball finals, a very determined Erik Hjorleifson trailed 8-4 against Andy Aupin in the race to 13. Erik stayed focused and fought back to reach the hill first leading 12-11. In the next rack, Erik executed a solid safety on the 7-ball and clinched his first national open title.
Visit www.cbsa.ca to view all the brackets for the Professional events. There has been plenty of positive feedback from players and spectators regarding the newest venue for the Canadian Professional Pool Championships. We look forward to seeing bigger and better things in the years to come.
The Canadian Billiards & Snooker Assoc. would also like to thank their two major sponsors for this event, OB Cues & Simonis Cloth. Their support of Canadian Cue Sports is greatly appreciated.
