Justin Pelech, Pat Langley and Ed Wooley
Two years ago in the Garden State Pool Tour’s annual Fall Brawl, Ed Langley finished as runner-up to Kevin Scalzitti. This year, he checked in to compete in the 6th Annual Fall Brawl, held on Saturday, Sept. 10, and went undefeated to claim the title. The $200-added event drew 20 entrants to Players Billiards in Eatontown, NJ.
The event featured a combination of 8-ball and 9-ball matches, divided in favor of more 9-ball competition; eight racks of 9-ball and five racks of 8-ball in the races to 7 on the winners’ side of the bracket, six racks of 9-ball and three racks of 8-ball in the races to 5 on the loss side, 11 racks of 9-ball and six racks of 8-ball in the race to 9 finals. The finals in this year’s Fall Brawl proved to be the only match that began with 9-ball.
Langley faced Ed Woolley twice in this event; hot seat and finals. Langley got by Jorge Capillo 7-4, then battled Jaydev Zaveri to double hill before advancing to a winners’ side semifinal against Kyle Bubet. Woolley’s route to the hot seat match went through Kervin Santamaria and David Jusis, to whom he gave up one rack, each, to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Christian Taez.
Langley sent Bubet to the loss side 7-2 and was joined in the hot seat match by Woolley, who’d sent Taez over 7-3. In their first of two, Langley downed Woolley 7-3, evenly splitting their games of 8-ball and 9-ball, finishing with the latter and claiming the hot seat.
On the loss side, Taez drew Zaveri, who’d followed his loss to Langley with a 5-1 victory over Ben Zimmerman and a double hill win over 2020 champion, Kevin Scalzitti. Bubet picked up Justin Pelech, who’d lost to Zaveri in a second-round match and chalked up three on the loss side versus Jorge Capillo 5-2, David Jusis 5-0 and Alex Vangilov 5-1.
Pelech did his part to secure a quarterfinal rematch against Zaveri with a 5-2 win over Bubet, but Taez gave up only a single rack to Zaveri. Pelech made it six in a row in those quarterfinals, defeating Taez 5-2, but his streak came to an abrupt halt in the semifinals, when Woolley won five straight games of 8-ball to earn a second shot against Langley.
As it turned out, Langley and Woolley played 9-ball for all but the last game of the final race-to-9. It switched at the conclusion of the 11th game of 9-ball and Langley completed his undefeated run by winning the only 8-ball match and claiming the event title.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked the ownership and staff at Players Billiards (“one of the most player-friendly rooms in the New Jersey area”) for their hospitality, along with sponsors IntheBx, Off the Rail, Billiards Engineering, John Bender Custom Cues, JFlowers Cues & Cases & Kamui. The next two Garden State Pool Tour events will be hosted at Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ, commencing with this weekend’s Sunday, Sept. 18 C-D Class 9-Ball event; 40-player maximum. On October 8-9, the tour will welcome a new host to the Garden State Pool Tour family – Diamond Jim’s in Nanuet, NY, who will host a 64-player A-D Class tournament.
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