The United States Snooker Association (USSA) continues to rejuvenate snooker in the United States in 2009 with its inaugural USSA National Snooker Tour, and the third stop on the Tour at the Prince Snooker Club - directed by USSA member Raymond Fong - in Brooklyn, NY, February 7-8, enjoyed a full 16-player field. Four round-robin preliminary flights determined the eight players for the final rounds. The preliminary flights featured 3-frame matches among each opponent within a flight for a total of nine frames played per player. Brooklynites dominated the prelims, as locals Henry Wong, Jian Qiang Wong, Raymond Fung and Kevin Wong all recorded undefeated 3-0 records. Ahmad Ali (Brooklyn, NY) claimed overall high run honors in the quarterfinals with a break of 64.
[Numbers indicate win/loss record in frames in prelims]
Group A:
1st Henry Wong (Brooklyn, NY): 3-0
2nd Gary Cheung (Brooklyn, NY): 1-2 *
3rd Sridhar Shrinivasan (Philadelphia, PA): 1-2
4th Raimond Cheung (Queens, NY): 1-2
*Cheung places second with best point differential
Group B:
1st Jian Qiang Wong (Brooklyn, NY): 3-0
2nd Ahmad Ali (Brooklyn, NY): 2-1
3rd Jason Wen (Marlboro, NJ): 1-2
4th Leo Li (Brooklyn, NY): 0-3
Group C:
1st Raymond Fung (Brooklyn, NY): 3-0
2nd Jeff Szafransky (Mountain View, CA): 2-1
3rd Peter Chen (Brooklyn, NY): 1-2
4th Tim Lee (Manhattan, NY): 0-3
Group D:
1st Kevin Wong (Brooklyn, NY): 3-0
2nd Nelson Chan (Brooklyn, NY): 2-1
3rd Jing Chen (Brooklyn, NY): 1-2
4th Paul Ye (Queens, NY): 0-3
The top two in each flight moved forward to the single-elimination quarterfinals, where Henry Wong defeated Tour stop #1 winner Jeff Szafransky 3-0 [60(44)-32,58-13,53-33]; Ahmad Ali out stroked Kevin Wong 3-0 [89(64)-15,56-27,81(41)-3]; Raymond Fung eliminated Nelson Chan 3-1 [48-62(30),53-42,59(32)-11,56-22]; and Jian Qiang Wang eclipsed Gary Cheung 3-2 [62-25,80-47,26-55,23-61,73-31].
The semifinals saw both Henry Wong and Raymond Fung continue their momentums with only one loss frame between them: Fung dominating Jian Qiang Wang 3-0 [64(36)-12,55-22,81(42)-0] and Wong ousting Ahmad Ali 3-1 [30-73,60-30,59-33,71-10].
Henry Wong put up a good fight in the finals, but Raymond Fung continued his dominating play to capture the Stop #3 title over Wong by a 4-1 margin [44-48,53-36,60(36)-22,70-57,72-55].
Final Results:
1st Raymond Fung (Brooklyn, NY) - $400
2nd Henry Wong (Brooklyn, NY) - $200
3-4th Jian Qiang Wong (Brooklyn, NY) - $100
Ahmad Ali (Brooklyn, NY) - $100
High Run – Ahmad Ali (Brooklyn, NY) - $50
The USAA National Snooker Tour is sanctioned and produced by the United States Snooker Association (USSA) [established in 1991], which is recognized as the USA governing body for snooker by the world-governing body – the International Billiard & Snooker Federation (IBSF) – and which produces the annual USA National Snooker Championships to determine the representatives from the USA to the annual IBSF World Snooker Championships. The 2009 USSA National Championships will be conducted at the Prince Snooker Club in New York City, NY, May 21-24, and is open to the first 32 entries who are permanent residents or citizens of the USA. Info and entry details are available on the USSA website – www.snookerusa.com.
The USSA National Snooker Tour is sponsored by Aramith Billiard Balls and Strachan West Of England snooker cloth, and the 2009 Tour will feature its fourth stop (of the six-stop Tour) at The Embassy Club in San Gabriel, CA during the dates of February 17-20 (contact Richard Ham at tel. 626-616-2666 or richardlham@gmail.com).
