Amanda Lampert
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OB Cues Ladies Tour held their 1st stop of the 2013 Tour Season at Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, Texas the weekend of January 26th/27th. Rusty’s has been a regular host site on the OB Cues Ladies Tour Calendar for many, many years. Special thanks and commendations are extended to Jeff Pitts, General Manager, Tim Gildon, Manager and all their supportive staff for their pleasant hospitality and service. Rusty’s Billiards,Arlington, is a 24 hours operation and the many fans, supporters, new and old friends, were a welcome sight for the ladies and we are grateful for all the smiling faces and fun times at Rusty’s.
Forty-one ladies came to play in this first stop of the year. There were lots of surprises, many hill-hill, and nail-biting matches but overall it was a superb first stop and lots of firsts for many long-time tour players. Melinda Bailey, former board member, newly Omega Billiards Tour founder and director, scored her highest finish ever since playing on the former Hunter Classics Tour and now OB Cues Ladies Tour. She won the hot seat match against Orietta Strickland securing her a spot in the finals and was the eventual 2nd place winner of this event. Kathy Knuth, also long time tour player both on Hunter Classics Tour and now OB Cues Ladies Tour, also placed her highest finish ever in 5th/6th. Malinda Williams, another long time tour player both on Hunter Classics Tour and now OB Cues Ladies Tour, also placed her highest finish ever in 7th/8th. High Five and rounds of applause to all ladies for a fantastic tournament finish.
We had many first time tour players and special thanks to Melinda Bailey who brought 3 new members, Natalie Mans and Cindy VanSickle who also brought new members. Some of these new members finished in the money at this event which is a great achievement in and of itself, especially being their first event.
By day’s end on Saturday, 12 players were still in the Main Event. On the winners side it was Orietta Strickland vs. board member Tracie Voelkering and Melinda Bailey vs. Kathy Knuth. On the one-loss side it was Malinda Williams vs. Chris Fields; Liz Mitchel vs. Michelle Cortez; board member Julie Stephenson vs. 2012 OBCLT Tour Champion and 2012 OBCLT Most Improved Player Kim Pierce; and Courtney Evans vs. Amanda Lampert.
The story of the tournament was Amanda Lampert who lost her 1st match of the day hill-hill to Michelle Cortez. Amanda, also founder and director of the newly formed Omega Billiards Tour, always a warrior and can never be counted out, finished her day on Saturday with 4 back-to-back wins. She then returned on Sunday continuing with her winning streak and two hill-hill matches. One hill-hill match was against Kim Pierce. Kim, always a force to be reckoned with, lost her 2nd match on Saturday and she, too, was fighting her way back. She won her next 7 matches before losing to Amanda. Kim finished 4thplace and we know we will see more of her winning ways in future events. Congratulations Kim!
The second hill-hill match that Amanda survived was against Orietta Strickland in the semi-finals. Orietta was playing very well as we all know she can but she lost a heart-breaker hot seat match to Melinda hill-hill. After Orietta made some uncharacteristic mistakes; she missed two 9-balls by hanging them in the pockets, 1 nice 9-ball bank but an unfortunate cue ball scratch for a loss. And in the final game, she attempted to make a 6-9 combo but left the 9 ball hanging and Melinda had an easy 6-ball combo to win the match. In the semi-finals match, both Amanda and Orietta, very strong and solid players, played their hearts outs and Amanda scored the win in a hill-hill match.
The finals match was Melinda vs. Amanda. Amanda completed her 11 match wins by double-dipping Melinda with scores of 7-3; 7-2 to earn 1st place and the $750 payday. Congratulations Amanda on your first tour win for this year. Awesome job!
