Kevin Clark, Karen Corr, Darren Appleton and Jason Klatt
If the barrier separating men and women on the felt fields of pool is ever going to be permanently removed, Karen Corr is as likely a candidate as any to be the movement's poster child. Corr joined 39 men competing for the 10th Annual American Straight Pool Championship over the weekend of September 12-14, and came within a single match of winning the whole thing. She was defeated, soundly, one might add, by Darren Appleton in those finals. The $13,000-added event (originally the Maryland 14:1 Open) was hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.
The event began with eight, round robin flights, consisting of four matches for each of five players in races to 100. At the end of those flights, 24 of the 40 players were seeded into a single elimination bracket, with the top eight seeds receiving byes in the opening round. The players were seeded by virtue of their total match victories and point differentials in the four matches they had played.
The top seed for the single elimination bracket was Tom Walter, who went undefeated, with a point differential of 319 (an average score of 100-20 in those opening rounds). Jason Klatt, playing in his fist straight pool tournament was the # 2 seed, also undefeated with a point differential of 305. In order, the other players receiving byes were Darren Appleton (290 point differential), Brandon Shuff (264), Kevin Clark (256), Johnny Archer (231), Mika Immonen (220), and Mike Dechaine (205). Corr was seeded at #9, having dropped one of her four matches (to Kevin Clark), though her point differential was stronger than Archer's at 252.
The top names in the event were spread out over the eight round robin flights, so that Appleton, Dechaine, Archer, Immonen, and Corr (as examples) did not compete in the early rounds of play. Each of those five faced strong players in their respective round robin matches.
The point differentials tightened immediately in the opening round of single elimination, with races to 125. On average, the point differential in the eight matches was decimal points over 56, with Robert Madenjian chalking up the largest difference (125-40 over Jeff Crawford) and Mike Davis battling in the tightest race (125-20). The top nine seeds in round robin play had averaged point differentials of just over 65.
In the second round, the top eight seeds joined in and increased the differential point average by about 13; from 56 in the opening rounds to 69 in the second. Contributing to this increase was Karen Corr, who not only eliminated Mike Dechaine in this second round, but did so by a score of 125 to minus 2. The closest race in this round was won Huidji See, who eliminated Johnny Archer 125-110. Corr had collected $100 by recording the highest run over Friday and Saturday of the event (83), which bested Dechaine's run over the same period by a single ball. In effect, she stomped on him twice.
Gone with Archer and Dechaine were Mike Davis, Shaun Wilkie, Danny Mastermaker and Holden Chin, who fell to Appleton 125-21; 32 down and eight to go. Corr battled Tom Walter. Shuff faced Kevin Clark (the only person at this stage to have defeated Corr), The Iceman (Mika Immonen) squared off against Jason Klatt and Appleton took on Huidji See.
The point differential in this quarterfinal round, with races to 150, averaged out at just over 63 balls, with Corr defeating Walter 150-122, Clark besting Shuff 150-75, Klatt getting by Immonen 150-88, and Appleton checking in with the largest differential, eliminating See 150-62.
Klatt would now face Appleton, as Corr turned to do battle against the only opponent who'd defeated her to that point, Kevin Clark.
The somewhat insignificant differential in the event semifinals was just over 50. It was brought about by Appleton's 150-50 victory over Jason Klatt, and the tightest race of the entire event that saw Corr advance to the finals by a single ball over Kevin Clark - 150-149. It was followed by the largest point differential recorded in the entire tournament; a gap of 122 balls, as Appleton claimed the event title with a 150-28 victory over Corr.
Peter Burrows, chairman of the American Straight Pool Championship, said that the 11th annual event is "likely" to be back at Diamond Billiards, and is being scheduled to precede the US Open 9-Ball Championships in 2015, so that players in attendance for the straight pool event can travel just a few miles to begin play in the US Open.
According to Burrows, a difficult time identifying a room willing to hold the 10th Annual 14:1 Maryland Open led to the search beyond the state of Maryland and into Virginia, where Diamond Billiards agreed to host.
Tour director Megan Fort thanked Thomas Dorsey and his staff at Diamond Billiards, Iwan Lee with Simonis Cloth and Aramis Balls, Nathan Sulinski, Pete Burrows, Michael Frank, Shaun Wilkie, Andy Lincoln, QPod (who donated raffle cues, as well as the cue presented to Appleton as the winner), Brian Russell of Focus Apparel (designer of the logo for the new American Straight Pool Championships), Lucasi Cues (Jamie and Wes Bond), John Berton and Kamui Tips.
