The 2nd stop of the Pechauer West Coast 9-Ball Tour was graciously hosted by The Cue Ball in Salem, OR November 8th and 9th. The Cue Ball has long been one of the most popular Tournament Stops on the West Coast. Owners Jim Lebold and son Casey Lebold have been well known for their promotion of anything pool since they opened in the early '60's. Jim and crew were on hand the entire weekend catering to players and tournament staff, we would like to thank them and greatly appreciate the warm hospitality.
Saturday matches went off without a hitch and Sunday the top twelve players, those who made it into money matches, came back to battle for positions. In 11 am matches, the winner's bracket was thinned from 8 to 4. This set up a battle between Northwest rivals Glenn Atwell and Stan Tourangeau who battle back and forth for Pacific Northwest Supremacy! On the lower half, tournament promoter Steve Lingelbach would face Redding, CA's young champ Josh Palmer. Atwell showed Tourangeau just exactly what he thinks of a Canadian moving in on his NW turf by drilling him 9-2! Palmer, claiming at the beginning of the tournament to be out of stroke due to a demanding new job, was able to do whatever was necessary to get him to the hot seat match ousting Lingelbach 9-6.
In the match to sit on the top of the hill and wait for the most determined grinder to come through the loser's bracket, Atwell crushed the young Californian 9-1. Palmer subsequently had to drop back to the loser's bracket and await his fate. Tim Tweedell who finished 2nd in last year's Cue Ball stop, was grinding hard through the loser's bracket when he ran into Tourangeau. Tweedell had the tough draw on the backside, grinding out wins over Chris MacDonald who was one of several to carpool up from California. MacDonald took Tweedell to the hill and came up short, but Tweedell's road was still no cakewalk. He had a tight match with Lingelbach escaping a hill-hill sweater with a final score of 9-7. Tweedell then faced Tourangeau, and fatigue started to take its toll on the "The Red Rocket" from Washington. Tourangeau, looking for his chance to exact revenge upon Atwell, dismissed Tweedell 9-6.
Tourangeau made it to the finals, but that was about it. Atwell shot out of the gate playing perfect to take a 7-0 lead on Tourangeau. There were next to no unforced errors until Atwell opened the door a little allowing Tourangeau an opportunity to come charging through, but Tourangeau's charge ended up being more of a stroll through the park on Sunday afternoon. Atwell finally slammed the door shut at 13-7.
On The Wire would like to say thank you to all the players who came to the tournament from both near and far. The carpooling efforts of the players from California are quite commendable! We will be working to set up key carpooling individuals so that players who are interested in minimizing those expenses can still participate. For more information on carpooling please give a call to On The Wire at 503.674.8300. Pechauer Custom Cues, Porper's Creative Inventions, Accu-Stats Video Productions, Simonis Cloth, Aramith Billiard Balls, Tiger Products, Silver Cup Chalk, Deadstroke Designs, and Phil Capelle's Billiards Press have all been incredible sponsors of these tour events; we extend our gratitude and encourage pool enthusiasts to support these companies in return whenever possible.
