City Lights Billiards in Tacoma, Washington hosted the 5th Pechauer Cues 9-Ball West Coast Tour Stop Feb 1st and 2nd. The room has a combination of bar tables in one half and 9-foot Gold Crowns and a snooker table in the other half, plus a full bar and great food. The tournament was held on the 10 Gold Crowns, which were recently worked on by Ernesto Dominguez who shimmed up the pockets and replaced the rails with Atemis rubber. Due to the amount of tables, the field was limited to the first 64 entries and filled well in advance. Play began late Saturday morning and ran well into the night. The 3.75" pockets made it very challenging to run a rack of 9-ball and consequently matches took longer than they ordinarily would have.
The top 16 competitors returned at 10am Sunday morning to battle for the title. Todd Marsh and Stan Tourangeau found themselves in quite the dogfight in the fourth place spot. After being down 8-6, Marsh put the heat on bringing the score to 8-7 and then played a game filled with world-classes safeties and offensive shots. Marsh ended up in a pickle when he found himself slightly off-angle on a 3-ball with the four at the opposite end of the table and on the wrong side to gain shape; not to mention the cue ball was 7-feet away from the 3-ball! Marsh didn't let the crowd down as he displayed his incredible abilities by spearing in the 3-ball with a perfect draw stroke that walked the cue ball back the 7-feet for a shot on the four. Even with his display of heart and determination, it just wasn't meant to be for Marsh in this set and Tourangeau closed out the match to leave Marsh with a fourth place finish, his best yet in the tour.
Tourangeau moved on to Jerry Johnson who had been defeated by Atwell at the point. Johnson, an animated, ex-road player, had knocked off player after notable player on his road through the tournament. Atwell had seemingly taken the wind out of his sails. Tourangeau dominated Johnson, closed out the set and moved on to the one race to 13 finals.
Atwell dictated the first half of the match earning himself a sizable lead. Tourangeau is not one that will lie down and die though. The tough Canadian forged his way back to within 2 making the score of the match 11-9. The seesaw then ensued. The two champions battled back and forth, one just as driven as the other. Different styles, same result, one would win a game, ten the other. A mistake in the 23rd game by Tourangeau put Atwell on the hill where he proceeded to close out the set for the championship. Afterward, Atwell gleefully declared, "I finally won one of these Pechauer Stops!" (There have only been 5!!)
On The Wire would like to thank everyone involved in helping to make the stop and in turn the tour a success which includes: the players who participated, the spectators who came to support them, City Lights Billiards management and staff (Mike and Lisa Caillier, the best cocktail girl ever, Sara, and John the bartender.), On the Wire Billiard Promotions for organizing and running the events, and tour sponsors, Pechauer, Creative Inventions, Billiards Press, Scotti Scuffer, Sir Joseph Cue Gloves, CueSilk, The Monk Billiard Academy, and the Pocket Chalker and Q-Claw. For information on becoming a member, call the tour stop directly. For more information about the tour call the office of On The Wire at 503.674.8300
Complete Results:
1st Glenn Atwell $1500 200pts
2nd Stan Tourangeau $1100 150pts
3rd Jerry Johnson $800 125pts
4th Todd Marsh $550 100pts
5th John Doherty $300 85pts
Bryce Avila $300 85pts
7th Mike Vidas $200 65pts
Mike Zimmerman $200 65pts
9th Paul Juarez $125 50pts
Rennie Amadeo $125 50pts
Zak Leach $125 50pts
Dan Louie $125 50pts
13th Randy Camantigue $100 35pts
Don Wirtaman $100 35pts
Chad Aldridge $100 35pts
John Duclos $100 35pts
