The Tiger Canadian Women's Pool Tour held its 4th stop at LeSkratch, Billard in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on September 11th – 12th, 2010. Owner, Tony Retsinas graciously added $1,000 to this stop in knowing that many players would be traveling quite a distance to Montreal.
Although 15 women arrived to battle it out on the green, there were new faces the tour had seen for the first time. This is exactly what the tour strives to achieve for, new members to begin their journey of becoming one of Canada's best or even set their sights on becoming a professional billiard player in the WPBA.
The two exempt WPBA players from Canada, Brittany Bryant sponsored by Olhausen Tables and Denise Belanger sponsored by Twisted Turtle Custom Cues were put to the test with having to give up a handicap which enables fair play for all participants. Both ladies had hill hill matches and Belanger drawing her favorite player to play Venus Belanger from Quebec, lost her first match, which she then battled her way back into the finals against Bryant. Brittany Bryant just coming back from Shenyang, China and a 16th place finish at the WPA women's world 9 ball championships had her skills put to the test. Bryant started out her first match with a huge win against Nathalie Chabot 8-0, which she then hit a brick wall known as Karine Beaulieu also of Quebec. Beaulieu played exceptionally well in only her second time out to the CWPT but ended up losing hill hill to Miss Bryant and also going the distance with Denise 8-6 was ousted from the event. Great matches Karine, keep up the great work! Bryant then had wins over Christianne Boulay 8-1 and Myriam Lafranchise also a former WPBA player and Canadian champion where she then waited for the outcome of the b-side.
Belanger also coming back from China didn't do as good as she hoped too, and went out two straight with a tough hill hill loss in her second match. However stepping in as the new CEO/President of the CWPT, Belanger has dedicated her time to promoting the women of Canada as well as the sport and its sponsors. Although Belanger lost her first match 6-5, she continued on the B-side with wins over Danidee Nailat 8-4, Karine Beaulieu 8-5, Marie-France Blanchette 8-4, Venus Belanger 8-0, and Veronique Menard 8-4. The ladies finished for the night and the final 3 were brought back the next day. Belanger then faced off against Myriam Lafranchise who seemingly was nervous after being away from the game for a few years. Lafranchise just couldn't shake her nerves but was ecstatic to place 3rd after a long hard battle with her health. Great job Myriam!
With the finals set and to good friends going head to head, the crowd was in for a real treat. The CWPT live streamed the event through ustream.tv and billardquebec.com was also on hand as well to live stream in French. Both videos can be seen through www.ustream.tv under CWPT. Belanger had to beat Bryant twice and knowing she was in for the long haul; Belanger beat Bryant the first set 8-6 before running out of steam mentally and losing to Bryant 8-4 in the finale. Congratulations Brittany on your second win of the season.
At this time, I would like to extend our gratefulness to all LeSkratch Billard employees for their hospitality, to Tony Retsinas for your continuous sport of women's billiards and to all the ladies who made the trek to Montreal to this beautiful Billiard establishment in Brossard, Montreal www.leskratch.com
A special recognition to Tigerproducts.com for your on-going support of us Canadian women a way up here in the north, without you this would not be possible. We look forward to many more events. Please visit www.tigerproducts.com for all your billiard paraphernalia.
