Mona Remedios played out of her skin to make her trip from Canada to Maryland worthwhile, emerging as the eventual victor in this weekend's BCA Open 9-Ball qualifier event at Great Slates, Cambridge, MD. Great Slates has earned the label of being one of the top poolrooms in the US, and probably the most beautiful on the East Coast. They were host to last year's Pre-US Open Warm Up, and will once again be bringing some of the world's top players together in September.
Kelly Fisher's traveling partner, Val Finnie, who is another recent British import set to follow in the footsteps of Allison Fisher, Karen Corr, and Fisher herself looked to be the odds-on favorite, storming into the hot seat with easy victories over 2004 Planet Pool points winner, Malea Haacke, Kathy Friend and Remedios. But Remedios waited patiently on the one-loss side for Kathy Friend, who played some of her best tournament pool to beat Amanda Pasko and Remedios' traveling partner, Joanne Ashton in back to back hill-hill matches. Friend's hard-fought matches proved to have drained her, and Remedios scored a 9-6 win to set up a rematch against Finnie.
Finnie started off cold, and Remedios took advantage of that, turning a 5-4 lead into a 9-6 win in the first set after hardly missing a ball, while Finnie faltered a few too many times. The second set looked to be closer, but Remedios capitalized on more of Finnie's mistakes to edge 8-6 ahead with some more remarkable play. But Finnie hadn't given up, and displayed some more of the brilliance from earlier in the day to tie it at 8-8. Just as Finnie looked set for an easy run-out in the deciding game, she missed a very makeable 4 ball into the side to let Remedios conclude the marathon 3 1/2 hour final.
Results & Payouts:
1st - Mona Remedios - Paid entry into the BCA Open 9-Ball Championships, May 15-21, 2005 + $500 towards expenses
2nd - Val Finnie - $600
3rd - Kathy Friend - $420
4th - Joanne Ashton - $280
The next BCA Open 9-Ball qualifier will be at Bogies Billiards & Games, Houston, Texas on Feb 26-27.
