35 of the best A and B players descended on Country Club USA in Chelmsford Mass for the first stop on the New England A/B Tour's 2005/2006 season. Here is just a short list of the talent that played: Walter Bryska, Paul Dryden, Tony Ruberto, Ty Speedwell, Mike Nicoloro, Chris Leal.
There was a lot of great pool shoot witnessed by the fans on this Sunday Afternoon. While Tony Ruberto was the unanimous favorite at the start of the event, he fell to Mike Nicoloro and Walter Bryska to finish out of the cash.
The match for the hot seat was Ty Speedwell vs tour newcomer Randy Labonte. This match went game for game up until the 7th game when Ty put Randy on ice hitting him with four straght wins for the 7-4 win and his first berth into the finals this year.
Losers side finals were between a very tired Chris Leal and Randy Labonte. This match went neck and neck with awesome shot making and great safty play by both guys. It was 5-5 after 10 games when Randy made a shooting error and let Chris take advantage of that game. Chris broke and ran out for the 7-5 vicory and a berth into the finals.
The format for the finals was one race to 10 games. Ty Speedwell came out of the gate red hot and won the first 5 games. Chris won 2 games to make the score 5-2 and then Ty hit chris with 2 more games and it looked very grim for Chris. Chris told Ty he was tired but was going to give it his last burst of energy and try to make a set of it. And he just did that. He won 5 games in row to tie the score 7-7 and ty could not belive he blew a 7-2 lead. At this point it was anyone's game. In the next game, Chris made an unforced error on the 6 ball and Ty wne that game to make it 8-7. Chris came back with a win of his own to make it 8-8.
Ty got to the hill first and he had the break, but he scratched and Chris got out to make the score 9-9. In the final game, there was a lot of safety play. Ty got his opportunity to win when he was left a very makeable kick at the 7 ball. Ty missed the hit and gave Chris ball in hand and a chance to win the set. Chris made the last three balls for his first victory this year.
We would like to thank everybody involved for helping me run such a nice tournament. I have to thank Country club USA for hosting this event.
The next event is on September 25th at Mickeys Billiards in Holbrook MA. See everyone there.
Complete Results:
1st Chris Leal $740
2nd Ty Speedwell $340
3rd Randy Labonte $200
4th Mike Nicoloro $120
5th/6th Tom Magonagle, Dan Simoneau $80
7th/8th Sam Khiev, Keith Martin $60
