ennifer Kraber, Royce Bunnell of OB Cues, and Lisa Marr
The OB Cues Ladies Tour was pleased to welcome as a 1st time host, Click's Billiards located in Carrollton, TX. The staff pulled out all the stops for this first time event. Special thanks to Manager, Tanya Mueller, and Angel, Miranda, Michelle, Kat and Richard for all their tireless efforts for the special care and attention given to us all. From early, early mornings to late, late nights, they gave top notch customer service to everyone and we greatly appreciate all that they did. We are glad to add Click's Billiards to our OB Cues Tour family and we will be back.
We want to give special thanks to David “Doc” Reyes and Jeff Williams for serving as our tournament directors for this event. Their help in managing the draw and updating the brackets was immensely appreciated by the Board and the new tournament software with player's pictures and broadcast on the TV screen was a refreshing change. Additionally, thanks to our tour sponsor, Royce Bunnell, for serving as our referee the entire tournament and also to local pool player Viet My Nguyen for donating two sets of the 2006 14.1 Straight Pool Championships to be given to a player via our player raffle. You guys are all awesome!
With many ladies competing in recent BCA, VNEA, APA national events, and our last tour event in April, it was time to get back onto the OB Cues Ladies Tour bus the weekend of June 12th & 13th. Forty-one ladies came out for the festivities and it was a good fight to the finish as the top 12 from the Main Event returned for their Sunday matches. Still on the winner's side, it was Jennifer Kraber vs. Kim Pierce and Lisa Marr vs. Corina Campbell. The hot seat match would pit Jennifer vs. Lisa. These two ladies have been swapping 1st and 2nd places in the tour rankings thus far this season so playing for a spot in the finals was not an unfamiliar place for either of them. Lisa secured her spot in the finals by winning 7-1.
Down one but not out on the B side of the bracket was Julie Comitini vs. Ashley Nandrasy; Orietta Strickland vs. Janna Preston; Sherri Palma vs. Amber Stone and Tara Williams vs. Rose McCrory. Finishing 9th-12th was Janna and Amber (highest finishes to date), Ashley Nandrasy and Rose McCrory. Coming through at 7th-8th was Julie Comitini and Sherri Palma (highest finish to date). Kim Pierce and Corina Campbell (highest finish ever) rounded out 5th-6th, while Orietta attained the 4th place position. Tara Williams who had a BYE the 1st round and then lost to Julie Comitini was on a hot streak; winning her next 8 matches to play in the semi –finals against Jennifer Kraber. Both players were in stroke as their match saw back-to-back-to back break and runs, but ultimately the match would go to Jennifer with a score of 7-5 leaving Tara with a nice 3rd place finish.
As the final match commenced between Lisa and Jennifer, it looked like Lisa would walk away easy with the win at a score of 6-1. But Jennifer, never one to say die, pulled out all the stops and was fighting back and closing in with a 5-6 score. Unfortunately for Jennifer a long bank on the 9-ball fell short and provided Lisa an easy shot in the corner pocket for her 2nd tour win for this year. Congratulations to Jennifer for 2nd place and to Lisa for her 1st place win and $750.
Winning this event stirred mixed emotions for Lisa though, as she recently lost a close friend in the Little Rock pool playing community. “I would like to dedicate this tourney to Nick Nichols. He was a pool-playing buddy of mine for many years. He suffered a heart attack while playing at APA Cities. The Little Rock Crew had to miss his funeral to attend this tourney (which was a tough decision). But knowing Nick he would have wanted us all to keep on going especially when it came to pool. RIP Nick, We will miss you!!! “
A Second Chance Tournament was held on Sunday with 19 players competing. Thanks to an anonymous donor, an additional $100 was added for a total prize pot of $390. Amanda Lampert went undefeated to take 1st place and Julia Rapp finished 2nd.
Special thanks to our tour sponsors: OB Cues, Tiger Products, AZBilliards, Carl Miller as well as to all of our players, fans and supporters and Click's Billiards for hosting a fantastic event.
