On April 22 & 23rd, the NWPA held tour stop #2 at eh Cue Ball in Salem, Oregon. Once again, we had players from all over Washington, Oregon and Canada participating, including a local player playing in her first NWPA event, Marion Morales. Jim Lebold, owner of the Cue Ball has been out longest sponsor, again, supplying the girls with free coffee, doughnuts and snacks as he has done every year. Thanks Jim!
The girls had one more added surprise, Ford traveled to Oregon to help as Tournament Official. Thank you Ford for all the entertainment and support.
The big news at the player meeting was that our fourth stop at McQ's in Spokane is being sponsored this year by The Break. This means our next four stops are all qualifiers in addition to the regular added money. The goal for next year is now, of course, for every tournament to be one.
On Saturday, play went so smoothly that a group of us made it to a local 9 ball tourney and took off with all the prize money, some people just never get enough of pool. But Sunday, had the money rounds and that's where all the excitement happens.
Playing for the point match was Linda Carter, who was continuing her great playing after winning our first event. However, Mary Hopkin was also red hot and managed to hold Linda off wining 7-3 sending Linda to the B side. Julie Valdez was playing Kim Jones, who is looking like a regular on Sundays, and Kim took it 7-1. Also, Joanne Ashton of Calgary, BC battled Andrea Saenz-Maes and won 7-4. In the 4th place match, Joanne really took off and Kim was forced to watch a 702 loss. This set up traveling roommates in Linda and Joanne (Linda having knocked Joanne into the B side on Saturday), with Joanne in stroke easily sliding to the finals by defeating Linda 7-2.
In the finals, both players started out at the top of their games, but as the match wore on, Joanne missed a couple of key shots and Mary took advantage and went on to a 9-6 victory. Congratulation to Mary for her first victory in over a year.
Remember, our next stop is a Qualifier at Jillians in Seattle on June 24 & 25th, so sign up early or come out to watch and we'll see you then.
Complete Payouts
1st Mary Hopkin $315
2nd JoAnne Ashton $215
3rd Linda Carter $175
4th Kim Jones $90
5/6th Andrea Saenz-Maes $55
5/6th Julie Valdez $55
