OB Cues Ladies 9-Ball Tour held their 8th and final tour stop December 6th – 7th at Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, Texas. The owner and manager, Jeff Pitts and Tim Gildon and all the bar and wait staff did a wonderful job taking care of all the ladies, a full field of 32 players ready to rack and roll!
At the players meeting, board member Monica Anderson announced yearly awards and a special celebration of the birthday of a beloved and long-time tour member who passed last year, Becky Jones. Becky’s daughter was in attendance and a cake was prepared in Becky’s honor. On the awards side, the sportswomanship award went to Jackie Forster, with a special mention to her travel buddies – four ladies who add a lot of good company and good play to the tour. The most improved player was the “tiny giant killer” Angie Payne, who was last year’s sportswoman of the year. The tour champion was undecided at the outset, but all Tara McCracken Williams needed to do was finish better than 5th/6th and she accomplished more than that, getting second this tournament. Tara also won the qualifier for the WPBA event at Soaring Eagle and will go represent in February!
With exactly 32 players, no one got a bye, and there were some tough matches early on, including past tour stop winners Orietta Strickland and Lisa Marr. Lisa won the match 7-6 but then had to contend with Jennifer Kraber, who’s had a great year, and put Lisa on the loser’s side with a resounding 7-2 win. But Jennifer’s winning ways were short-lived, when she ran into Amanda Lampert, past champion many times over and this year’s outgoing tour champion. The loser’s side quickly became littered with great players, and at the end of Saturday, only four women were left standing on the winner’s side: Amanda Lampert, who would play Julie Stephenson on Sunday, and Michelle Cortez, who would be up against Chris Fields, who came all the way from Florida.
Sunday’s B-side matches were Jennifer Kraber vs. Jennifer Pavlovick and Tara McCracken Williams vs. Angie Payne. Pavlovick and Payne came in 7th/8th. Amanda Lampert and Michelle Cortez won their Sunday winner’s side matches to compete for the hot seat. Michelle, a long time player and always a threat, has had a fantastic year, finishing third in Austin, which was her highest finish to date. She overcame that finish with this tournament’s hill-hill match with Amanda, securing herself the hotseat and a guaranteed second place. It was eventually Tara who attempted to double-dip her, but without success. In another hill-hill battle, Michelle Cortez didn’t let Tara to the table in the final game, breaking and running her way to first place and $750! Congratulations to her for a fantastic tournament and to all the ladies for some awesome shooting.
Thanks again to Rusty’s for our first and last tournament this year, and to all our board members who do a fantastic job all year around. A special year-end thank you to the man behind the tour, always supporting the ladies and feeding us Godiva chocolate, a great friend and wonderful person, Carter, we love you.
