Joanne Mason Parker, Caroline Pao, Emily Duddy and Briana Miller
There is an on-going debate in the regional pool tour community about the wisdom of two-day events. On one side of the debate are players who execute a cost/benefit analysis, determine that the prize money offered proves to be considerably less if players have to factor in one, possibly two nights in a motel and thus, prefer to play out a given tournament in a single day. The other side of the debate argues that single-day tournaments that play out in a room with limited tables and large fields of entrants have a way of finishing at 4 a.m. in the morning of Day Two. Expecting the tournament’s final four or so players to be at their best at that time of the day is unrealistic and likely to impact the ‘reward’ end of the equation.
As a player and tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour since the year began, Briana Miller has attempted to accommodate both sides of this debate, and other debates as well, including the institution of different tournament formats, like a round robin phase, followed by a single-elimination round. Miller has been offering members of the tour the opportunity to do one or the other, or both. The opening event of the season was scheduled for a single day. The second, employing the Round Robin/single-elimination format was a two-day event. The third was a single-day event, as was this past weekend’s (Saturday, June 17) tour stop (#4). According to its DigitalPool record (subject to being recorded when the person doing the data entry actually does it), the semifinals of Stop #4 finished at 2:26 a.m. on Sunday morning. The finals ended at just after 4 a.m.
It’s hard to know, of course, an individual’s state of mind as it was at 4 o’clock on a given morning, but the time of day did not appear to affect Miller’s performance at the tables. She lost her third-round match to Emily Duddy on Saturday afternoon and had to win seven on the loss side to face Joanne Mason Parker in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Having reduced the standard, extended-race-to-nine format of the finals into an extended-race-to-eight format, Miller had to win six games before Parker did, which would extend the winner’s necessary total to 8. Miller did that and as it turned out, she and Parker battled to double-hill (7-7) in the final match before Miller closed it out to claim her third 2023 JPNEWT title. The $1,000-added event drew 46 entrants to Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
After an opening round bye, Parker gave up only one rack in each of her first three games, to Ada Lio, Giovanna Napolitano and Emily Duddy (who had just sent Miller to the loss side 6-4). Parker faced Rachel Walters in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Caroline Pao, the WPBA’s #1 American competitor, started her journey to the same place with a bit of a roller coaster ride, opening with a shutout over Cassandra Borrell before running into a double-hill battle against Mindy Maialetti. Pao advanced, giving up a single rack to Marie Althouse, two to Kia Burwell and arrived at a winners’ side semifinal match against Charlene Capers.
Pao got into the hot seat match with a shutout over Capers. Parker joined her after sending Walters to the loss side 6-3. It was Parker claiming the hot seat 6-4, sending Pao off to the semifinals against Miller.
On the loss side, Miller and Duddy were on a collision course to a rematch in the quarterfinals. Miller followed her winners’ side loss to Duddy by winning her first three matches on the loss side by an aggregate score of 15-2, giving up one each to Malaletti and Jay Pass and none at all (in the middle) to Alyssa Solt. Kia Burwell then put up a double-hill fight against her, with Miller advancing to pick up Rachel Walters. Duddy followed her winners’ side loss to Parker with a double-hill win over Billie Billing and a 5-3 win over Ashlee Trinci to draw Charlene Capers.
Miller got into the quarterfinals with a 5-2 win over Walters and was joined by Duddy, who’d eliminated Capers by the same score. Miller would give up only two racks in her next two games; one each to Duddy in the quarterfinals and Caroline Pao in the semifinals.
In their only meeting, Miller and Parker set out on a double-hill road that was chasing dawn. The match won by about two hours. Miller won the match, reaching six games first and then, after she and Parker had won a seventh game, dropping the last 9-ball in the deciding, single game to claim her third 2023 JPNEWT title.
Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Bluegrass Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards, Turtle Racks by Mezz Cues, and for the live stream, PA Pro-Am Pool. The next event on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of July 29-30, will be hosted by Stroker’s Bar & Billiards in Pelham, NH.
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