Katie Bowse, Briana Miller and Ashley Benoit
While the evidence is more anecdotal than actually measured, it would appear, after five stops on the 2023 J. Pechaeur Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT), that innovations brought to bear by Briana Miller when she took the helm of the tour in January are working to bring fresh faces to the tables, and new locations for the tables. Case in point from this past weekend’s (July 29-30) event: Katie Bowse from Port St. Lucie, FL, who, though unable to prevent Miller from going undefeated and winning her fourth tour event of the year, did challenge her in the hot seat match and finals. Both Bowse and the venue where she finished as runner-up were newcomers to the tour. The $1,000-added stop drew a pre-set 32 entrants to Strokers Bar & Billiards in Pelham, NH.
In their first two matches combined (34 games), Miller and Bowse gave up a total of 6 racks. Miller gave up two each to Amanda Laverriere and Charlene Capers, while Bowse gave up a total of two (one each) to Stephanie Rickett and Latonia Taylor. Bowse advanced to down Sarah Archer 7-2 in a winners’ side quarterfinal and pick up Ashley Benoit in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Miller defeated Jean Minyety 7-1 and drew Erica Testa in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Miller got into the hot seat match with her third 7-2 win, over Testa, while Bowse watched Benoit chalk up more racks against her than all three of her previous opponents combined. Not enough though, as Bowse advanced 7-5 to join Miller in the hot seat match. Given their paths to the eventual match against each other, one might have expected the ‘over’ to prevail in an over/under bet (in other words, betting that the number of games would be closer to double hill than a shutout in the hot seat match). It didn’t turn out that way. Miller gave up just one rack and claimed the hot seat.
Testa and Benoit moved to the loss side, downed their first opponents and advanced to the quarterfinals. Testa had picked up Charlene Capers, who’d followed her loss to Miller with four straight wins that had recently eliminated Catherine Fiorilla 7-3 and Jane Im, double hill. Testa ended her loss-side streak 7-3. Jamie Cabral, who’d lost her opening match (to Michelle Haddock), won five straight on the loss side, including two double-hill matches. She’d recently eliminated Minyety 7-3 and (in the second double-hill match) Samantha Barrett. Benoit, who’d not held an opponent to a single rack since her opening round match against Jozy Vienneau, opened her loss-side work by giving up just one to Cabral and advanced to quarterfinal.
Benoit followed her first loss-side win with a shutout over Erica Testa in those quarterfinals. Bowse, though, was not to be denied her second shot at Miller in the hot seat. She defeated Benoit in the semifinals 7-5 and earned the shot.
Bowse did better in her second matchup versus Miller, but not by a lot. Instead of giving up just a single rack as she’d done in the hot seat match, Miller gave up only two and claimed her fourth 2023 event title.
Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Strokers Bar & Billiards for their hospitality, along with title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Onboard Sportswear (from which one can pre-order JPNEWT apparel), Pro-Am Pool (for the live stream), Mezz Cues and Advanced Pool Instructor George Hammerbacher. The next stop (#6) on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 19-20, will be a $750-added event, hosted by First Break Sports Bar in Sterling, VA.
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