Tom Theriault and Nelson Oliveira
Mike Zuglan kicked off the 21st season of the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour on September 23rd and 24th, with a field of 38 players competing in The Maine Event XI at TJ’s Classic Billiards in Waterville Maine. The tournament would come down to Nelson Oliveira winning by the narrowest of margins over Canadian Tom Theriault.
Oliveira and Theriault were two of the players to emerge from Saturday matches undefeated, joined by Samoth Sam and Cody Francis. Sunday morning winner’s side matches saw Francis sneak by Sam 9-8, and Oliveira send Theriault to the one loss side by a 9-7 margin. Oliveira would then go on to defeat Francis 9-8 for the hot-seat.
On the one loss side, both Sam and Theriault would bounce back from their earlier losses, with Sam eliminating Xavier Libby 9-2 and Theriault eliminating Matt Tetreault 9-7. Theriault would then go on to defeat Sam 9-1 and then Cody Francis 9-3, to earn a rematch with Oliveira in the finals.
With the 9-7 scoreline in their earlier match, the finals were expected to be close, and they definitely were. Theriault ended Oliveira’s unbeaten streak 9-8 in the first set of the finals, and then Oliveira came back to defeat Theriault 9-8 in the second set for first place.
The end of Sunday's 16 player second chance tournament looked very similar to the end of the main event with Ross Webster defeating Joe Darigis 3-2 for the hot-seat and then Darigis coming back to force a second set of the finals 3-1 before Webster scored a 3-2 win in the second set of the finals.
Although he finished one out of the money in 9th place, Jordan Labbe was the winner of the $1200 custom Joss Cue at this event.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action on Sept 30th and October 1st at The Hudson Valley Fall Classic, held at The Spot Billiards Cafe in Nanuet, NY.
