On July 5 – 6, 2008, the Tiger Canadian Women's 9-Ball Tour was hosted by Bobby D's. “This room has made some great changes including rearranging of the tables and new cloth since our last visit. As usual room owner Barb Markieta was the biggest contributor to the Calcutta. Her daughter Amanda, a player herself, had to skip this event in her home room to work. Maybe next time she will get to play?”, said Scott Soroko of Shooterville.com.
Along with Tour sponsor Tiger Products, this event was sponsored by Don Broos of DB Cues and $500.00 was added to the event which drew 22 players who all had their eyes on the top cash prize.
Lots of great action on Saturday narrowed the field sending some favourite players expected to make it to Sunday, home early. Sunday would be no different and the matches were great to watch as the last six returned to battle for the event title. The final six were Brittany Bryant, Naomi Williams (returning champion), Denise Belanger, Veronique Menard, Kayla Jones and Kristy De Vries.
The B-Side quarter finals starts up with two matches as De Vries would match up with Jones and Bryant with Belanger. De Vries and Bryant would defeat their respective opponents to meet each other in the next round.
As that match started so had the A side semi final between Williams and Menard. Williams would jump out to an early 3-0 lead only to have Menard battle her way back to 4-3 in her favour. After a tight match Menard would send Williams to the B-Side final and herself await the winner of that. Bryant and De Vries were still busy deciding who would play Williams, as they took games back and forth but Bryant would put and end to what was an amazing comeback in the match with De Vries. With a 7-4 final score, Bryant advanced in the tournament and De Vries settled for 4th place.
This would setup the B-side final match between Williams and Bryant who had already faced off on the A side with Williams sending Brittany to the B-side after a hard fought match. However this match would have a different outcome and Bryant would earn a chance at first place. With a 7-4 score, Williams settles for 3rd.
The tournament final match would be Bryant having to win 2 sets over Menard. In the first set, Bryant is on fire leading the score 6-4 which puts Bryant on the hill. Then Bryant breaks a great shot that targeted a 9 off the break which finished her first win set. Going on to the second set, Menard steps up the plate with some amazing kick shots and safeties leading the score 2 –1 in round 3. In round 4, the tables have turned around on Menard as many hangers concluded the game losses, which put Bryant on the hill with a 6 – 3 score. In game 9, Menard runs the rack but miss cue the shot! Bryant takes the run out but runs into trouble with the cue ball in bad position. Bryant plays safe. Menard plays a perfect safety that locked the 9-ball on the side of the table. Brilliant Bryant decides to go big or go home and smacks a perfect bank shot in to the corner. It was in deed a brilliant shot by Bryant. With a 7-3 score Menard settled for 2nd place and Bryant takes home 1st place cash prize.
“It was nice to see all the players cheer each other on as they stuck around to watch the final matches, the support and cheering for Veronique Menard by our Ontario based crowd was well deserved as she was not only a great competitor but a great example in her positive attitude and enjoyment of the game.”, comment by Scott Soroko, Shooterville.com.
