The Shirley Lee Scotch Doubles 8-Ball Benefit Tournament

On Saturday, November 22, 2008, Brown's Billiards of Raleigh hosted the Shirley Lee Scotch Doubles 8-Ball Benefit Tournament drawing 40 teams to compete.  The tournament raised $1,700 to help Mrs. Lee cover medical bills resulting from a fight against ovarian cancer.  Mrs. Lee is wife to Steve Lee, certified BCA instructor and owner of the Raleigh Billiard Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina.
   
The action was intense and the tournament lasted two days, but in the end it all came down to the teams of Tony Williams and Glenn Goswick vs. Jeremy Mauget and John Trinh.  Williams/Goswick fought from the loser bracket and leapt to an early lead against Mauget/Trinh taking the first three games.  Mauget/Trinh broke their opponents' momentum on the fourth rack when Trinh made an impressive bank leaving an easy eight for Mauget.  The match ping-ponged until Trinh missed an eight, letting Goswick take the last rack and bring it into a last match shootout.
   
The back and forth continued into the second match until the seventh rack when Williams got some luck that amplified his safety attempt, placing the eight ball just a few inches from the corner pocket with the cue ball tucked behind it less than an inch from the hole.  Mauget successfully snuck around the eight resulting in a good hit that, while not pocketing a ball, nonetheless left Goswick on a do-or-die long cut.  Goswick made the cut and Williams pocketed the eight to take the rack.  The eighth rack was a chess match lasting nearly as long as the previous seven racks combined.  Goswick got on the eight but failed to put it in, letting the team of Mauget and Trinh take it for the rack, match, and tournament.