Friday's action at the IBC Western Canadian Open 9-Ball Championships saw last year's Champion, John Horsfall walk out of the room for his trip home to Vancouver, after falling in a rapid fire burst of breaks and ball-busting shots by Vancouver city rival and balancing act brigand, Mr. Alain "Frenchie" Boutain, who continued to BLAST his way up the B Side. The match, again one of the fastest in the event, took only 34 minutes as Frenchie tried to get back to the Olympic Oval to play Saturday.
Such was not the case, however, as Boutain later fell to the continuously solid stroking of first-time visitor to Calgary, Mr. Martin Daigle, who recently ripped up a storm along the east coast of the US.
Strickland went down to Dan Louie - who, flickering as ever through his Volkswagen front windshield sized glasses - held solid despite a couple burst from The Pearl. Strickland just couldn't get his break without blasting the white ball straight into the side pocket 4 times.
Feisty young Torontonian, Alex Pagulayan roared his way up the A Side, laughing and joking the whole way...there appeared not to be an ounce of doubt in either his attitude or his game and he whacked one opponent after another. First at 1pm he took his cross-town rival Paul Thornley out 11/5. Then at 6:30 down went another old pool veteran Benny Onyschuk 11/4.
Lastly - at 8:30pm Daigle fell to the little lion's incredible breaking and Alex routed him 11/4.
Although it may appear at first look that the draw was kind to Pagulayan...let's not forget that in the second round, he took another tourney favourite and locked in Tokyo WPA contender Machine Gun Luc Salvas Wednesday at 10pm.
Complete brackets are online as well as pictures from Diana Hoppe who is at the event.
Photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe
Article courtesy of Paul Hanson - Great White Billiards
