By Dale Brimicombe
November 24, 2024
Tournament Chart:
Brian's CueSport Streams:
Day 1, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bao2mJy7foY
Day 1, Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLQKNLV5NfI
The 2024 provincial Open 8-Ball championships held this past weekend at Doolys Truro saw 64 men and 19 women competing for prize money, trophies and spots to the 2025 CBSA nationals.
No less than seven previous champions were in the field for the Open portion of the event, confirming the comments of a few that this was one of the toughest fields this year. The draw played down on day one to 16 returning for Sunday play. Most of the top echelon were still in towards the end and the A side final saw perennial favorite and previous champion Bruce Lilly squaring off against Bill MacPherson who, surprisingly enough with his long list of provincial titles in snooker and pool, has never even been in the finals of the open 8-ball provincials let alone win it. Billy found a good gear after a slow start and won the match 7-3 to claim the hot seat awaiting the B side winner. Meanwhile, Kyle Richard, who had lost his round of 16 match the night before, rattled off six straight victories to get to the B side final against Lilly. The tilt went in favor of Richard 5-3 and set up a one-set race to 9 final versus MacPherson for the big cheese and a spot to the nationals.
Early days saw Kyle rolling out to a commanding 4-1 lead but the man affectionately known as Billy Mac in local pool circles was wont to lay down. Billy won the next but then the seventh game provided some drama rarely seen in a final match as Billy's tip came off part way through a runout. He managed to secure a borrowed cue from none other than Bruce Lilly (a 63" cue with a bigger grip no less!) and calmly finished that runout and added a break-n-run afterwards to level the match at 4-4. Both players traded break-n-runs in the next two games to bring it to 5-5. The guys split the next four games to level the match at 7-7 and make it a best 2/3 affair to finish. Kyle cleared up the next game after Billy uncharcteristically missed a chance to get to the hill first, then sealed victory with a break-n-run to win 9-7, securing his second title in three years. Billy, although surely disappointed at the loss, can take comfort knowing not many players could have done as well under the circumstances, a testiment to his terrific mental game.
The latest CSNS cue raffle sales saw TWO packages sell out on Saturday. Dana Luddington was the lucky winner of a Predator Aspire 1-8 cue plus a Predator 3x5 case, a package worth over $900. In the second draw, Russell Bernard walked away with a Predator Air Rush jump cue valued at over $900. Andy Lewis won the 50/50 draw which helped raise $270 expense money for the players going to the nationals. Congrats to all the winners!
Special thanks to Tracey Goodyear and staff at Doolys Truro for hosting and ensuring the players had a great experience; to Brian McNamara for live streaming the event (see Brian's Cuesport Streams on YouTube for this and other great local pool coverage); to the CSNS event staff who all chipped in helping with organizing, ticket sales and running the draw sheets, making the event run smoothly and efficiently for such a large crowd.
Mens division:
1st - $755 + paid spot - Kyle Richard
2nd - $500 Bill MacPherson
3rd - $380 Bruce Lilly
4th - $305 Christopher Bright
5/6 - $185 Colin Macdonald, Colin Maloney
7/8 - $120 Milo Guevarra, Christian Coffey
9-12 - $75 Ryan Kendall, Jheno Francisco, Shane Crawford, Wayne H Thibodeau
13-16 - $45 Darrell Abolit, Russell Bernard, Laurie MacDonald, Craig Teal
Comments