Richard "Buddy" Young Secures His Fourth Open 9-Ball Title At 2025 Provincial Championships
- Cue Sports Nova Scotia
- Apr 6
- 3 min read
By Dale Brimicombe
April 6, 2025
Tournament Bracket:
Brian's CueSport Streams:
Live-stream - Day 1, part 1:
Live-stream - Day 1, part 2:
Live-stream - Day 2, part 1:
Live-stream - Day 2, part 2:
Dooly's Portland played host this past weekend to the 2025 Provincial Open & Women's 9-Ball championships. In keeping with the large turnouts of players this year, a total of 94 players rolled into town to chase titles and spots to the nationals. The Open division saw 76 players competing and the strength of the field was evident from the get-go. Six former champions and six former runners-up were part of one of the toughest fields ever assembled for the event. Nearly a dozen players with above 600 Fargo rates were relegated to the B side of the bracket after playing only one match, including defending champion Bill MacPherson, who would then go on to lose his next match also.
Jody Swim cut a swath through the field, wiping out Kayle Goodwin 9-3 in his first match then reeling off five straight wins to get to the hot seat, including a close 9-7 win over 3-time champion Richard Young in the A side final.
Goodwin would use that early loss to Swim as motivation as he bulldozed through the one-loss side, winning nine in a row before succumbing 7-4 to Young, leading to a very respectable 3rd place finish.
The final between Jody and Buddy was back and forth early on, with neither player able to get two games up on the other. The players were allowed a break mid-way through the race to 11 match, and during the break it was brought to the attention of tournament director that there was an error in the score of the match. Upon returning to play, both players were asked if they felt the score was correctly recorded and both player concurred. One more game was played, then the match was paused with both players agreeing to having the scoreline checked before moving on. After video review it was confirmed that the score was incorrect and the match at its current state was a 6-6 tie. The TD explained his findings to the players and the match resumed.
Buddy managed to pull two games ahead at 9-7, buy Jody picked up another to be only 8-9 in arrears. Jody's uncharacteristic miss on the 5-ball in the next game allowed Buddy to get to the hill first at 10-8. Buddy broke and looked for all the world to end it right there but missed the same type shot that had foiled Jody earlier in the match - a half ball cut on the 9 from off the rail - which he jawed, allowing Jody to stay in it at 9-10 down. Jody cleaned up after an early miss by Buddy in the next game to bring the match to hill-hill.
The tension mounted, the fear was palpable and the fingernails were piling up in living rooms across the province as over 100 viewers tuned in on the live stream to watch Buddy break for the match. Buddy controlled the cue ball well and ran through the rack to claim his 4th provincial 9-ball title. Later, Buddy said Jody played well and deserved it, but that he was old and deserved it, too!
Many thanks go out to Tracey Goodyear, Jen Reid and the staff at Doolys Portland for hosting our event; also to Brian McNamara for sticking with the two-day event to the end with his ever-popular live-stream services Brian's Cuesport Streams; and to the many hands of the tournament committee who kept things running as smooth as possible throughout the weekend.
Tournament payout:
1st $965 + national spot - Richard Young
2nd $635 - Jody Swim
3rd $485 - Kayle Goodwin
4th - $385 - Colin Maloney
5th,6th $230 - Shawn Smith, Peter Doucette
7th,8th $155 - Kyle Richard, Robert Williams
9-12 $95 - Wek Augustine, Kristin Mattatall, Shane Crawford, Peter Giles
13-16 $60 - Chris Penney, Rick Brophy, Ryan Kendall, Les Dupuis
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