Saturday January 27, 2001

Classic Billiards in Rochester, N.Y. played host to Mike Zuglan's Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour's 14 event of the season. Jacky Vaccaro and Rich Warren added $3000 to the event. The day started with Mrs. Vaccaro and everyone in the room taking a moment to pay tribute to her late husband Tony Vaccaro, who was taken from us last May. 63 Players showed and the field was loaded with great players. Zuglan, Basavich, Saez, Corr, Kelly were joined by a host of Canadian great's like Watson, Martel, Salvas, Orme, Heatherington, Thornley, Sweet, Wood and Chagaris to vie for the over $8000 in the prize fund. From the onset, the matches were tight all day Saturday highlighted by a great come from behind win by Rob Saez over Alain Martel. The "Dancing Bear" had the two time Joss winner pinned to the wall at 8-4 when he missed and let Robbie back to the table. Saez played beautiful 9-ball and crawled his way back to beat Martel 9-8. Gerry "Paladin" Watson and Paul Thornley matched up and this day belonged to Watson, Zuglan and Steve Tavernier gave us a great show as Steve sent Mike to the one loss side. Going through the day winning all their matches was Ryan McCreesh, Steve Tavernier, Rob Saez and Dan Basavich. on the "B" side of the chart we had Chris Orme vs Gerry Watson, Alain Martel vs Mario Morra, Karen Corr vs Rey Rendon and Dan Kolacz vs Chris Wood.

Sunday began with a great match between Steve Tavernier and Ryan McCreesh. Nip and tuck all the way Tavernier got to the hill first. After Tavernier made zero on the break, McCreesh took over and won the match 9-8. Saez and Dan "Kid Delicious" paired up and the Kid won the battle 9-6. On the one loss side Orme beat Watson only to fall to Pat Howie while Karen Corr got to Rey Rendon only to match up with fast playing Luc Salvas who over powered her and won 9-5. It would be Salvas and Zuglan next and Mike played wonderful as Salvas could not get a hot. At 9-4 Zuglan with the 7, 8 and 9 almost hanging Salvas threw the towel in and as he always does graciously congratulated Zuglan. On the top half of the one loss side it was Martel in charge. This gentle bear from Quebec is one of the most dangerous players ever on the one loss side. Martel went through Morra, Dan Smith, Howie, Tavernier and Saez to get to the finals. Danny Basavich was playing great and beating McCreesh to get to the hot seat. In the first set of the true double elimination format. Martel played great and Basavich in spite of scratching four times on the break went hill hill with Martel winning the tight match. In the second set Martel jumped out to an early lead when Kid Delicious tried a new approach, the soft break. When Danny made three balls with cue in the middle of the table he knew he had found it. By the time Martel realized it it was 8-5 Basavich with Martel breaking. Alain tried it himself and made zero. Basavich ran out the game and won the set.

The people at Classic Billiards should be very proud of themselves as this was one of the nicest tournaments ever. All the players and fans enjoyed themselves. The hospitality was second to none and we all will be glad to return next year. Our next stop is in Providence, RI February 3 for the Ocean State Champions ship another $3000 added event.

Final Standings:
1.   $2100   Dan Basavich
2.   $1500   Alaine Martel
3.   $940   Ryan McCreesh
4.   $700   Robbie Saez
5/   $450   Mike Zuglan
6               Steve Tavernier
7/   $300   Luc Salvas
8               Pat Howie
9/   $200   Karen Corr
10             Dan Kolacz
11             Chris Orme
12             Dan Smith
13/  $125  Chris Wood
14             Rey Rendon
15             Mario Morra
16             Gerry Watson

By: Pat Murray