Hunter Tour and Wes Hunter Meet up in Albuquerque

Heather Pulford

The Hunter Classics Amateur Women's Tour is hosting their second stop of the year in Albuquerque, NM at Corner Pocket Billiards. This stop is one of the favorites, as Wes and Cindy Hunter of Hunter Classics Custom Cues get to visit and set up shop for the spectators and the ladies get to thank Wes in person. Wes lives roughly 4 hours away from ABQ in Alamogordo (and owns Mission Billiards, in addition to making the well-respected and solid hitting Hunter Classics Custom Cues) and this is one of the few stops that is in close proximity to Wes and Cindy Hunter. Wes was presented a plaque, just a little present from the Hunter Classics Tour for their awesome contribution - he donates a Hunter Classics Custom Cue valued from $1,700 to $2,400 to every stop, and has been doing this for 12 years in a row! This makes the Hunter Classics Tour the largest, longest running regional women's tour in the country.

The day started with 8 ladies paying an extra fee to be eligible for a WPBA Qualifier. This stop is a Qualifier for the WPBA Cuetec Cues Southeast Classic in June 22-26, 2005 in Hollywood, FL. At the end of the day, only 8 ladies remained, with over half of them eligible for that Qualifier. Sunday will be very interesting! On the winner's side, it will be Heather Pulford from Austin, TX playing local young gun Anna Kostanian and Rachel Hurst from Austin, TX playing Leslie Anne Rogers of the Dallas area. On the one-loss side, Susan Wilbur of Arizona will play April Davis of Albuquerque while the other one-loss match will be Julie Stephenson from the Dallas area playing Mariam Martinez, also a local.

$2,000 is guaranteed for each Hunter Classics Tour stop with first place always paying $750. See who wins the tournament and the qualifier tomorrow!

Photo courtesy of Cathy Vanover