 Larry Nevel |
The Tiger Pool Tour hosted a benefit event at Orange Ball Billiards in Rockville, MD on Oct 20th and 21st. Player and sponsor Mike Ricciardella of ReMax Pros works tirelessly to put this event on each year. With sponsor donations, raffles and a sizeable percentage of the prize fund and calcutta, just over $3000 was raised for the charity. This brings the total amount raised for the Children's Miracle Network to $33,000 over the past several years.
A very strong field of seventy-nine players came out to play including eighteen of the top twenty players on the year long points list. Also in attendance were many players heading home from the US Open 9 Ball Championships in Virginia such as Ronnie Wiseman, Robb Saez, Marc Vidal and Larry Nevel.
With so many top players, there were some strong match-ups early on. Tour star Kevin West sent Robb Saez to the elimination bracket. Danny Mulhollen III defeated tour points leader Shaun Wilkie 9-1. Manuel Chau had a tough bracket but came out ahead of Jerry Slivka 9-3, Shin Young Park 9-7 and Ronnie Wiseman 9-4. Larry Nevel and Matt Clatterbuck had little trouble in their first 3 matches. The final 8 winner side players were Clatterbuck vs Chau, Shawn Putnam vs Rob Pole, Nevel vs. Ron Park and Brandon Shuff vs. Mike Davis.
Play continued Sunday with Davis slipping past Shuff 9-8 and Nevel, Putnam and Clatterbuck advancing with little trouble. The semifinals were close with Clatterbuck defeating Putnam 9-6 and Nevel overcoming Davis 9-7. Nevel continued his dominating play 9-4 over Clatterbuck to get into the hot seat.
There were plenty of high interest matches in the elimination bracket. It boiled down to Mike Davis surging past Manuel Chau before sending Putnam into 4th place. A quick 7-2 win over Clatterbuck put Davis into the single set final race to 11 with Nevel. The two players traded games early before Nevel established a 7-4 lead. Davis came back but it was Nevel claiming an 11-7 victory. 1st was worth $1600 with $1120 for 2nd.
A field of 17 ladies entered the Sunday event and the final four winner side was no surprise. Ming Ng slipped past current points' leader My-Hanh Lac 7-6 and Linda Shea defeated Zinnie Panju 7-5. Ng and Shea met up at this spot at the last tour stop and again Ng worked her way into the hot seat with a 7-3 win.
In the elimination bracket, Lac placed Panju into 4th place 5-3 as well as Shea into 3rd also with a 5-3 score. The single set final race to 9 was firmly controlled by Ng who completed her undefeated run 9-4. 1st was worth $400 with $300 for 2nd.
The 2007 point leaders continue to be Shaun Wilkie and My-Hanh Lac.
