Thirty-seven women of the NorthEast Women's Tour gathered at Susie Cue Billiards in Reading, PA, to kick off their Y2K tour with the 1st Annual Pretzel City Classic. It couldn't have been a better first tour stop, either. Hosts "Reading Rich" Sluzalis, Cindy DeJoseph, and Brandon Sluzalis really showed the ladies a great time with great food and a pool hall featuring 20 tables with lots of space between them. The NEWT ladies enjoyed themselves tremendously and Rich booked the Tour to come back in 2001 for another tournament. Pechauer Cues continues to sponsor the NEWT ladies in their upcoming season, and as such, sent Rich two of their cues for hosting a NEWT stop.

The WPBA's #4 ranked player, Karen Corr, and #12, Dawn Hopkins, were the top shooters present. Dawn is sponsored by Viking cues. Competing for the Player's Choice WPBA qualifying spot were the WPBA's #34 ranked player, Julie Kelly, and NEWT's own #2 ranked player and Reading native, Megan Smith. Drexeline Billiards sponsors Megan.

As play resumed on Sunday with the final 8, the most watched match was the battle for the winners bracket pitting Karen Corr against Dawn Hopkins. Karen reached the winner's bracket final by defeating Romana Dokovic (7-1), Donna Tidwell (7-1), Barbara Stock (7-3), and Cheryl Harris (7-0). Dawn reached the same spot by posting wins over Micaela Dames (7-3), Charlotte Reeder (7-3), Nicole Choi (7-5), and Megan Smith (7-2). Karen took an early lead on Dawn, 4-1, but Dawn refused to go quietly. Play was decidedly defensive, as there were only two runout games in the match. Neither player was taking any chances. Dawn successfully battled back to tie Karen at 4-4. Karen then won the next game to go up 5-4, but Dawn tied her at 5-5 and won the next game to reach the hill first. After exchanging 4 kick/safeties in the last rack on the 4-ball, Karen left the 4-ball open and Dawn took control of the table to run out the rack and gain the hot seat.

Meanwhile, on the 1-loss side was the rematch of Megan Smith vs Julie Kelly. In Saturday's play, Megan sent Julie to the 1-loss side in a 7-3 match. Sunday's rematch was much the same result with Megan gaining an early lead and Julie unable to overcome. The final score was again, 7-3.

Megan could not get any steam built up to play Karen and lost to her, 7-2. Megan, however, did win the WPBA's Player's Choice qualifying spot. Congratulations Megan!

The finals became a rematch between Dawn and Karen. As this was a true double elimination tournament, Karen would have to win both matches, races to 7, to win the tournament. Defensive play resumed for both players, however, Karen bested Dawn in the battle of safeties for a 7-2 score to win the first match. In the second match, Dawn stood her ground and play see-sawed back and forth. But no matter how much she tried through near perfect play, Dawn could not overcome the 1-game lead Karen had built, and after almost 2 hours of play, Karen came out on top, 7-5, to win the 1st Pretzel City Classic.

Susie Cue Billiards has their own web site at www.susiecuebilliards.com. Reading Rich was taking pictures of the NEWT ladies all weekend and has them posted on his website. Check them out!

The ladies of NEWT wish to thank Rich, Cindy, and Brandon for hosting a great weekend of competition at a super pool hall! We hope Cindy caught up with her sleep and especially want to thank her for all the free coffee during the weekend! We'll see you next year! We also want to thank Pechauer Cues for their continuing support of our tour - thanks Jerry and Joe!

Tournament Results:

1st Karen Corr $525
2nd Dawn Hopkins $400
3rd Megan Smith $275 + WPBA Player's Choice qualifier
4th Julie Kelly $180
5th-6th Jennifer Baretta / Cheryl Harris $125
7th-8th Romana Dokovic / Liz Bernier $75
9th-12th Donna Tidwell / Nicole Choi / Lisa Merkin / Barbara Stock $50

By: Barbara Stock