A field of 39 women showed up at The Pocket Billiard Lounge in Binghamton, NY on October 7/8th to compete in the 7th annual New York State Women’s 9-Ball Championships. Room owner Florence Fuller added $2500 to the event which drew its fair share of WPBA professional talent as well as the top NEWT tour players.

Saturday’s matches saw a most unexpected event as defending state champion Karen Corr was sent packing to the wrong side of the tournament chart in the second round of matches by NEWT’s own top-ranked player, Donna Tidwell (known to NEWT players as “DDT” or, “Delaware Donna Tidwell”). Donna and Karen battled to a double hill match when Karen barely missed the 7-ball. Donna had the presence of mind to finish the task at hand to win the match. The room’s spectators obliged her win with a burst of applause.

On Sunday the final 8 returned to continue the matches. The winner’s bracket finals featured Linda Haywood-Shea and Julie Kelly. It was a great match with one game featuring 6 safety/kicks on the 1-ball alone. Julie tried to overcome a 5-1 deficit, but couldn’t keep the pressure up as Linda won, 7-4. Linda also had victories over Frankie Duffy, Sharon O’Hanlon, and fellow WPBA pros Dawn Hopkins and Candi Rego.

In the one-loss bracket finals, Julie stayed focused and bore down to defeat Karen in an exciting hill-hill match. Julie had tournament wins over Barbara Stock, Colleen Shoop, Megan Smith, Donna Tidwell, and Nicole Monaco before losing to Linda Haywood-Shea.

The finals would be a rematch between Linda and Julie. The finals format would be a true double elimination, race to 7, match. Julie jumped out to an early, 3-1 lead, but Linda remained in the game to tie her at 4. Linda reached the hill first, but a jawed 8 ball prevented her from winning the case game and match. Julie tied her on the hill, then broke and ran out the rack to force the tiebreaker match. In this match, Linda just could not overcome Julie’s determination to win and lost to her again, 7-3.

The NEWT tour wishes to thank Florence Fuller and her ever-friendly staff at the Pocket Billiard Lounge for a wonderful weekend and to Pechauer Cues for their continued support and sponsorship.

Tournament Results:

1st $1200 - Julie Kelly
2nd $950 - Linda Haywood Shea
3rd $500 - Karen Corr
4th $300 - Dawn Hopkins
5th/6th $250 - Candi Rego/Nicole Monaco
7th/8th $150 - Donna Tidwell/Julie Ha
9th/12th $100 - Joy Helton/Carol Clark/Ellen Stutz/Romana Dokovic
13th/16th $75 - Jennifer Barretta/Karen Armstrong/Barbara Stock/Megan Smith

by Barbara Stock