28 women showed up Sept 9-10 to play the 9th NEWT event. Room owner Harry Metzger and event sponsor Bill Goldberg of East Coast Vending added $1000 for this state championship. As with all our events this was a WPBA qualifier. Unlike our other events this year two semipros, Gina Kim and Rachael Abbink, finished in the same spot (5th/6th) and a playoff had to be held. Rachael was victorious in that and was the winner of the qualifier. Each woman played a great tournament. Congratulations to both!

The finals on Sunday came down to two seasoned players, Linda Haywood Shea in the hot seat and Karen Corr from the one loss side. Karen had been put there by Julie Kelly on Saturday. On Sunday, Karen retaliated by putting Julie out of the tournament by defeating her in a hill-hill match to leave Julie in third place.

The finals started with a battle of safeties, but Karen gets off to a strong lead 3-0. The rolls were not in Linda's favor and the score was soon 6-0. On a safe Karen played, Linda got a 1-9 carom to make it 6-1. Karen then runs 2 racks to make it 8-1. With a miss on the one ball by Karen, Linda runs out to make it 8-2. Karen runs the last rack to win 9-2.

Thanks to Harry, Bill and as always the NEWT sponsor, Pechauer Cues for all their support.

Tournament Results:

1st $520 - Karen Corr
2nd $420 - Linda Haywood Shea
3rd $320 - Julie Kelly
4th $220 - Candi Rego
5th/6th $130 - Rachael Abbink(qualifier)/Gina Kim
7th/8th $90 - Romana Dokovic/SueYen Rhee
9th/12th $50 - Cynthia Hunsaker/Connie Tripolitis/Brandi Brown/Donna Tidwell

by Micaela Dames