Linda Shea, Kia Burwell, Judie Wilson and Briana Miller
It was an unusual stop for the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) this past weekend. Well, actually only Saturday, August 19. The tour’s plan for an event, hosting its usual array of competitive women didn’t materialize. When the scheduled start time had passed with only 14 entrants signed on to compete in the tournament being hosted by First Break Sports Bar in Sterling, VA, tour director Briana Miller made an executive decision. Instead of proceeding with a double-elimination bracket, she decided to utilize a Round Robin format that would avoid elimination of a good percentage of the field within a matter of a couple of hours.
In a 16-entrant, double-elimination bracket accommodating 14 players, there would have been two opening-round byes and six of the 12 that competed in the first round would move to the loss side, where shortly, three more would be gone in the opening loss-side round, etc., etc., etc. With the round robin format, a number of the 14 players, eight of them to be exact, would be afforded the opportunity to play at least three matches, win or lose. The 14 were divided into four groups; two with 4 players and two with 3 players. Each competitor would play opponents within their group and since it’s impossible for a player to compete against themselves, each member of the four-player groups would play three opponents, while each of the three-player groups would play 2 opponents.
In races to 5, one player from each group (the one with the most wins in that group) would advance to a quick pair of semifinal matches plus one final match. And that’s how it went down.
Former tour director Linda Shea earned her spot in the semifinals by winning all three matches in her group by an aggregate score of 15-4, downing Vanessa Hood (3), Taylor Perkins (0) and Kara Stotler (1). Current tour director Briana Miller won her two matches (10-2), defeating Lynn Richard (0) and Debra Pavan-Peterman (2) to join Shea in one of the semifinals.
Judie Wilson advanced to the other semifinal with an aggregate score of 15-11, winning two double-hill matches against Kelly Wyatt and June Prescop before defeating Peng Wu (3). She was joined in that other semifinal by Kia Burwell, who, winning the two matches in her group, gave up only a single rack in matches against Karlene Goodrich (1) and Cecilia Strain (0).
Wilson got out to a quick 4-0 lead in her semifinal match against Burwell, but only won three of the next 10 games. Burwell dropped the deciding 9-ball in the double-hill, 15th game and advanced to the finals. The two JPNEWT tour directors (former and current) came within a game of double-hill, but Miller got out in front by a pair and joined Burwell in the finals with an 8-6 win over Shea.
Burwell and Miller opted out of a final match. They negotiated the split and called it a day.
Miller thanked the ownership and staff at First Break Sports Bar for their hospitality, along with title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Turtle Racks by Mezz Cues and Frank Maialetti for his PA Pro-Am Pool streaming services. The next stop on the JPNEWT has already created some excitement among tour members as 82 of them (so far) have signed on to the 1st Annual Pennsylvania State Women’s 9-Ball Championships. Scheduled for the weekend of September 16-17, the $1,500-added event, presented by JPNEWT and PA Pro-Am Pool will be hosted by Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
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