 Room owner Janet Atwell, with winner Kelly Fisher and qualifier winner Irene Henry |
Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN welcomed The Jacoby Cues Great Lakes for stop # 5 of the 06-07 season in style. The room, which opened 9 months ago, is owned and operated by WPBA touring pro Janet Atwell and is definitely one of the top ten new rooms in the US. I usually say that if you're within driving distance, check out the room. This room, however, is worthy of a special trip. Thirty-two players came from all over the US and Canada to compete for the WPBA Carolina Classic qualifier and $500.00 in added prize money.
Once again, the luck of the draw left the bottom half of the chart talent-laden, with matches like Julia Gabriel vs. Janet Atwell and Grace Nakamura vs. Kelly Fisher in the first round. Kelly Fisher, who is ranked #3 on the WPBA, showed how she earned her ranking by losing only six games in six sets to win the tournament with victories over Grace Nakamura, Janet Atwell, Julie Melman, Irene Henry & Buffy Jolie. No surprises there. The real story is the performance of two players who fought their way through this tough field to face each other in the semi-final match to decide who would win the qualifier spot, since touring pro Fisher was ineligible.
The first player is Tennessee local Buffy Jolie, who had put in several weeks of hard practice to prepare for this tournament. The practice paid off as Jolie went all the way to the winner side final before being stopped by Fisher. The second player is Michigan's Irene Henry, who has been working equally as hard on her game. Henry's only loss was to Fisher, setting up a Henry vs. Jolie match for the WPBA qualifier. It doesn't get any better than this, as they played a hill-to-hill nail biter with Henry coming out on top and Jolie taking third place. Henry, elated with the qualifier win, would then fall to tournament winner Kelly Fisher in a one sided match.
The Jacoby Cues Great Lakes Tour would like to thank room owner Janet Atwell for hosting such a great tournament and looks forward to returning in the future. The Tour's next stop is February 17th & 18th at Bankshot Billiards in Hilliard, OH, which will be a qualifier for the WPBA Florida Classic. As always, thanks to all our sponsors for making the tour possible.
