Liz Cole wins NWPA Qualifier

Andy Ruth (2nd), Liz Cole (1st), Ford (Tournament Director), Kahaii (Uncle Jack's Representative)

It was Father's Day weekend, the sun was shining outside and barbeques and golf clubs were being cleaned of rust. Meanwhile, the NWPA was at Uncle Jack's Billiards in Lynnwood WA playing pool, watching Tiger on the big screen in the bar, and enjoying the food and drinks. Seems like a decent trade off, but is having a women's tournament on Father's Day good timing or not? The jury is still out.

The 31 players who signed up didn't seem to mind, and we had a busy Saturday, playing non-stop for over 11 hours. This meant that there were only 8 players to make it to Sunday. In the first A side match, Linda Carter played Andy Ruth, who won a great hill-hill match against Andrea Saenz-Maes to get there, and she didn't stop there, beating Linda 7-2. The other match was Mikki Small against Liz Cole, who had to survive a determined effort from Elaine Eberly7-5. She also continued winning and took Mikki 7-4. On the B side it was the Cindy's with Sliva edging Doty 7-5, and Andrea taking Junko Camantigue 7-4. But Mikki got her next and won 7-5. This put Cindy Sliva (who won our last event) against Linda and they played like champions but Linda won 7-6 in a nail biter.

The point match was one table over from this, and as great as Andy had played up to this point, Liz was just too much, winning 7-3. Andy then played Linda, who won her second hill-hill match in a row, this time over Mikki. We know Linda wanted revenge for her earlier loss to Andy, but it will have to wait as Andy only let her have 3 games. This put Andy back against Liz for all the marbles, but she also couldn't revenge her earlier loss and Liz won easily 9-2.

Thanks once again to all who helped and played. Any shot clock volunteer is a hero in my book.  Congratulations to Liz Cole for another win and to Andy Ruth for her first (but doubtfully her last) finals. We again thank Uncle Jack's for holding our event and adding $500.  We will be in Kenmore, WA at the new Golden Fleece pool hall in July. See you all there.