On March 18-19, the Northwest Women's Pool Association held its first tour stop for 2006 at the Parlor Billiards and Spirits in Bellevue, WA. Keeping with its goal to be the top pool room on the West Coast, the Parlor, in addition to adding $750.00 cash, also purchased not one (1), but two (2) Qualifying spots to the Women's Pro Tour. One for the BCA Championships in Las Vegas and one for the San Diego Classic. This news had spread across the country bringing players from not just the Northwest, but places like Calgary, Edmonton and even Florida.
The news from the players meeting, while mostly tedious, was that Julie has us now in the 21st Century as player packets will now be CD form. No more trees have to sacrifice themselves. Also, in an effort to get more part time or new players, there is a simple $10.00 additional charge for anyone to play as a non-member. This has been lowered from recent years of $20.00. But the big news was our full schedule of seven events. Five of which are WPBA Qualifiers. Please visit our websit: www.nwpatour.com for more info or Billiard Paper for schedule.
The tournament itself, which started at 10am Saturday morning, had a deep field of 46 players and it would take till late evening just to bring the field down to the 16 players who would battle it out on Sunday. On the A side, Martha Hartsell defeated Liz Cole 7-5 and Cathy Metzinger got Kim Jones 7-4. In the point match it was back and forth to 4-4 before Cathy won 3 in a row to take it. On the B side, Kim then played Mona Remedios from Edmonton with Mona winning 7-3. Conversely, Linda Carter, who having lost to Kerry Impson early Saturday, had to fight through the B side, starting at 9am Sunday. Linda started off 7-0 against Mary Ellen Homenchuk from Surrey, BC, then got Ellen Van Buren from Florida in what may have been the match of the day, 7-6. Mary Hopkin then fell 7-3 and Liz Cole fell 7-4. Mona and Linda now played and Carter was now on a roll winning 7-3 and then getting Martha 7-2 for the B side point.
Cathy had waited hours to play while Linda was in stroke and it showed with Linda in front early at 4-2 in a final race to 9. They traded games the rest of the way with each player holding break and the early lead paid off with Linda's 9-6 victory. She pulled off the biggest and longest Sunday comeback in NWPA history, congrats Linda.
Due to Linda and Mona having prior commitments and Cathy already a WPBA player for 2006 and not eligible for qualifying spots, the BCA Championship entry went to Martha Hartsell and the San Diego Classic went to Liz Cole. Good luck at these events, we'll all be cheering for you.
I would like to thank all the volunteers who helped organize and run such a big and exciting event, especially Ford, Roger Arndt, Chuck Mellors and Dave Lauer. Also to all the players, who make my job so easy and enjoyable. See you in Salem.
Full Payouts:
1st Linda Carter $560
2nd Cathy Metzinger $356
3rd Martha Hartsell $256 WPBA Spot/BCA Championships/Las Vegas
4th Mona Remedios $198
5/6 Elizabeth Cole $126 WPBA Spot/San Diego Classic/San Diego
Kim Jones $126
7/8 Junko Arkai $96
Mary Hopkin $96
9/12 Kerry Impson $86
Cindy Doty $86
Stephanie Mitchell $86
Ellen Van Buren $86
Second Chance Tournament
1st Brenda Willis $64
2nd Linda Dick $48
3rd Karla Bagley-Tias $32
4th Tamre' Geene'-Rogers $16
