(l to r): Judie Wilson, Cheryl Sporleder, Pete Boyer (owner-Coins of the Realm) & Linda Shea
Looking for her first win on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) on the weekend of December 1-2, Cheryl Sporleder might have expected the result of her winners’ side semifinal match against the tour’s director and #1-ranked player, Linda Shea. She lost. She might not have expected what happened next; a three-match, loss-side winning streak that set her up for a re-match against Shea in the finals, which she won to claim her first-ever win on the tour. The $500-added (by Coins of the Realm) season finale drew 20 entrants to Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD.
In only her second appearance on the 2018 tour (she was 5th in the season opener in March) Sporleder opened her six-match trek to the winners’ circle with a 7-4 victory over Carol Clark and ran immediately into a double hill fight against Kim Whitman. Sporleder advanced to face Nicole Christ in a winners’ side quarterfinal, which she won 7-5 to draw her first match against Shea in a winners’ side semifinal. Judie Wilson in the meantime, squared off against Bethany Sykes in the other one.
Shea moved into the hot seat match with a 7-3 victory over Sporleder. Wilson joined her after sending Sykes to the loss side 7-5. Shea claimed the hot seat 7-1 over Wilson and waited on Sporleder’s return.
On the loss side, Sporleder ran into an immediate rematch against Whitman, who following her earlier defeat, was on a four-match winning streak that had included wins over the tour’s #3-ranked player, Kia Sidbury, Britt Rapp, Ada Lio, and a double hill win over the tour’s #2-ranked player, Nicole King. Sykes drew Sharon O’Hanlon, who was on a four-match winning streak of her own that had included most-recent victories over Christ 7-1 and Elaine Wilson 7-4.
Whitman’s loss-side journey came to an end with Sporleder’s 7-5 win. O’Hanlon’s went a step further, as she defeated Sykes, double hill and joined Sporleder in the quarterfinals. Sporleder ended O’Hanlon’s loss-side streak at five games, with a 7-2 win in the quarterfinals.
Sporleder gave up only a single rack to Wilson in the semifinals to enter her first-ever final against the tour’s #1-ranked player, Shea. Sporleder’s first task was to reach seven racks first, to extend the race to nine games. She did this, and then added the two more she needed to win her first JPNEWT stop 9-6.
Tour director Linda Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Triple Nines, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Coins of the Realm, Britanya E Rapp (angle aim Art), The Turtle Rack, Baltimore City Cues, and Billy Ray Bunn Cue Repair.
