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Nicolle Cuellar defeats TFT Tour Champion

Jeannie Seaver, Vanessa Seaver and Nicolle Cuellar

Nicolle Cuellar showed that she still has what it takes to get to the top, winning her first Tiger Florida Tour event in a long time, taking down the TFT Tour Champion Jeannie Seaver along the way.
 
33 women came to Boulevard Billiards in Ocala last Saturday, including several new players from the Ocala area. Cuellar made it past Kaylee McIntosh, a talented 17-year old junior player, and Tour Director Mimi McAndrews before going west thanks to Jeannie Seaver. Cuellar then fought her way back to the finals with wins over Kristen Bennington, Jeri Bouvette and Vanessa Seaver.
 
Jeannie Seaver, in great form fresh off her 5th/6th place finish at the WPBA US Open, got past Angela Ger, Wendy Langford, Windy Tang, Jessica Human and Michell Monk to meet up with Cuellar in the finals for Cuellar’s revenge match. The final match between Cuellar and Seaver was close, and a few missed shots by Seaver left the door open for Cuellar, who quickly stepped up and closed the door 7 – 5 for the win!
 
Vanessa Seaver, Michell Monk finished 3rd/4th. Jeri Bouvette, Windy Tang, Jessica Human and Roe Guarnero finished 5th – 8th.
 
Thanks again to Boulevard Billiards and Diane Chauliac and Donald Kreischer for being great hosts again this year! Thanks to our title sponsor, Tiger Products, and Great Lakes Billiards, Ulterior Chalkers, Boynton Billiards and Discount Mugs.

“Mike” comes out of retirement to go undefeated on the Flamingo Tour

Maridana

In 1978, a college junior by the name of Maridana "Mike" Heydon won the Women's division of the American College Union International's annual pool tournament in Lincoln City, Oregon. About a year after college, Maridana Heydon quit the sport, "cold turkey," as she described it, to pursue a career and a family. On the weekend of March 8-9, 36 years later, at a $500-added stop on the Flamingo Tour, hosted by Wally's in Lakeland, FL, the former college champion re-emerged and as Maridana Fitzgerald, went undefeated through a field of 37 entrants.
 
Fitzgerald's path through the field went through Jennifer Page, Erikka Piersall and Crystal McCormack to move among the final four winners, who advanced to the tournament's single elimination phase, entailing four quarterfinal matches, two semifinals and a final. Her victory over McCormack to make the cut was the first of three straight double hill matches that would eventually move her into the winners' circle. 
 
Her finals opponent, Stephanie Mitchell, had defeated Echo Pinkley, Desiree Haliburton, Chris Fields and April Wallen to make the cut. Also advancing on the winners' side were Cassidy Mulligan and Jessica Barnes. Moving into the quarterfinal matches from the losers' bracket were Angela Ger, Vanessa Seaver, Wallen and Sue Roberts.
 
Fitzgerald drew Wallen, Mitchell faced Seaver, Mulligan had to contend with Ger and Barnes met Roberts. Mulligan shut Ger out to advance to the semifinals, while Mitchell and Roberts advanced with 7-5 victories over Seaver and Barnes. Fitzgerald survived her first of three straight double hill matches, over Wallen.
 
Both semifinal matches were double hill affairs, and both hinged on last minute mistakes. Mulligan gave Mitchell ball in hand, shooting at the 9-ball in the deciding game. Roberts had been up on Fitzgerald 6-3, but Fitzgerald fought back to tie it at 6-6. In the final rack, Roberts got a look at the 9-ball, but rattled it in the hole, essentially handing the semifinal victory to Fitzgerald.
 
"I thought the thing was over," said Fitzgerald later, but it wasn't and she advanced to the finals.
 
The final match also featured a costly error. Fitzgerald and Mitchell fought back and forth to yet another double hill juncture, at which point, Mitchell scratched, shooting at the 1-ball in the deciding rack. Fitzgerald ran the table to complete her undefeated run and claim the event title.
 
"It was not an easy runout," said tour director Mimi McAndrews of that final rack. "She worked for it."
 
For Fitzgerald's part, she was glad to be back at the tables, after being away for so many years. And aware, she said, of a higher level of talent than she remembered from her college years.
 
"I was very impressed with the quality of play at the tournament," she said. "There were some great players, and I was thrilled that I won."
 
Tour director Mimi McAndrews thanked room owner Jim Thomas and his staff, as well as sponsors Boynton Billiards, Ozone Billiards, and the Simonis Cloth Satellite Tour. 

Aft wins kick-off event on Flamingo Billiards Tour

Dana Aft, Chris Devila (owner of Cunningham’s) and April Wallen

Dana Aft, rebounding from a stunning, double-dip defeat at the hands of Brittany Bryant in the Music City Open (January 17-19), traveled to a warmer climate and went undefeated in the season opener of the Flamingo Billiards Tour; a $250-added event that drew 39 entrants to Cunningham's Pool and Darts in Vero Beach, FL on Saturday, January 25.
 
"It was the largest attendance we've ever had for a regular event," said Tour Director Mimi McAndrews. "Normally, we'll draw about 32, with the exception of our annual breast cancer fund-raiser (Cues for the Cure), which drew 50 last year."
 
The modified, double elimination event saw the 39 entrants play a straight, double elimination format until only four players were left on each side of the bracket. From there, the remaining eight players squared off in single elimination quarterfinal, semifinal and final matches. The player mix, according to McAndrews, was a combination of tour veterans and newcomers; Aft, a 2013 Amateur Women's champion, was, technically, a newcomer to the Flamingo Billiards Tour.
 
The winners' side final four was evenly divided; Aft and April Wallen, who were playing on the tour for the first time, advanced, along with Jeannie Seaver and Angela Ger. Joining the final eight from the one-loss side were Kelly Cavanaugh, Kelly Coyle, Sue Roberts and Valerie Dukich (new to the tour). 
 
Aft was matched up against Roberts, whom she'd sent to the loss side 7-4 during the double elimination phase of the tournament. Wallen played Coyle, Seaver met Dukich, and Ger met up with Cavanaugh.
 
With echoes of Music City no doubt reverberating in her, Aft watched Roberts take a 4-1 lead in their quarterfinal re-match, before she responded with a six-pack that moved her into the semifinals. Wallen downed Coyle 7-1, Seaver defeated Dukich 7-3 and Ger got by Cavanaugh 7-4.
 
In the semifinals, Wallen defeated Seaver 7-5, as Aft picked up her pace a bit and eliminated Ger 7-1. So it was, that the two tour newcomers, Aft and Wallen, met up in the finals. Aft took the final set 7-3 to claim the first 2014 Flamingo Billiards Tour title.
 
Mimi McAndrews thanked Chris Devila and his staff at Cunningham's, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Simonis Cloth Satellite Tour, Boynton Billiards, and Martz Cues. 
 
The next stop on the six, possibly, seven-stop tour is scheduled for March 8. The $250-added event will be hosted by Wally's in Lakeland, FL. The tour is scheduled through October and will conclude with the 6th Annual Cues for the Cure event.

Jerry Ray goes undefeated on GSBT stop at Marietta Billiard Club

Shannon The Cannon Daulton, Jerry Ray, Anthony Green, & Tommy Najar (Marietta Billiard Club)

In the second stop on the Great Southern Billiard Tour featuring a new handicap format that has players racing to their handicap number, Jerry Ray (4) went undefeated, eliminating two 6s and one 5 in his final three matches and stopping a five-match, loss-side winning streak by Anthony Green (6) in the finals. The $1,000-added event drew 50 entrants to Johnny Archer's room, The Marietta Billiard Club in Marietta, GA.
 
"The backbone of my tour is to give amateur players the chance to win," said tour director Shannon Daulton, "because if the true amateur players don't have a chance, you're not going to have a tournament."
 
"We had one player at this event, a Taiwanese girl (Angela Ger, ranked as a 3), who finished in 5th/6th," Daulton added, "and you'd have thought she won the lottery."
 
Jerry Ray advanced to a winners' side semifinal against Dustin Byrd (6), as Curtis Hale (6) squared off against Daniel Autry (5) in the other. Ray gave up only a single rack against Byrd, and was met in the hot seat match by Autrey, who'd sent Hale west with a double hill win. Ray downed Autrey and waited on the return of Green.
 
On the loss side, Green, who'd been sent over by Hale in a winners' side final eight match, shut out Tim Hart, and gave up only a single rack in a victory over Horace Godwin (8) to pick up Byrd. Hale drew Angela Ger, who'd gotten by Travis Barber (5), 3-1 and Dana Aft (4) in a double hill match. 
 
Hale and Green advanced to a re-match quarterfinals after defeating Ger and Byrd, both 6-2. Green wreaked his vengeance on Hale in a straight-up race to 6 that went double hill and then defeated Autrey 6-2 in the semifinals, to get a shot at Ray in the hot seat.
 
To no avail, as it turned out. With two on the wire at the outset, racing to 6, Ray and Green battled to double hill (3-5) before Ray prevailed to capture the event title.
 
Tour directors Shannon Daulton and Marge Cooper thanked the ownership and staff of The Marietta Billiard Club, as well as new sponsor, Ozone Billiards, and regular sponsors Nick Varner Cues & Cases, Delta 13 Racks, Andy Gilbert Custom Cues, Tiger Products, and Lomax Custom Cues. The next stop on the GSBT, a $1,000-added amateur 9-ball event, is scheduled for September 7-8 at Shore Thing Billiards in Myrtle Beacj, SC.