Jane Im, Emily Duddy, Ashley Benoit, Stacey Tonkin, Donna Switzer, Briana Miller, Sandy Cheng and Mindy Maialetti
In a way of figuring out how to say, yet another time, that Briana Miller won a stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT), we searched for the Numerology significance of her latest victory – #17, earned over the past three years. She picked up that 17th win this past weekend (April 6-7), going undefeated at a $1,000-added event that drew 38 entrants to Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.
Turns out, according to the Affinity Numerology Web site that 17 is a “business number, specifically an independent business. People with that number in a major position on their numerology chart tend to be focused on building things intended to last for many generations, either material or social, and doing the building in their self-determined way.”
Sounds about right, as Miller, in her second full year as JPNEWT’s tour director, has arguably done as much in that position as she’s done at the tables for all 17 of her wins; the tour being in New Hampshire over the weekend being one of many ways that she’s impacted the ‘business’ of the JPNEWT, while simultaneously ‘building’ on her own skills at the table.
Miller was challenged twice in the event by WPBA compatriot, Emily Duddy. Miller opened with victories over Mindy Maialetti 7-2, Amanda Connolly 7-1 and Erica Testa 7-4 to draw Duddy in the first of their two in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Ashley Benoit, in the meantime, got by Hannah Leedberg and Emily Smith, both 7-3 and then, defeated Amanda Laverriere 7-5 to pick up Stacey Tonkin in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Miller defeated Duddy the first time 7-3, as Benoit advanced to join her in the hot seat match with a 7-1 victory over Tonkin. Miller and Benoit battled to double hill before Miller closed it out to claim the seat.
On the loss side, Duddy opened up against Donna Switzer, who came into the match with four loss-side wins that included the recent elimination of Laverriere 7-4 and Jane Im 7-3. Tonkin drew Sandy Cheng, who’d lost her opening match to Laverriere and was at the tail end of a six-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated Erica Testa 7-4 and Mindy Maialetti 7-3.
Duddy and Tonkin ended both loss-side streaks. Cheng put up a double-hill fight versus Tonkin, but it was Tonkin who advanced to the quarterfinal. Duddy downed Switzer 7-2 to join her.
Duddy won the next two matches 7-5, defeating Tonkin in the quarterfinals and Benoit in the semifinals for a second shot at Miller, waiting for her in the hot seat. Miller concluded her ‘business-like’ undefeated run with a second victory over Duddy 7-2.
In her role as TD, Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Buster’s along with title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, InTheBox Sportswear, PA Pro-Am Pool (livestream), Mezz Cues and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor). The JPNEWT will be back in New England for its next stop. Scheduled for the weekend of May 18-19, the $1,000-added event will be hosted by Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
Karen Corr, Bethany Sykes, CC Strain and Briana Miller
Tour director Linda Shea officially hands tour reins to Briana Miller
Though it lacked the formality of any sort of official transfer of power, the season finale of the 2022 J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) was significant as the last event at which Maryland’s Linda Shea would preside as its tour director, a title she has held for 14 years. This was announced and for all intents and purposes begun back in July when it was first reported that beginning officially with the season opener of the 2023 JPNEWT season, Pennsylvania’s Briana Miller would be the tour’s new director. Beginning with the fifth stop on the 2022 tour, Shea and Miller have been working side by side, co-directing the last seven stops on the tour. It’s been a transfer of power unlike anything that could be dreamed of in a political arena; an incoming US Senator, for example, working side by side with the incumbent to ‘learn the ropes’ of the job, while at the same time, beginning to exert a measure of influence, actually acting as the in-power Senator to accomplish specific policy objectives, so that when the time came, he/she could hit the ground running, to the benefit of the entire country.
Day by day, month by month over the past five of them, Shea and Miller have worked together toward this past weekend, Shea’s last tournament as its director. Miller has, in consultation with various long-standing members of the tour, including Shea, begun to change things, bringing a new ‘look’ to the tour Web site, seeking out new rooms, making plans to include more ‘bar box’ events, investigating ways of marketing the tour, initiating a new event format to the JPNEWT mix and making plans to grow the tour beyond Shea’s leadership. At this past weekend’s season finale, for example, Miller, Shea and other tour competitors were engaged in a combination round-robin, single-elimination format event that hadn’t been experienced by them on the tour before.
The $500-added season finale drew 26 entrants to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD this past weekend (Dec. 3-4). Both Briana Miller and Karen Corr went undefeated through both stages to arrive at a final match and then opt out of playing it, choosing instead to split the top two cash prizes. More on the event itself later.
There was also an unofficial, low-key ‘transfer of power’ moment at the event, during which Shea, who, like the incoming tour director, Briana Miller, competed in the event itself, was presented with a trophy/plaque, recognizing and commemorating her 14 years of service to the tour.
The new round-robin/single-elimination format offered existing and potential future competitors on the tour an opportunity to play more pool. Previously, the JPNEWT was adhering to standards that by rule, aligned them with the WPBA; in game choice (9-ball), format (double elimination) and without handicaps. According to Shea, some of the previous WPBA requirements have been relaxed to accommodate such format (and other) changes. But throughout most of Shea’s tenure as tour director, it meant that a newcomer to the tour might, as an example, travel some distance to compete, find themselves up against two tour veterans in an early draw and be headed home before mid-afternoon of the first day. With the round robin format as a beginning, such a player would, for their entry fee money, play all day, win or lose. Two losses wouldn’t disqualify her from further competition, although she wouldn’t likely be moving on to the single elimination phase of the event.
“I enjoyed it,” said outgoing tournament director, Shea. “With its (round robin format) races to 4, you had to come out concentrating hard.”
“Getting to four doesn’t take much,” she added, “and I liked it in the sense that you had to come out focused.”
And she did. There were five ‘flights’ of round robin matches, four of them with five competitors and one with six. Shea won all four of her round robin matches, advancing with nine others to the single elimination phase of the event.
Also advancing to the event’s second stage undefeated were incoming TD Briana Miller, Bethany Sykes and Eugenia Gyftopoulous. Advancing on the strength of 3-1 records were Ada Lio, Carol V. Clark, Kia Burwell, June Prescop and Karen Corr. Cecilia Strain advanced with a 3-2 record and a better, overall game-winning percentage than two other competitors with 3-2 records in the round robin phase. Shea, Miller, Corr, Burwell, Sykes and Gyftopoulous were awarded opening-round byes in the single-elimination bracket.
In the two matches that comprised the opening round of single-elimination play, Clark defeated Prescop 7-3 and Strain got by Lio 7-4. In the quarterfinals, Sykes defeated Clark 7-5, Corr downed Gyftopoulous 7-3 and Miller eliminated Burwell 7-2. Shea and Strain battled to double hill before Strain advanced to meet Miller in one of the semifinals. Corr and Sykes squared off in the other one.
In their first match of the event, in the round robin phase, Sykes had handed Corr what turned out to be her only loss in the tournament 4-2. Corr came back in the event semifinals to win their second match 7-4. Meeting for the first time (in this event), Miller defeated Strain 7-4 as well. It was at this point that Corr and Miller opted out of a final and split the top two cash prizes. It was also the final match held under the auspices of Shea, whose reign as JPNEWT TD came to something of an unofficial end. The opening of the tour’s 2023 schedule will be solely under Briana Miller’s direction.
“I haven’t been the director for the last few months, really,” said Shea. “I just helped her, introduced her to the people and assisted.”
“It felt good,” she added of her thoughts following the end of her official TD duties, noting that there were no sad thoughts about her ‘retirement’ from director status. “None at all. I get to just play now. I get to come in and not have to be there two hours early. I might even play in the Super Billiards Expo next year.
“I’m happy that Briana was interested in the position,” she went on to say. “I think she’s going to do a good job and it’s going to be great.”
Shea knew when it was over that she was leaving the tour in good hands. Though she admitted to a twinge of sadness that she was saying goodbye to the role of tour director, she was, overall, thankful for it.
“Very true,” she said. “Yes.”
In parting, Shea offered thanks to all of the players and tour assistants with whom she has worked over the past 14 years, and those who participated in her TD ‘swan song.’ She, along with Briana Miller thanked tour sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cue and George Hammerbacher, pool instructor and commentator on the tour’s live streams. Information on the JPNEWT 2023 schedule will appear on the tour’s listing, to be found in the “Tours/Events” tab on the AZBilliards Web site.
Downs Linda Shea twice, hot seat and finals, to claim title
It was a very active weekend for ladies’ pool across the country. Over the Oct.15-16 weekend, Texas held two ladies events while Florida held a Cues for the Cure fundraiser for breast cancer research. Intent on not being left out of the ‘females on the felt’ fun, the state of Delaware held its 1st Annual Ladies 9-Ball Championships. It was replete with well-known and respected women who’ve been plying their trade in the regional and national tour fields for many years, including the woman who went undefeated to win it, Tina Malm, and runner-up, Linda Shea, who’s as, if not more well-known for being at the helm of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour for as long as a lot of female competitors can remember. The event drew 28 entrants to Milford Billiards in Milford, DE.
As Shea has begun a process of turning over the reins of the JPNEWT to Briana Miller, officially in 2023, she’s ‘getting out’ a bit more these days, appearing away from the JPNEWT tables and testing her mettle at other tour and independent events. In particular, she’d been noticing that there’s a lot of money being offered in barbox competition.
“In this (Mid-Atlantic) area, everything is going barbox,” she said recently. “I took 2nd in an 8-Ball, Jack & Jill tournament at Brews & Cues (Glen Burnie, MD) recently and won $4,000, so I decided that I was going to investigate these barboxes.”
She was runner-up in this past weekend’s 9-ball event, only her second time playing on a barbox table, and will be playing in another Jack & Jill barbox event this weekend. She “enjoyed it very much,” she said of her experience at Milford Billiards, while noting that since a great deal of her tournament experience has played out on 9-ft tables, she’s having to make adjustments to the smaller, 7-ft tables.
“It’s totally different,” she said, “like a completely different game. There are a few things that are different; bank shots are a little different, you can’t do three-rail shots the same way and you have to take some of the power out of your game, shorten your stroke.
“I’m having to learn how to dumb down my stroke,” she added, “and it’s renewed my interest in learning how to downplay my game to accommodate the smaller table. I haven’t gotten that touch yet. It’s slower, but I still stroke it.”
Like Shea, Malm has a spent a lot of her title-winning career playing on 9 ft. tables and finds herself engaged recently in more 7 ft. match play because there’s a lot more of it here on the East Coast.
“It seems like I’m playing a lot more barbox pool,” she said, “but I’ve been a big table player for most of my career.”
Originally from San Diego, Malm got her start on that side of the country, winning a lot of her early titles on that side of the country. She was 1995’s Women’s Western Regional 9-Ball Tour Champion, 1999’s California State Women’s 9-Ball Champion and 2005’s Arizona Women’s Billiards Tour Champion, to name just a few. She and Shea crossed paths during a time when she was here about midway through the second decade of the century to be (among other things) the 2017 Delaware State Women’s 8-Ball Champion and Pennsylvania’s Women’s 9-Ball Champion, as well. She won this past April’s Women’s Player Championship at the SBE, too.
Though she and Malm have similar longevity curves on the ladies tour/event circuit, neither of them has a clear recollection of ever having played against each other.
“I feel like I’ve played against her before, when I was here in 2017-2018,” she said, “but I couldn’t tell you what our record against each other was.”
“This may have been the first,” was Shea’s recollection. “She came out (on the JPNEWT) once or twice, but I don’t recall ever having played her.”
It’s likely to be the last time that Shea ever says that.
Set up on opposite ends of the bracket, if they were going to meet at all on the winners’ side of that bracket, it was going to happen in the hot seat match. And it did. Malm got by Lisa Haas Kerrigan, Danielle Denola and Rachel Walters to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Nicole Nester. Shea downed Belinda Parker, Sharon O’Hanlon (long-time assistant to Shea on the JPNEWT) and Jennifer Tully to arrive at her winners’ side semifinal match against Sandy MacDonald Labar.
Shea defeated Labar 6-4, as Malm was busy sending Nester over 6-4. In their first of two, battling for the hot seat Malm and Shea went double hill, but not before some early and late drama.
“She had me down 4-1,” Shea recalled, “and I came back to 5-5. I broke the last rack, scratched and she ran out.”
She noted that overall, “some funky things happened” in their two matches. She wasn’t being critical or making excuses for her play in either match. Just noting one of the fundamental axioms of the games.
“She definitely got the balls down and won,” she said. “That’s the way it works.”
On the loss side, in the semifinals, Shea drew Nicole Nester, who, following her loss to Malm, had not given up a rack. Nester shut out Jennifer Tully in her first loss-side match and in the quarterfinals, shut out Rachel Walters, who’d chalked up her own shutout against Labar to reach her. Shea turned the tables on that 10-rack run for Nester, giving up only a single rack to her in the semifinals.
Malm didn’t lose a step in the delay between sending Shea to the loss side and her return. She completed her undefeated run with a 6-2, single set win over Shea in the finals and claimed the 1st Annual Ladies Delaware State Barbox 9-Ball Championship.
Tarek Elmalla, event organizer, thanked Leo and Sherrie Weigand and their Milford Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as Ray Netta with Tuff Cuts (for streaming the event), Alyssa Solt for commentating on the stream, Ran Ji, and the newly-married Ben and Andrea Thomas-Davis for “helping with everything.”
Linda Haywood-Shea, Caroline Pao, Briana Miller and Kia Burwell
In a J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) stop in Pennsylvania, affected by a variety of factors, including other events, gas/lodging prices and distance, Kia Burwell chalked up her first 2022 tour win this past weekend (Oct. 8-9), downing both the tour-rankings leader, Briana Miller and the top American competitor on the WPBA rankings list, Caroline Pao in the process. She also won five of her seven total matches on the loss side to be in the event finals. While the $750-added event drew a short field of 12 entrants to Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA, it was not without its impactful matches among the tour’s top competitors; six of the tour’s top 10 were on-hand to jockey for tour-ranking position in the 8th of 10 stops on the 2022 tour.
Following a first-round bye, Burwell (#2) lost her opening match to Carol V. Clark (#6 on the tour) 7-5. Clark advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Miller (#1). Pao (#4), in the meantime, followed an opening round bye with a 7-3 win over tour director Linda Shea (#3) to pick up Rachel Walters in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Miller shut Clark out and in the hot seat match, faced Pao, who’d defeated Walters 7-3. Miller claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Pao and waited for Burwell to complete her loss-side run.
Two matches into her loss-side run, with victories over Shelah Joner 7-4 and Melissa Jenkins 7-2, Burwell drew Walters. Clark picked up Shea, who’d defeated Linda Cheung, double hill and Ashley Benoit 7-4 to reach her.
Burwell did her part to bring about a rematch against Clark in the quarterfinals, downing Walters 7-4, but Shea spoiled the ‘party’ by eliminating Clark 7-2. In a quite familiar scene, Shea and Burwell battled in those quarterfinals, Burwell coming out on top 7-3.
Either way, the semifinals were going to yield a finals opponent for Miller that would not be enviable; Pao or Burwell. As it turned out, Burwell had to win two straight double hill battles to complete her run.
No problem. She battled Pao to the hill before advancing to the extended-race-to-9 finals. There, she chalked up seven racks first to extend the race to 9 games and then, with Miller nipping at her double-hill heels, she finished up to claim the event title.
Co-Tour Directors Linda Shea and Briana Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Eagle Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues and stream commentator George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor, Baltimore, MD). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of November 5-6, will be hosted by On Cue Sports Bar & Grill in Front Royal, VA.
One can only imagine that while the entrants on this past weekend’s (Aug. 13-14) stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour were happy to see Ireland’s Karen Corr back at the tables, and in spite of the pool mantra of ‘playing the table, not the opponent,’ there had to be an underlying sense of trepidation. Some, arguably many, remembered that the last time Corr had lost a JPNEWT event in which she had appeared had been seven years ago. As it happened, it was also the year (2015) that she was the tour champion, winning the first eight stops of 11 that year and for reasons lost to the mists of time, finishing 9th at that year’s season finale.
The assumed ‘trepidation’ didn’t affect the JPNEWT’s current, #1-ranked player, Briana Miller, at all. In fact, she opened what turned out to be an undefeated run to her fifth win of the 2022 season by defeating Corr in the opening round. Corr fought back, winning four on the loss side before she became ill and had to withdraw from the event quarterfinals, which would have put her up against Kia Burwell.
The event was a qualifier for the WPBA “Sledgehammer” Open, a memorial event for the late Helena Thornfeldt, scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 19-23 at Janet Atwell’s room, Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN. Though won by Miller, she deferred the qualifying spot to runner-up, Nicole Albergaria. The $750-added event drew 13 entrants to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD, the same site where Corr had last lost an event on the JPNEWT. Triple Nines added the $500 to the general money-added coffers and $250 more for the entry fee to the “Sledgehammer” Open. A raffle cue netted $160 to supplement Albergaria’s travel expenses to that event.
Following her opening-round victory over Corr, Miller advanced through Kia Burwell 7-5 (the tour’s current #3) to draw Char Dzambo in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Albergaria, in the meantime, got by Kathy Friend 7-3 and Lynn Richard 7-1 to pick up Judie Wilson.
Miller defeated Dzambo 7-3 and in the hot seat match, faced Albergaria, who’d sent Wilson to the loss side 7-3. Miller claimed the hot seat 7-1.
On the loss side, Dzambo drew Karen Corr, who’d previously eliminated Carol V. Clark, Lynn Richard and tour director, Linda Shea (#2). Wilson picked up Burwell, who’d defeated Kathy Friend 7-4 and Calala Jackson 7-1 to reach her.
Corr advanced to the quarterfinals 7-3 over Dzambo and would have been joined by Burwell, who’d eliminated Wilson 7-2. But Corr withdrew from those quarterfinals, sending Burwell to the semifinals, where she was defeated by Albergaria 7-2.
In their second of two, Albergaria, playing in her first event of the JPNEWT season, downed Burwell 7-2 for a second shot at Miller. Albergaria improved on her 7-1 hot seat performance and came within a game of forcing a 13th deciding game. Miller, though, claimed the event title 7-5.
Current and soon-to-be tour directors Linda Shea and Briana Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Triple Nines for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues and stream commentator, George Hammerbacher. The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of September 17-18, has been cancelled. The tour will return to the tables on the weekend of October 8-9 at Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA.
Next up, WPBA qualifier to inaugural Helena Thornfeldt Memorial – The Sledgehammer Open
As Briana Miller began the process of assimilating duties she will be performing as full-time tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour in January, she signed on to compete in its latest event, looking to chalk up her fifth straight win since the 2022 season began in March at Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD. Current tour director Linda Shea won the only 2022 event in which Miller did not compete back in May. This past weekend (July 30-31), Caroline Pao, who’d been runner-up to Miller in the March season opener, battled her twice this time out, hot seat and finals; Miller, winning the first and Pao, claiming the title by winning the second. The event drew 19 entrants to Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
During her absence from JPNEWT events since March, Pao had not been idle. She cashed in five events elsewhere, one per month, including three WPBA tournaments (Northern Lights Classic, Ashton Twins Classic and WPBA Masters), a stop on the Joss Tour and a 5th place finish at the SBE’s Women’s 9-Ball Pro Players Championship. She was looking for her first 2022 victory and found it in New Jersey.
Pao opened her bid for that win with a 7-1 victory over Carol V. Clark and a 7-2 victory over Melissa Jenkins to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Kris Consalvo Kemp. Miller, in the meantime, got by Kathy Croom 7-3 and in a present/future TD match downed Linda Shea 7-4, to arrive at her winners’ side semifinal match against the tour’s #3 competitor, Kia Burwell.
Pao got into the hot seat match with a 7-1 victory over Kemp and was joined by Miller, who’d defeated Burwell 7-3. Miller claimed the hot 7-3.
On the loss side, Burwell picked up Kathy Croom, who’d lost her opening match to Miller and went on to defeat Ginny Lewis 7-2, Melissa Jenkins 7-5 and Susan Kimble 7-2. Ada Lio, who’d lost her opener to Shea and following victories over Anna Marks 7-2, Sheila Joner 7-1 and Alyssa Solt 7-3, won her rematch versus Shea 7-3 to draw Kemp.
Lio advanced to the quarterfinals 7-5 over Kemp and was joined by Burwell, who’d eliminated Croom 7-4. By the same score, Burwell defeated Lio in those quarterfinals. Both semifinalists – Burwell and Pao – were looking for a second shot at Miller in the hot seat and predictably, the battle that ensued went double hill. Pao prevailed.
With that pool-player’s friend ‘momentum’ in play, Pao came into the finals looking for her first 2022 title. She edged out in front of Miller in those finals, eventually extended the lead to four racks and claimed her first JPNEWT and 2022 title 9-5.
Shea and Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Shooter’s Family Billiards, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor, Baltimore, MD). The next stop on the JPNEWT (#8), scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 13-14 at Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD, will be a WPBA qualifier. The winner will receive entry to the WPBA’s $10,000-added Sledgehammer Open, a tribute to the late Helena Thornfeldt. That event, scheduled for Oct. 19-23, will be hosted by Janet Atwell at her Borderline Billiard’s room in Bristol, TN.
As the current (Linda Shea) and future (Briana Miller) director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour began the process of switching places that will culminate with the start of the 2023 season, they met in Frederick, MD this past weekend (Saturday, July 16), renewing a rivalry that began when Miller was a teenager and Shea had just begun her tenure as the tour’s director (see report on the ‘peaceful transition of power’ outlined in our News archives; Friday, July 15). As the two were no doubt consulting on and sharing in the varied chores that comprise the work of tour director, they also met in the tournament itself, twice; hot seat and finals. Miller won both matches, completing an undefeated run that marked her fourth victory of the season. Shea, who’d won the only event at which Miller did not compete (Stop #4; Stop #3 was cancelled), moved ahead of Kia Burwell in the tour standings. The event drew 16 entrants to Champion Billiards Sports Bar in Frederick, MD.
Miller, who would go on to win four out of every five games she played in the event (35-8) defeated Melissa Mason 7-2 and Susan Kimble 7-1 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Shanna Lewis. Until she encountered Miller, Shea had faced her most challenging opponent (by score) in the opening round, when Lynn Richard chalked up four against her. Shea then defeated Judie Wilson 7-3 and drew Kelly Wyatt in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Miller and Shea advanced to the hot seat match by identical 7-2 scores; Miller over Lewis and Shea over Wyatt. Miller allowed Shea only a single rack in the hot seat match.
On the loss side, Lewis picked up Judie Wilson, who’d followed her loss to Shea with two straight double hill wins; over Melissa Mason and then, the #2-ranked competitor on the tour, Kia Burwell. Wyatt drew Lynn Richard, who’d followed her loss to Shea with victories over Susan Kimble and Melissa Jenkins, both 7-5.
Wyatt downed Richard 7-5 and was joined in the quarterfinals by Lewis, who’d shut Wilson out. Lewis then eliminated Wyatt in those quarterfinals 7-2.
Both of the semifinalists, Shea and Lewis, were looking for a rematch against Miller, waiting for one or the other of them in the hot seat. Shea earned the privilege, downing Lewis 7-2.
Miller defeated Shea a second time, this time 7-2, to claim her fourth 2022 JPNEWT title.
Shea and Miller, who was no doubt participating in this part of the process, thanked the ownership and staff at Champion Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor, Baltimore, MD). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of July 30-31, will be hosted by Shooters Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
This weekend, at the 6th stop on the 2022 J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour, the beginning of a slow, but steady process to peacefully transfer tour power from its current director, Maryland’s Linda Shea to Pennsylvania’s Briana Miller will begin. Shea is retiring from the oldest, continuously-operating women’s tour on the East Coast that she has been running and competing in for 14 years.
Though it’s difficult to trace the tour’s origins precisely, according to Dawn Hopkins it began as a women’s tour she founded in the early 90s, an adjunct to her All About Pool Magazine and its All About Pool Men’s Tour in Massachusetts. The All About Pool Ladies Tour (and Hopkins) shifted from a New England base to New Jersey, where it would become the Northeast Women’s Tour, operating at first, under the leadership of Colleen Shoop and Candy Rego, and later, Barbara Stock and Micaela Games. It was under their leadership that the tour began its association with and eventual name change to the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour at the end of 2001 season.
Shea will be handing the reins of the tour over to a woman who’s been a key competitor on that tour since Shea took over from Barbara Stock in 2008. Miller, who was 13 years old and in the midst of a seven-year run as a BEF Junior National Champion when Shea took over, will be ‘learning the ropes’ in the course of the tour’s next seven stops, commencing with this weekend’s event at Champion Billiards Sports Bar in Frederick, MD, through the season finale (Stop #12) on the weekend of Dec. 3-4 at Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD. Miller will assume tour director duties full-time with the commencement of the 2023 season.
“My husband retired,” Shea explained of the decision. “It was time for me to spend time with him.”
“I saw it coming beforehand,” she added, “that it was what I was going to do.”
Shea ‘landed’ on the idea of Briana Miller as her successor, shortly after Miller returned to the area from a three-year hiatus from the sport, while she attended Lindenwood University on a pool scholarship that earned her a finance degree. She graduated from Lindenwood and got a job in the St. Charles, MO area. As the pandemic played out, more or less at its height, she obtained permission to keep her job and to do it remotely from her hometown in Allentown, PA. She returned home and to competition on the JPNEWT.
“Briana came back from college, all settled down to stay in the game,” Shea said. “She was very excited. She grew up on this tour like I did.”
And very much in stroke, as it turned out. Miller won the JPNEWT season opener, her first on the tour in five years. The last time she and Shea had met in an event before that, Miller had shut Shea out in both the hot seat and finals. They did not meet in this year’s season opener. Miller went on to win two more of this season’s stops on the tour, including the last one in June at Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD, where the season had begun, as well. Shea commented on her return after the opener.
“It (was) great to see her out and playing again,” she said at the time. “I loved it. She’s all grown up now; nice and settled and doing well. Her game showed it.”
The measured transition to her position as the tour’s director will likely start out slowly, as Miller starts doing some of the things she’s been watching people do since she was a teenager. She had actually started to do a few things to help out during the last stop at Triple Nines.
“This week, I’ll just start helping out with the tour,” she said. “(Things like) assigning tables, calling matches, updating brackets, things like that. I’ve been around these things my entire life, so it’s not anything new to me.”
As the weeks and months progress toward 2023, she’ll also be looking into who, among people with whom she has been competing and interacting for years on the tour, will be likely candidates to help her in the multitude of tasks she’ll be confronting in the New Year. There are more than a few among the JPNEWT’s membership who could do so.
“I’ll be trying to keep things in-house,” she said, “working with people I trust.”
There are a few things that are causing her some minor anxiety about the transition. Aspects of running a tour that she wisely has identified as things she knows she doesn’t know. Yet.
“Relationships with room owners, for example,” she said. “Establishing new relationships and maintaining existing ones.”
Shea, in the meantime, will be looking forward to time with her husband, John, which prompted the decision to give up her role as JPNEWT’s tour director in the first place. Without his support, she said, her time on the tour would have been a lot harder. She is also quick to point out that while she might be retiring the tools of the tour director trade, she’s not going to be hanging up her pool cue just yet.
“I still hope to play,” she said, “only it will be without having to load up 300 pounds of equipment before I go.”
“I don’t think I have regrets,” she added. “I love this game and I hope I did my part. I’m hoping that I’m leaving the tour when it’s better than I found it.”
Plans for the immediate future with her husband are indeterminate as yet, although they have reportedly discussed the idea of attaining a small travel trailer and taking trips around the country, where Shea can compete in tournaments other than the JPNEWT. It’s not the first thing on her retirement list, however.
“The first thing I’m going to do is show up for one of our events an hour before it starts, not three hours earlier to set up,” she said. “Briana and I will be working together until the end of the year, so I’ll be lending her some assistance.”
After almost three years in which she had failed to record any sort of a payout in any pool tournament (that we know of), Briana Miller returned to Pennsylvania from St. Charles, MO, where she’d attained a degree in finance, thanks to a pool-related scholarship to Lindenwood University. She got a job upon graduation and then, later, just beyond the height of the pandemic, was allowed to transfer and do that job remotely, back at home in Allentown, PA. Just this past weekend (March 5-6), Miller went undefeated to chalk up her first win on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) in five years. Her last two recorded payouts came during the 2018 and 2019 Super Billiards Expo’s Women’s Championships in which she finished 9th and 5th, respectively.
Miller’s last win on the JPNEWT, in November of 2017, featured two, back-to-back victories (hot seat and finals) over Tour Director Linda Shea. In a circumstance that at the time, we described to be “as rare as a teenager that doesn’t play video games,” Miller shut Shea out in both matches. Like that event, the tour’s 2022 season opener, with its 29 entrants, was hosted by Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD.
“It’s great to see her out and playing again,” said Shea after this past weekend’s event. “I loved it. She’s all grown up now; nice and settled and doing well. Her game showed it. She shot the lights out.”
It was, all told, a big come-back weekend for Miller that happened to accompany a turning point for the JPNEWT, as well. Their season opener capped an overall effort to revitalize the tour. Their 2022 season has begun with a new ‘look.’ They’ve partnered with a new streaming company – TTMD Streaming (ThinkTechMD) – which has brought a degree of professionalism and new vitality to the streaming services, including such improvements as multiple camera angles, the ability to do instant replay and steady commentary from the familiar face and voice of pool instructor George Hammerbacher and Wayne Everhart, owner of TTMD. The company has also undertaken to improve the tour’s presence on varied forms of social media and have been instrumental in creating a new tour Web site.
“They were very professional,” noted Shea of TTMD Streaming’s presence at the tour’s season opener, “and I’m looking forward to a great union with them.”
“Not only that,” she added, ‘but feature this: we held an amateur event, as well, for 450 and below Fargo rates that I’ve been trying to grow for two years. TTMD’s on board for our first event of the season and they get 25 women to participate. The most I ever got was eight. They worked that very hard and for sure, get all the credit for that 450 and under event. They even put four players in the main event, sponsored them.”
The winner of the ‘450 and under’ event was Lynn Richard, who came from the loss side (three matches) and claimed the title, with Linda Cheung as runner-up. There was also a preliminary, 17-entrant ‘chip tournament’ on Friday night, March 4, with races to one that proved immensely popular.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Shea. “Only 17 people (mixed genders, won by Pete Boyer), but it was a blast and they want it to come back every week.”
In main event, Millers runs a gauntlet of some of the better-known competitors on the tour
In spite of what Miller encountered as a lot of new faces, she ended up facing people that she knew, beginning with Lai Li and following with Judie Wilson and Linda Cheung, which brought her to a winners’ side semifinal against another familiar face, Eugenia Gyftopoulos. Kathy Friend, in the meantime, got by Melissa Jenkins, Alyssa Solt and survived a tough double hill challenge by Caroline Pao before advancing to her winners’ side semifinal against Ada Lio.
Friend downed Lio 7-3 and met up with Miller, who’d sent Gyftopoulos to the loss side by the same 7-3 score. Miller claimed the hot seat, her first in a long while, 7-2.
On the loss side, Lio picked up Linda Shea, who’d lost her opening match to Shanna Lewis and embarked on a six-match, loss-side winning streak that was almost derailed by Melissa Mason’s double hill challenge in the second, losers’ side round. Shea survived that, advancing to eventually eliminate Linda Cheung and Kia Burwell. Gyftopoulos drew Caroline Pao, who, following her defeat at the hands of Friend, had eliminated Lewis 7-4 and Judie Wilson 7-1.
Pao defeated Gyftopoulos 7-5, as Shea was busy getting by Lio 7-3. It set up a classic JPNEWT quarterfinal match between two of the tour’s most enduring event champions; Pao and Shea. Pao won this round of that ongoing rivalry 7-4 and then, dropped Friend 7-3 in the semifinals.
The finals of the 2022 season, pitting Pao against Miller, was, by almost any standard, a classic of the tour’s long-standing and still ongoing history. Behind them, at this event, were quite a few former JPNEWT champions; Shea, Burwell, Friend, Lewis, Lai Li and in absentia, the memory of Karen Corr. Ahead of them, as is always the case, was the table in front of them. Miller completed her undefeated run with a 7-4 victory over Pao to reclaim her spot among the tour’s best.
She’d taken a break and had now come back, to her hometown and pool.
“After I graduated (in 2018, from Lindenwood), I felt like a needed a break,” she explained. “I’d been playing since I was eight (but) felt as though I wasn’t having as much fun anymore. So, I shifted my focus to other things.”
As for future plans, she’s keeping her expectations and specific plans on a ‘tight rein,’ so to speak. A sort of one day at a time approach.
“I think I’m going to stick with the JPNEWT for right now, to get back into the swing of things,” she said, adding that her ‘future’ eye is extended forward a little, toward future WPBA events and CSI’s Predator Pro Series, as examples. She’s considering attending this year’s Super Billiards Expo, but more likely as a spectator and to get reacquainted with some of the women she’d come to know over the years. “I might just go and say ‘Hi’ to everyone.
“I’m not at that level of play (to be) in a Pro event yet,” she added. “I’ll just get out there when I’m ready. Right now, I’m just playing pool to have fun.”
Tour director Linda Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Triple Nines for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Cues, ThinkTechMD for their streaming and social media services, as well as Gina Cunningham (real estate agent of Keller Williams Integrity) and George Hammerbacher.
The next event on the JPNEWT, scheduled for April 9-10, will be hosted by Markley Billiards in Norristown, PA.
(l to r): Robert Patrick, Rahu Vithani & Andreas Madsen
No surprises here.
It’s no surprise that over the past six years, the oldest continuously-run pool tournament in the country, dating back to 1937 – The American College Union International’s Collegiate Pocket Billiards Championship – has been dominated by the only school in the country with a full-scale billiards athletic program.
It’s also not a surprise that in her first year with this program at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, April Larson went undefeated through a field of 12 to win the 2019 Women’s title, along with the event’s Sportsmanship award. The 80th Women’s and 82nd Men’s Collegiate Championship was hosted by the University of Illinois at its Champaign campus on the last weekend in May. No surprise, either, that last year’s male champion from Lindenwood, Andreas Madsen, originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, successfully defended his title this year, going undefeated through a field of 28.
And, just a step outside the realm of professional relevance, it’s not too much of a surprise that Larson and Madsen have, in a manner of speaking, found each other.
Ladies first. Not only did Larson win the title and the Sportsmanship award, but she defeated last year’s champion, Taylor Hanson, twice, to do it. They’re both from Minnesota and have a long history of competing against each other. Hanson entered the Lindenwood University program, a year ahead of Larson. Now, they spend most of the year on the same university pool team, which went 13-2 on the college year season. The university program’s dominance extends well beyond the sixth straight time that they’ve captured both the men’s and women’s titles, which, by the way, included an unprecedented four straight titles for Briana Miller (2014-2017).
According to Larson, her switch from high school and professional competition, to the rigors of a college education and college sports, has been a matter of focus.
“Focusing on school and improving my pool game,” she said. “Combining those things so you don’t slack off on the school work, and show up for practice. It’s about balancing those things. Finding time to do them both.”
[photo id=51129|align=right]Larson, of course, is used to playing against much larger (not to mention higher skilled) fields of competitors, but with Lindenwood University as the only school to offer a structured athletic program around pool, it was yet another example of ‘no surprise’; no surprise that there were only 12 women competing.
“We had nine qualify this year,” said the program director, Mark Wilson. “It’s the largest group we’ve ever taken and it was the largest group in attendance at this year’s event.”
“Last year,” he added of the women’s championship, “there were only five in the field.”
A preliminary round of eight players, yielded four winners, who advanced to compete against four women who’d been awarded a bye. Larson shut out her first two opponents, China Concepion and Taylor Hammonds, which put her into a winners’ side semifinal against YuShi Hou. Defending women’s champion, Taylor Hanson shut out her first two opponents, as well – Adamaris Andrade and Madison Bond – to face Ava Schieferstein in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Larson and Hanson advanced to their first match, battling for the hot seat. Larson had sent Hou to the loss side 7-3, as Hanson was busy sending Schieferstein over 7-1. Larson claimed the hot seat 7-4 and waited for Hanson to get back from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Schieferstein picked up Hammonds, who’d defeated Cierra Staton, double hill and Amanda Adams 7-2. Hou drew Bond, who’d eliminated Jenne Harasin and Concepcion, both 7-2. Bond shut out Hou and in the quarterfinals, faced Schieferstein, who’d defeated Hammonds 7-1. Schieferstein ended Bond’s bid 7-5 in those quarterfinals, before she was shut out by Hanson in the semifinals.
The college format dictated a true double elimination final, requiring Hanson to defeat Larson twice to successfully defend her title. She came as close as you could get without winning it. She and Larson fought to double hill before Larson claimed her first, though likely not her last, college title.
Madsen and Vithani battle twice for Men’s title
Andreas Madsen was cruising through his first few matches in the Men’s tournament. He arrived at a winners’ side semifinal having given up only four racks over three matches and 25 games. He opened his bid to defend the college title with a 7-1 victory over Bradley Degener, shut out Anthony Brown and gave up three to Abdulaziz Altamimi, which set him up to face Taren Stewart in one winners’ side semifinal.
Rahul Vithani, in the meantime, gave up 10 racks over three rounds of play and 31 games. He got by Wade Darr 7-2, Aun Lakhani 7-3 and Woda Ni 7-5 to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal match against Robert Patrick.
Madsen continued to roll, advancing to the hot seat match with a 7-1 victory over Stewart. Vithani and Patrick locked up in a double hill fight that eventually did send Patrick to the loss side and Vithani on to faced Madsen. Vithani came within a game of chalking up as many racks against Madsen as all of his previous opponents combined. Madsen, though, claimed the hot seat 7-4 and waited for Vithani to get back.
Patrick and Stewart moved on over to the loss side. Patrick picked up Alatamimi, who, following his defeat at the hands of Madsen had downed Sarmanya Bhiwaniwaia 7-2 and Dakota Knudson 7-1. Stewart drew Anthony Brown, who was on a four-match, loss-side streak that had included wins over Zishan Cai 7-3 and Woda Ni 7-4.
Patrick advanced to the quarterfinals 7-1 over Altamimi. Brown and Stewart battled to double hill before Brown finished it, extending his loss-side streak to five. Patrick ended that streak in the quarterfinals 7-1, only to have his own two-match, loss-side streak come to an end 7-5 in the semifinals against Vithani.
The wait apparently had no effect on Madsen. Vithani had to win twice to take the title away from him, but failed to chalk up a second rack, let alone second match. Madsen won it 7-1 to successfully defend the ACUI collegiate men’s title.
He’s back home in Denmark, now, but will be back in the early part of August to continue his education at Lindenwood. He’s uncertain at this point, whether he’ll be pursuing a pool career full-time.
“It’s a good question,” he said. “I’m going to finish college and then, maybe take a year off. I’d like to have a job that would allow me to travel.”
Until such time as other universities find a rationale and ultimately, the funds to replicate the Lindenwood University athletic pool program, students from Lindenwood will likely continue to dominate the annual ACUI Collegiate Tournament. According to director Wilson, he receives a lot of inquiries about his program and its success, but they’re from the wrong people; students, not schools.
“University inquiries (about the program) are rare,” he said. “We’re starting to get a hint at progress toward more programs, but (the university administrators) don’t see the value.”
For the most part, Wilson’s athletes compete locally against established leagues and for the most part, don’t have to over-exert themselves to come out on top.
“We’ll rarely play our top 6 players,” noted Wilson.
April Larson will be back at the tables for the WPBA’s Signature Event on the weekend of August 8-11 and be back at Lindenwood for her second year, shortly thereafter. She has every intention of maintaining the 4.0 grade average she established in her first year, on her way to a degree in finance. Madsen, too, after a trip home to Copenhagen will be back in early August to resume his quest for another 4.0 grade average year in pursuit of degree in International Relations.
The pair could be a threat at almost any Scotch Doubles Tournament in the nation, and are likely, individually, to be making more and more progress in their game. They’re likely to be a dual sight to see for some time to come.
