The top two players on the 2018 J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour, were at it again on the weekend of April 27-28, 2019. Tour director Linda Shea, who finished at the top of last year’s tour rankings went undefeated in this second stop on her tour, while Nicole King, who finished in the second spot in those 2018 tour rankings, finished in the second spot in this event, as well. The $500-added event drew 24 entrants to Markley Billiards in Norristown, PA.
In addition to the main event, which was an NAPT Div. 2: Semi-Pro Tournament, the JPNEWT held a Sunday Amateur tournament for players with 4 and under handicaps only. That event drew seven entrants and saw two ‘Jenns’ emerge from the event’s round robin format to collect the top two prizes; Jenn Tully finished in 1st place, with Jenn Sylvester as runner-up.
In the main event, Shea advanced through Ada Lio 7-5, Lisa Dougherty 7-1 and Anita Sowers 7-3 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against Eugenia Gyftopoulos. King, in the meantime, was awarded an opening round bye, and then, defeated April Hatcher 7-1 and Noel Rima 7-5 to draw Lai Li in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Shea advanced to the hot seat 7-5 over Gyftopoulos, and was joined by King, who’d defeated Li 7-2. Shea claimed the hot seat 7-5 and waited on King’s return.
On the loss side, Kia Sidbury was fighting her way back from a first-round, double hill defeat at the hands of Lai Li, and after a first-round, loss-side bye, was in the midst of a four-match winning streak that was about to end. She’d downed Melissa Jenkins, Carol Clark, Noel Rima (double hill) and Suzzie Wong 7-5, to draw Gyftopoulos. Li, in the meantime, picked up Kathy Friend, who after losing double hill to Gyftopoulos on the winners’ side, had shutout Ada Lio and defeated April Hatcher 7-5 to reach her.
Gyftopoulos and Sidbury locked up in a double hill fight (Sidbury’s 4th) for advancement to the quarterfinals and Gyftopoulos was the one to advance. She was joined in the quarterfinals by Friend, who earned her rematch against Gyftopoulos by handing Li her second straight loss 7-5.
Friend went a step further, defeating Gyftopoulos 7-1 in those quarterfinals, before having her own four-match, loss-side winning streak brought to an end by King, who defeated her 7-2 in the semifinals.
The wait didn’t seem to do much harm to Shea in the finals. She bettered her score in the hot seat match by two racks, completing her undefeated run with a second victory over King; this time 7-3.
Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Markley Billiards, as well as sponsors J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Coins of the Realm, angle aim Art (Britanya E Rapp), The Turtle Rack Combo (Mezzusa.com), Baltimore City Cues and Billy Ray Bunn Cue Repair. The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for May 18-19, will be hosted by First Break Bar & Grill in Sterling, VA.
(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.
Regional pool tour rankings are generally based on a point system that takes both performance and participation into account. In 2016, Linda Shea, tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour (JPNEWT), ended up at the top of the tour's end-of-year rankings, in part because she participated in all 13 stops on the tour, accumulating 1,660 tour points (two wins and among the top four finishers in nine more). By comparison, Karen Corr, who won all three of the tour's events in which she competed last year, finished in eighth place in the tour rankings.
On the weekend of April 29-30, Shea chalked up her first victory of the 2017 JPNEWT season, coming from the loss side to meet and defeat hot seat occupant, Jenn Keeney. The victory moved Shea into the 2017 tour's #1 ranking slot. The event drew a short field of 15 entrants to Markley's Billiards in Norristown, PA.
Shea opened her bid against 2016's #2-ranked player, Kia Sidbury, who, though she failed to chalk up a tour win last year, participated in 12 of the tour's 13 stops, and accumulated the second highest number of total points (835). Shea downed Sidbury in this event's opening round 8-4, before being sent to the loss side by Carol Clark 7-5. Clark advanced to a winners' side semifinal against Keeney, while Sharon O'Hanlon (#3 in 2016) squared off against Boye Lu. Keeny moved into the hot seat match with an 8-6 win over Clark, and was joined by Lu, who'd moved O'Hanlon to the loss side 7-5. By the same score, Keeney sent Lu to the semifinals, and waited on Shea's return.
Shea advanced to the quarterfinals with a 9-5 win over O'Hanlon. Clark joined her by squeaking past Wilson in a double hill battle. Shea flexed her muscles in that quarterfinal match, shutting Clark out in their re-match, and then downed Lu in the semifinals 7-5. Shea completed her first title run with a 9-6 victory over Keeney in the extended-race-to-9 finals.
In addition to the second place prize money, Keeney's finish afforded her a paid slot in a North American Pool Tour event, scheduled for August at Shooter's in Grayslake, IL. The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of May 20-21, will be hosted by First Break Cafe and Billiards in Sterling, VA.
There were some new names among the top finishers at the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour, Stop # 8, on the weekend of August 27-28. While these new names jumped up on the tour's ranking list, they didn't disturb the tour's top three (Linda Shea, Karen Corr and Kia Sidbury), nor did they, themselves, break into the Top 10. They (winner, Joy McFeaters and runner-up Alexandra Calabrese), in consort with a host of other competitors, did, however, cause a little shakeup in the rankings that saw Janet Atwell and Jia Li drop out of the Top 10 (each has only competed twice this year). The $500-added event drew 20 entrants to Classic Billiards in Phoenixville, PA.
It was Joy McFeaters first win on the tour, in only her second appearance this year (she finished in the tie for ninth back in late April, and had finished third behind Corr and Shea in April 2015). Runner-up Alexandra Calabrese was making her first appearance of the year, though not her first on the tour (she played in all of the tour's events in 2013, and finished in 12th place on the tour rankings). The draw helped McFeaters in that, until the semifinals, she never had to face a tour opponent ranked higher than 18. Calabrese, on the other hand, to get to the hot seat, had to get by two of the tour's top 10 players; Judie Wilson, who entered the tournament at #8, and Kia Sidbury, the tour's #3 player.
McFeaters and Calabrese met twice in this one; hot seat and finals. Following an opening round bye, McFeaters defeated Sandy Raber and Carol Clark, to draw Kathleen Lawless in a winners' side semifinal. Calabrese, recipient of a bye as well, defeated Judie Wilson and Kia Sidbury to get Colleen Shoop in the other winners' side semifinal. McFeaters downed Lawless 7-4, as Calabrese was sending Shoop to the loss side 7-2. In their first of two, Calabrese defeated McFeaters 7-4, to claim her first hot seat.
On the loss side, Lawless picked up Linda Shea, who, after being sent to the loss side by Shoop, defeated Jen Keeney 7-4 and Sharon O'Hanlon 7-5, to draw Lawless. Shoop drew Nicole King, who'd shut out Carol Clark and defeated Judie Wilson 7-5 to reach her.
Shea and Shoop advanced for a re-match; Shoop downing King 7-2, Shea defeating Lawless 7-3. Shea exacted her revenge on Shoop in the quarterfinals, defeating her 7-3, and then locked up in a tense, double hill fight against McFeaters. McFeaters was playing in her first semifinal, and in the absence of a gender equivalency, was playing David to the tour's top-ranked Goliath. The 9-ball in game 13 took the place of David's rock, and McFeaters advanced for a second shot against Calabrese.
In the modified race to 9, McFeaters had to win seven to trigger an extension to nine games. She did so, and completed her first win on the JPNEWT with a 9-5 win over Calabrese. They both advanced from ranking obscurity to a spot among the tour's Top 20 competitors.
National and local competitions had a decided impact on the field of players in attendance for the sixth stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour, held on the weekend of July 30-31. The BCA Pool League Championships, which had just wrapped up in Las Vegas as the event began, combined with a few tournaments in the tri-state New York area, led to a field of 12 in the $750-added JPNEWT event, hosted by Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY. The event was won by Nicole Albergaria, who went undefeated, facing Sharon O'Hanlon in both the hot seat match and finals.
It took five matches for Albergaria to claim the title; two double hill wins, a shutout and in the end, two 7-2 victories. Gail Robles was Albergaria's first double hill victim, which Albergaria followed with a shutout over Elaine Wilson. This set her up to face tour director Linda Shea in a winners' side semifinal, as O'Hanlon, winner over Karen Brooks and Nicole King, faced Melissa Jenkins in the other one.
Albergaria downed Shea, double hill, while O'Hanlon sent Jenkins to the loss side 7-4. Albergaria chalked up the first of two 7-2 wins, claiming the hot seat over O'Hanlon.
On the loss side, Jenkins picked up Kia Sidbury, who entered the tournament in the tour's third ranking spot behind Karen Corr and Shea. Sent to the loss side by Shea in her opening round (after a bye), Sidbury gave up three racks over two matches, against Karen Brooks (1) and Carol Clark (2) to face Jenkins. Shea drew Gail Robles, who, after her defeat at the hands of Albergaria on the winners' side, bested Suzette Santos-Wade 7-2, and Judie Wilson 7-4.
The #2 and #3-ranked players on the tour (Shea and Sidbury) advanced to the quarterfinals; Shea, 7-3 over Robles and Sidbury 7-5 over Jenkins. Shea defeated Sidbury 7-4 to face O'Hanlon in the semifinals. O'Hanlon thwarted Shea's shot at a re-match against Albergaria with a double hill win in that semifinal match.
Having entered the tournament in the eleventh ranking spot, O'Hanlon's presence in the finals, win or lose, assured her elevation to the fourth spot on the tour rankings, behind Sidbury. Albergaria duplicated her hot seat effort against O'Hanlon in the finals (7-2) to claim the event title. In addition to her cash prize, Albergaria was awarded qualification to an upcoming North American Pool Tour (NAPT) event.
Stop #7 on the JPNEWT, a $500-added event, scheduled for this coming weekend (Aug. 6-7), will be hosted by Level-2 Billiards in Somerdale, NJ, a new venue for the JPNEWT.
In the absence of Karen Corr on the weekend of May 14-15, competitors on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour (JPNEWT) might have been forgiven for thinking that a window of opportunity had opened, which any one of them might have taken advantage of. Only in that absence, Janet Atwell traveled from her pool room – Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN – to Sterling, VA and signed on to the $1,000-added ($500 from Coins of the Realm) event that drew 23 entrants to First Break Cafe. Though sent to the semifinals by Tour Director Linda Shea in the battle for the hot seat, Atwell returned and defeated Shea in the finals to claim the event title; her first on the JPNEWT.
Atwell's journey to the winners' circle of this third stop on the JPNEWT was not without its challenges. Following an opening round victory over Terry Thomas 7-1, Buffy Jolie gave her all she could handle in a double hill fight that did eventually advance Atwell to a meeting and victory over Dawn Fox 7-4. This set Atwell up in a winners' side semifinal versus Brianna Miller. Shea, in the meantime, had chalked up two shutouts, and a second round, 7-5 win over Kia Sidbury to face Meredith Lynch in the other winners' side semifinal.
Atwell and Shea defeated Miller and Lynch, respectively, both 7-2, and squared off in the hot seat match. Shea won it, double hill and waited in the hot seat for Atwell's return.
Miller moved over and picked up Sierra Reams, who'd eliminated Terry Stovall 7-4 and Judie Wilson 7-5. Lynch drew Dawn Fox, who, following her defeat at the hands of Atwell, had defeated Carol Clark and Kia Sidbury, both 7-4.
Miller defeated Sierra Reams 7-1. Reams would end up earning this event's qualification to the NAPT event, to be held the first week in June. Miller was joined in the quarterfinal match by Fox, who'd defeated Lynch 7-4.
Miller downed Fox 7-3, and then, by the same score, was eliminated by Atwell in the semifinals. Atwell turned to face Shea in a re-match. Atwell won it 9-5 to claim her first JPNEWT title.
Karen Corr won eight out of the nine stops in which she competed on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour last year. On the weekend of April 30-May 1, at the second stop on the 2016 tour, she went undefeated to claim her first JPNEWT victory of the year. The $500-added event drew 24 entrants to Markley Billiards in Norristown, PA.
Corr gave up an average of just two racks to five opponents, touching each of five possibilities, from shutout to the four racks that Colleen Shoop chalked up against her in the event's second round. Carol Clark managed a single rack against her in the opening round before Shoop checked in with her four. This set Corr up against tour director, Linda Shea in a winners' side semifinal. Nicole Fleming, and Jia Li squared off in the other one. Corr sent Shea to the loss side 7-3, and in the hot seat match, faced Li, who'd defeated Fleming 7-4. Corr and Li had met up a few times last year, including an August double hill battle in the finals that eventually led to Corr's sixth straight win on the tour. This time out, battling for the hot seat, Li managed the opponent average of two racks against Corr, and moved to the semifinals.
On the loss side, Fleming mounted a three-match, loss-side campaign to the finals that began when she faced Kathy Friend, who was on a four-match, loss-side streak of her own, that included victories over Denise Reeve 7-3 and a double hill win over Shoop. Shea picked up Meredith Lynch, who'd eliminated Dawn Fox 7-3 and survived a double hill fight versus Erica Testa.
Shea and Fleming advanced to the quarterfinals; Shea 7-4 over Lynch, and Fleming 7-3 over Friend. Fleming had advanced to the quarterfinals before; three times in 2015, and in 2014, had made it to the finals (versus Shea). On this weekend, she advanced to a semifinal re-match against Li with a 7-3 victory over Shea. She got her second (ever) shot at being added to the JPNEWT's Wall of Fame (listing event winners back to 1999) with a 7-4 victory over Li. Corr thwarted Fleming's shot at a first JPNEWT title by shutting her out in the finals, and claiming her first 2016 JPNEWT title.
The event was a qualifier for the inaugural North American Pool Tour's Division I Women's 10-Ball Invitational, scheduled for the weekend of June 4-5 at Breaker's Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA. Having already been invited, Corr's qualification slot (paid entry fee) went to Fleming, who, having chalked up 130 ranking points with her runner-up finish, moved among the JPNEWT's top-ranked competitors, two stops into the season.
Reporting that Karen Corr has won a stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour is getting to be a little like informing people that the sun came up. On the weekend of September 19-20, Corr not only won her eighth straight stop on the tour, she did so by giving up only two racks in 44 games. She shut out four of her opponents, one of whom, runner-up Nicole Monaco, was also one of the two players who chalked up a single rack against her (Carol Clark, second round, was the other). The $1,000-added ($500-added by Coins of the Realm) event drew 27 entrants to the Top Hat Cue Club in Parkville, MD.
Two shutouts and the middle 7-1 win over Clark put Corr in a winners' side semifinal against Kia Sidbury. Monaco and Meredith Lynch squared off in the other one. Corr chalked up her third shutout, versus Sidbury, and in the battle for the hot seat, faced Monaco, who'd sent Lynch to the loss side 7-4. Corr gave up her second and last rack of the tournament defeating Monaco to claim the hot seat.
Over on the loss side, where a total of 24 matches were played, only two of those resulted in either a shutout or 7-1 score. Sidbury came over and met up with Borana Andoni, who'd chalked up the loss side's only 7-1 victory, over Eugenia Gyftopoulos, and defeated Judie Wilson and Nicole King, both 7-2. Lynch drew Kim Whitman, recent winner over Jacki Duggan and Dawn Fox, both 7-4.
Lynch and Andoni advanced to the quarterfinals; Lynch 7-3 over Whitman, and Andoni 7-2 over Sidbury. Lynch downed Andoni 7-4 in the quarterfinals, providing her the opportunity to meet the opponent who'd sent her to the loss side, Monaco, in the semifinals. Monaco defeated her a second time 7-4 and got a second shot at Corr. Corr shut her out to claim her eighth straight JPNEWT title.
