In 2013, Dana Aft was defeated by Crystal Lloyd in the battle for the hot seat at the 1st Annual South Carolina Women's 9-Ball Championship, held under the auspices of Belinda Calhoun's Tiger Southern Mid-Atlantic Regional Tour (SMART). Janet Atwell then defeated Aft in the semifinals, and went on to win the tournament. This year, in the 2nd Annual event, Aft, once again, found herself on the loss side; this time, a little earlier. This time, though, she won five on the loss side and successfully challenged Tour Director Belinda Calhoun in the finals to claim the top prize. The $500-added event drew 14 entrants to Grady's Billiards in Lexington, SC.

 

"We started the Tiger SMART Tour last year," said Calhoun, "because there wasn't a ladies tournament in the Carolinas.

 

"We had four stops in 2013," she added of the tour, which takes in both Carolinas, as well as Georgia, "and after this first one, have five more planned for this year."

 

Calhoun worked her way into the hot seat at this event, after defeating Beverly Knight and Betty Lea, both 7-3. Lea, after sending Aft to the losers' bracket 7-2, survived a double hill battle against Wendy Kinzer, before falling to Calhoun in the battle for the hot seat.

 

Aft opened up her loss-side campaign with back-to-back, 7-3 wins over Lisa Cossette and Marianne Merrill, which set her up to face Knight. Kinzer, in the meantime, drew Crystal Lloyd, who'd gotten by Melody Duvall, double hill, and Cheryl Pritchard 7-4. 

 

A replay of last year's hot seat match (Aft vs. Lloyd) was set up when Aft downed Knight 7-2 and Lloyd eliminated Kinzer 7-5. Aft feasted on her cold dish of revenge in the quarterfinals, ending Lloyd's day 7-3 and then feasted on a somewhat warmer dish by downing Lea in a double hill semifinal.

 

"That match could have gone either way," said Aft of the semifinals. "She (Lea) over-ran her shape on the 9-ball in that last game."

 

 Aft brought some momentum into the finals; a single, race-to-9. She defeated Calhoun 9-3 to claim the 2nd Annual South Carolina Women's Championship.

 

"It was a good field," said Aft of the general competition. "It was a small field, but very, very tough; a lot of quality players."

Tiger SMART is kicking off their 2014 season with the 2nd Annual WPBA South Carolina State 9-Ball Championship to be held at Grady’s Billiards, 850 S. Lake Drive, Lexington, SC, on June 7-8.  Crystal Lloyd, owner, wants everyone to experience the renovations and as always the Diamond 9’s, good food, and good service.  All women players are invited to the race to 7, double elimination, 1 set race to 9 for the title.

 

The Tiger Southern Mid Atlantic Regional Tour is sanctioned by the Women’s Professional Billiard Association.  Players must pay a Tiger SMART registration fee of $25 for 2014 and may become  WPBA members to secure eligibility for the Regional Tour Championship event. 

 

New to the Tiger SMART team for 2014 are Ozone Billiards and Quick-Clean.  Ozone billiards is a family run business by Shawn and Ann-Marie Gargano since 2001. Exclusively an online store, Ozone Billiards will open its first brick and mortar location near their headquarters in Kennesaw, GA.  They plan to open the first location in the spring of 2014 and will continue offering outstanding customer service that includes Free Shipping and Free Returns, even for used items.  Tiger SMART invites everyone to visit ozonebilliards.com.   Tiger SMART would also like to welcome David Hodges’ Quick-Clean, the original, first quality, pool and billiard table cleaner.  Quick-Clean lifts the chalk out of the felt and suspends it above the cloth so that it might be wiped away rather than back into the cloth.  Find out more at quick-clean.com.

 

SMART would like to thank and recognize its title sponsor Tiger Products.  Tony Kalamdaryam and the entire staff of Tiger Products, established in 1997, have been an integral part in promoting pool and continue to lead the way through the WPBA Regional Tour system.  Visit tigerproducts.com to learn more about their products and services.

 

Also new to TigerSMART, is Don Liebes, of Gate City Billiards in Greensboro, NC.  Gate City will be hosting a tour stop on September 13-14 this year.  Gate City is a premiere upscale billiards club where customer service is their driving force.  Check out gatecitybilliardsclub.com and take a virtual tour.

 

Shore Thing in Myrtle Beach will be the perfect venue for our August and October events.  Brent Hudgins, a huge supporter of all things pool hosts APA, BCA, VNEA, as well as in-house tournaments and the Great Southern Billiard Tour.  With 10 Diamond 7’ tables, the South Carolina Summer Classic as well as the WPBA State 9-Ball Bar Table Championship will be held on August 2-3 and October 4-5, respectively.  Go to shorethingbilliards.com and start making plans.

 

More venues, events, and sponsors will be announced as they are scheduled.  Go to SMART Tour on facebook for updates.

Tiger Smart held their inaugural event on May 25, 2013 at Grady’s Billiards in Lexington South Carolina.  The tournament drew fifteen players from four states including Dana Aft, Faith Thompson, Aileen Nguyen, and Christa Lemmons from Georgia, Cheryl Pritchard and Janet Atwell from Virginia, Marianne Merrill and Lisa Cossette from North Carolina, and rounding out the field were JoAnn Barnes, Katherine Spence, Heather Lakatos, Priscilla Harsey, Jackie Corley and Belinda Calhoun from South Carolina.  “I was very pleased with the participation for our first event” said 

Belinda Calhoun, Tiger SMART Tour Director.  The owner of Grady’s Billiards, Crystal Lloyd, was presented with a certificate of appreciation during the players meeting.

 

Competition was fiercely fought as seven matches went hill-hill or 7-5 in the race to seven, rack your own, alternate break format. Surprise of the tournament was Crystal Lloyd, host of the event, who rifled through the winner’s bracket including impressive wins over Janet Atwell and Belinda Calhoun.  The hot seat match with Dana Aft who also cruised through the winners bracket with victories over Pritchard, Thompson and Corley, was the match of the tournament! At hill-hill, Crystal plays a safety on the six-ball where the cue ball stays up, deep in the corner pocket.  Dana is completely hooked by the nine.  The six, seven, and nine are left.  Crystal had to be thinking she had Dana at this point. Dana kicks behind the six and makes it in the side with good shape on the seven!  Remember these two players are battling not only for the hot seat but most likely the winner will win the entry and spot into the Ultimate 10-ball.  Dana just misses the seven leaving Crystal with a little tester.  Winner game, set, and hot seat, Lloyd.

                                                                                                      

Meanwhile, Janet Atwell, WPBA veteran, is climbing thru the one loss side. She takes out Cheryl Pritchard 7-3, Belinda Calhoun 7-5, and Dana Aft 7-1 to reach the 1one set, race to nine, final. Janet was in a good rhythm and with steely, composed shooting took the match and the title! As second place finisher, Crystal Lloyd wins the qualifying spot and entry for the Ultimate 10ball Championship in Tunica MS next month.  Other notable finishers include Faith Thompson and Jackie Corley in 5th-6th.

 

Tiger SMART would like to thank its partners and sponsors: Tiger Products, Inc., Aramith, Simonis, T&S Printing Company, and Billiards Digest for helping to make Tiger SMART’S first event a success. Congratulations to Katherine Spence, Irmo, SC, who won a one year subscription to Billiards Digest. SMART would also like to acknowledge Corey Epps of Channel 19, WLTX for coverage of the event.

 

Thanks to all the players who participated. Cheryl Pritchard, Associate Tour Director, said, “the South Carolina girls really showed their support for SMART and the WPBA playing extremely well despite being first timers to this format, and they represented South Carolina  very well.”