We noted last month that you couldn’t ask much more of a regional tour than to have the top two players in the tour standings meeting up in the finals of an event, as Linda Shea and Kia Burwell did in Front Royal, VA on the weekend of Nov. 6-7. Shea and Burwell did it five times on the 2021 tour, including the season finale this past weekend (Dec. 4-5), and though Burwell ended the 2021 season having won four of those ‘final’ encounters, it was Shea who ended the season at the top of the tour standings. Shea stayed atop the tour standings because in one event that she won, Burwell finished fourth and in the events that neither of them won, Shea finished ahead of Burwell. Each had competed in all 10 of the tour’s 10 stops in 2021. The tour finale this past weekend drew 15 entrants to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD.
They met first in the second round of this one, which meant that one of them was going to compete in two more matches than the other. Shea had shut out Cecilia Strain in the opening round, as Burwell was busy sending Kelly Daniel to the loss side 7-3. To no one’s surprise the second-round match between them went double hill before it was decided. Burwell prevailed and advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Mary Watkins. Judie Wilson, in the meantime, who entered the event in 5th place in the tour standings and would finish in 3rd, got by Teri Thomas 7-4, and Shelah Joner 7-3 to draw Ada Lio in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Burwell and Wilson advanced to the hot seat match with identical 7-5 wins over Watkins and Lio, respectively. Burwell claimed the hot seat with a 7-2 win over Wilson and waited for Shea to complete her loss-side run.
On the loss side, it was Lio who picked up Shea, who’d followed her defeat at the hands of Burwell with wins over April Hatcher 7-4 and a shutout over Teri Thomas. Watkins drew Carol V. Clark, who came in at #7 in the standings and would finish at #5. Clark had been shut out by Lio in a winners’ side quarterfinal and had survived a double hill battle against Kelly Daniel and eliminated Jane Im 7-3.
Clark advanced to the quarterfinals 7-4 over Watkins. Shea, in the meantime, spoiled a potential Clark/Lio rematch by outlasting Lio in a double hill fight that advanced her to meet Clark in the quarterfinals.
Shea defeated Clark 7-2 and then, by the same score, Wilson in the semifinals. Shea advanced to a season-ending, second shot at Burwell, waiting for her in the hot seat. Burwell finished the 2021 JPNEWT season with her fourth tour victory in her last six attempts, downing Shea 7-4 to claim the event title.
Tour director Linda Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Triple Nines for their hospitality and ongoing support for the tour. She also thanked title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA Physical Therapy, George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor, Baltimore) and angle aim Art (Britanya E Rapp) for the live stream.
You can’t ask much more of a regional tour stop than to have its top two competitors going at it in an event final. Especially when the event in question is second-to-last on the tour’s schedule. So it was this past weekend in Front Royal, VA, where nine of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour competitors gathered to do battle. Tour director Linda Shea came into and out of the event as the tour’s top player, securing the spot with an undefeated run and downing the #2 (in and out) woman on the tour, Kia Burwell, twice. The event was hosted by On Cue Sports Bar and Grill in Front Royal.
This year, Shea and Burwell have locked horns, so to speak, as winner and runner-up, four times; June, August, September and this past weekend. Burwell leads that head-to-head, event-finals matchup 3-1. They competed twice in a July event that saw Shea defeat her in an opening round and later, the quarterfinals. They’ve both competed in all nine of the tour stops and the reason that Shea is ahead in ranking points is that she has finished better in events that neither of them has won.
This past weekend, they met first in a winners’ side semifinal. Shea arrived following a 7-3 win over Sharita Pernell. Burwell got there after a 7-2 win over Carol V. Clark. On the other end of the short, double elimination bracket, Melissa Jenkins, who’d come into the event as #7 and finished as #4, drew Judie Wilson (maintaining her position at #5) in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Shea took the first of her two versus Burwell 7-3 and in the hot seat match, faced Jenkins, who’d downed Wilson 7-4. Shea claimed the hot seat 7-4 and waited on the final rematch.
On the loss side, Wilson picked up Carol V. Clark, who’d followed her loss to Burwell with a double hill win over Shelah Joner. Burwell drew Lynn Richard, who’d defeated Kelly Daniel 7-1 to reach her.
Wilson downed Clark 7-2 and in the quarterfinals, faced Burwell, who’d eliminated Richard 7-3. Burwell took the quarterfinal match in a shutout over Wilson and then moved on to defeat Jenkins in the semifinals 7-2.
Burwell got a rack closer in the finals than she had in their winners’ side semifinal match, but Shea won the match and claimed the event title 7-4. It was her second tour win in a year in which she has never finished lower than 5th.
Shea thanked the ownership and staff at On Cue Sports Bar and Grill for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA Physical Therapy, stream commentator George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor), AZBilliards and, for the live stream of matches, Britanya E Rapp (angle aim Art). The next stop (#10) on the JPNEWT, scheduled for Dec. 4-5, will be the tour’s Season Finale and will be hosted by Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD.
They sit atop the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour standings; tour director Linda Shea and Kia Burwell. They both overtook the tour’s first-half leader, Caroline Pao, at a stop in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of August 15-16, when Burwell went undefeated for a second time on the 2021 tour to claim the title and Shea finished as runner-up. As they did last month, they battled twice on the tour’s 8th stop this past weekend (Saturday, Sept. 25), and finished, for the second time in a row, as winner and runner-up. The event drew 10 entrants to First Break Sports Bar in Sterling, VA.
In the previous meeting, Burwell downed Shea in a winners’ side semifinal and defeated her a second time in the finals. This past weekend, they split their two matches, with Burwell coming back from the semifinals to claim the title.
Burwell was awarded an opening round bye and was immediately threatened in her first match by Ada Lio, who forced a 13th and deciding game. Burwell prevailed to face Judie Wilson in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Shea, in the meantime, also awarded an opening round bye, had an easier first match, shutting Kankan Yu out to draw Nicole Christ in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Burwell got into the hot seat match with a 7-3 win over Wilson. Shea shut out Christ to enter the hot seat match, having yet to give up a single rack. Shea claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Burwell and waited on her return.
On the loss side, Wilson picked up Melissa Jenkins, who’d lost to Christ on the winners’ side and defeated Kankan Yu 7-5 to reach her. Christ drew Terri Stovall, who’d lost to Wilson, then shut out Calaia Jackson and defeated Ada Lio 7-2.
Wilson advanced to the quarterfinals on the heels of a 7-5 win over Jenkins. Terri Stovall earned her rematch versus Wilson with a 7-4 win over Christ. Given that the subsequent quarterfinals would determine who would advance to the event’s first money round in the semifinals, it was no surprise that Wilson and Stovall battled to double hill. Wilson was up 5-2 when Stovall made a 3-9 carom to draw within two. Wilson responded to make it 6-3, before Stovall dropped a second, early 9-ball combination to draw within two again. Stovall won another to make it 6-5 and a scratch by Wilson in rack #12 allowed Stovall to tie it up at six games apiece. A safety battle in the final rack was broken to give Wilson a three-ball out, and though she dropped the 7-ball, she missed her shot at the 8-ball and Stovall finished it.
Burwell downed Stovall 7-3 in the semifinals to earn her rematch against Shea. She completed her second straight win on the tour, her third overall, with a 9-6 win in the finals.
Tour director Shea thanked the ownership and staff at First Break Sports Bar, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA Physical Therapy, stream commentator George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor) AZBilliards and, for the live stream of matches, Britanya E Rapp (angle aim Art). The next stop on the JPNEWT (#9), scheduled for October 9-10, will be hosted by Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA.
Kia Burwell, Kelly Wyatt, Judie Wilson, Eugenia Gyftopoulos, Nicole King and Linda Shea
In the first event of the second half of the 2021 J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour season, tour director Linda Shea and Kia Burwell moved into first and second place in the tour standings. Burwell went undefeated in the event and defeated Shea twice, but as runner-up, Shea added enough ‘standings’ points to get ahead of the tour’s first-half leader, Caroline Pao. Burwell’s undefeated run, her second on the tour this year, put her ahead of Pao, as well, and firmly into second place in the standings, ahead of Pao and Nicole Nester, who entered the event in third place in the tour standings, finished in the event tie for 7th/8th and ended up in fourth place in the standings, just behind Pao. The 7th event of the 12-event 2021 JPNEWT season drew 16 entrants to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD.
Burwell’s path to the winners’ circle went through Taylor Perkins 7-3 and Judie Wilson before running into Shea in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Kelly Wyatt, in the meantime, downed Melissa Jenkins 7-5 and Eugenia Gyftopoulos 7-3 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match versus Nicole King.
Burwell took the first of two versus Shea 7-2 to punch her ticket to the hot seat match. Wyatt joined her after downing King 7-2. Burwell claimed the hot seat in a double hill battle versus Wyatt and waited on Shea’s return.
Shea opened her loss-side trip back to a rematch against Burwell versus Gyftopoulos, who’d followed her defeat at the hands of Wyatt with loss-side victories over two Nicoles; Christ, 7-4 and Nester, 7-3. King picked up Judie Wilson, who’d followed her loss to Burwell with wins over Terri Thomas 7-4 and Kelly Daniel 7-3.
Shea eliminated Gyftopoulos 7-3, as King shut Wilson out. Shea then defeated King 7-3 in the quarterfinals and Wyatt 7-1 in the semifinals to earn a second shot at Burwell, waiting for her in the hot seat.
In the extended race-to-9 format, Shea had to reach ‘7’ first, to extend the race to 9. Burwell reached 7 first, ahead by four, to claim the event title.
Tour director Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Triple Nines for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA Physical Therapy, George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor) and, for the live stream of matches, Britanya E Rapp (angle aim Art). The next stop on the JPNEWT (#8), scheduled for September 18-19, will be hosted by First Break Sports Bar in Sterling, VA.
Carol V. Clark, Nicole Nester, Kia Burwell, April Hatcher, Melissa Jenkins and Linda Haywood Shea
It wasn’t quite enough to catch and overtake Caroline Pao, who’s been sitting atop the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour standings for months, but she came close. Tour director Linda Shea came into the weekend’s tour stop (July 17-18) nestled into third place behind Pao and Nicole Nester and just ahead of Kia Burwell. Pao didn’t compete on the tour’s 6th stop, which drew 19 entrants to Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD. Shea, though, got by both Nester and Burwell (Burwell, twice), won seven on the loss side and downed Carol V. Clark in the finals to claim her first 2021 event title.
The win put Shea about 15 points behind Pao, who retained her top spot. Nester slipped into third place, with Burwell in fourth place. Carol V. Clark, in the meantime, who came into the event in 8th place, made it to the hot seat and finished as runner-up to Shea, jumped three places to 5th, just behind Burwell. April Hatcher, who battled Clark in the hot seat match and finished in third place, jumped from her entrance spot at #25 to just outside the top 10.
Things started out on the right foot for Shea, but that didn’t last long. She won an opening round, double hill battle versus Burwell, only to be relegated to loss-side competition by ending up on the wrong side of her second straight double hill fight, this one against Nicole Nester. Nester went on to defeat Teri Thomas 7-4 to draw April Hatcher in one of the winners’ side semifinals. After being awarded an opening round bye, Carol V. Clark, in the meantime, downed Lynn Richard and Colleen Shoop, both 7-3, to pick up Melissa Jenkins in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Hatcher guaranteed herself a minimum, third place finish by defeating Nester 7-3 and advancing to the hot seat match. Clark and Jenkins battled to double hill before Clark was able to join Hatcher. Then she and Hatcher engaged in a double hill fight for that hot seat. Clark won it and watched, likely with some sense of foreboding, as Shea kept chalking up loss-side wins that would eventually put her into the finals.
On the loss side, Nester drew a rematch versus Shea, who was four matches into her loss-side streak with an aggregate (loss-side) score of 28-6, that had recently included victories over Shoop 7-2 and Kelly Wyatt 7-1. Jenkins picked up Burwell, who, following her opening round loss to Shea, had begun her own loss-side winning streak. Like Shea, she reached the 5/6 matches with four behind her, including wins over Billie Billing 7-4 and Teri Thomas 7-5.
Shea downed Nester 7-4, while Burwell secured the quarterfinal rematch against her with a double hill win over Jenkins. The quarterfinal rematch between Shea and Burwell shaped up as a nail-biter at the outset, but in the end, Shea pulled out in front by two to win it 7-5. Shea then downed Hatcher 7-3 for a shot at Clark, waiting for her in the hot seat.
It was clear from the outset that neither Shea nor Clark was going to give up easily in their quest to chalk up a first 2021 tour win. Shea jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, but from that point on, through to the 9th rack, every time Shea tried to extend the lead, Clark came back to narrow that lead to one; 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2, 4-2, 4-3, 5-3. Shea broke the pattern in the 9th rack to take her first three-game lead, which she quickly extended to four and then, reaching the hill, to five at 8-3. Clark rallied to win the 12th and then, the 13th rack to make it 8-5, but Shea closed it out in rack #14 to claim the event title.
Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Championship Billiards, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA (Physical Therapy), George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor) and (for the live stream) Britanya E Rapp of angle aim Art. The next stop on the JPNEWT (#7) August 14-15, will be hosted by Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD.
Nicole Nester, Linda Shea, Melissa Jenkins, Kia Burwell and Naoko Dabreo
Kia Burwell has been a consistent performer on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) and other professional and semiprofessional tours and events since about 2015. An oddity of our AZB Money Leaderboard had her climbing to her highest number on that leaderboard (141) last year, even though her best earnings year, to date, has been 2018, when she came from the loss side to win her first JPNEWT stop in March of that year. This past weekend (June 26-27), Burwell won her second JPNEWT stop and went undefeated for the first time.
The tour returned to New Jersey for the first time since August, 2016 and welcomed a new venue. The event drew 21 entrants to Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
As the JPNEWT approaches the midway point of its 2021 season (with stop #6 of 12, scheduled for July 17-18), the tour standings experienced a bit of a shuffle among its top players. Caroline Pao, who continues to look for her 8th win on the tour since 2019, finished out of the money in this one, though her previous two victories, runner-up and 3rd place finish in the first four events put her far enough ahead that she still sits atop the tour standings. In the absence of Liz Taylor at this event, Nicole Nester moved up a spot to be 2nd behind Pao. Tour director Linda Shea moved up a spot, too, to #3. Burwell, who came into the event in 7th place in the standings, moved up three slots to take over 4th place. Taylor moved down three to end up in 5th place, while Judie Wilson maintained her position in 6th place.
Burwell’s path to the winners’ circle took her past Jennifer Tully 7-3, Ashley Burrows 7-5 and Alison Davis 7-1 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Linda Shea. Nicole Nester, in the meantime, downed Kris Consalvo-Kemp 7-3, Naoko Dabreo 7-5 and Ada Lio in a shutout to draw Melissa Jenkins in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Burwell downed Shea 7-4 and moved into the hot seat match. Nester joined her after dispatching Jenkins 7-5. Burwell claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Nester.
On the loss side, Shea picked up Ashley Burrows, who was working on a four-match, loss-side streak that had begun with her loss to Burwell and recently eliminated Ashima Butler 7-4 and Ada Lio 7-2. Jenkins drew Dabreo, who was also working on a four-match, loss-side streak and had most recently defeated Joanne Corbett 7-2 and Jay Pass 7-5.
Jenkins put a stop to Dabreo’s loss-side run 7-5 and advanced to the quarterfinals. Shea leap-frogged over Burrows, who ran into transportation issues associated with her return on Sunday and was unable to compete.
Shea gave up only a single rack to Jenkins in the quarterfinals. She then defeated Nester in the semifinals 7-3. Burwell completed her first undefeated run on the tour with a 7-4 victory over Shea in the finals.
Tour director Linda Shea thanked Kris Consalvo-Kemp and her staff at Shooter’s Family Billiards, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA Physical Therapy, George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor) and Britanya E Rapp (angle aim Art) for the event’s live stream. Stop #6 on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of July 17-18, will be hosted by Champion Billiards Sports Bar in Frederick, MD.
Kia Sidbury, Shanna Lewis, Colleen Shoop, Lai Li, Linda Shea, Caroline Pao
Lai Li may not have intended for the Dynaspheres Cup 8-Ball Championships, held in Bowie, MD a little over a week ago (June 4-6) to be a warmup for this past weekend’s stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT), but it seemed to be just what the pool doctors ordered. Li was among only a handful of women who competed in the 8-ball event that drew 108 entrants to Center Pocket in Bowie, and though she finished out of the money (49th), she won over half of the games she played (16-14). A week later (June 12-13) and about half an hour north of Bowie, she signed on for her third appearance on the 2021 JPNEWT and went undefeated to claim her first title on the tour since November, 2019. Both of Li’s wins were hosted by Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD, which drew 23 entrants to this most recent stop (#4) on the tour.
Also noteworthy of this most recent JPNEWT stop was a 3rd place finish for Caroline Pao, who’d won two of the season’s first three stops and was runner-up in the other one, was looking for her eighth win on the tour since 2019. She was sent to the loss side early by Kia Burwell, and though she’d win six on the loss side to appear in the semifinals, Shanna Lewis stopped her loss side streak to earn a second shot at Li, waiting for her in the hot seat.
Awarded a bye in the opening round, Li got by Melissa Mason 7-4 and Judie Wilson 7-2 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Colleen Shoop. Shanna Lewis, in the meantime, had also been awarded an opening round bye, after which she defeated Teri Thomas 7-5 and Cecilia Strain 7-3 to draw tour director Linda Shea in the other winners’ side semifinal.
It came within a game of being two double hill matches for the right to battle for the hot seat. Shea and Lewis battled to double hill before Lewis prevailed. Li downed Shoop 7-5 to join Lewis in the hot seat match. Li and Lewis battled to double hill to claim the hot seat and it was Lewis who moved west to face Pao in the semifinals.
On the loss side, Shea walked right into a rematch versus Kia Burwell, who’d followed her victory over Caroline Pao in the opening round with a defeat at the hands of Shea in the second round. Burwell won four straight on the loss side, including a 7-5 win over Sharon O’Hanlon and a 7-4 victory over Teri Thomas to draw the rematch versus Shea. Shoop drew Pao, four matches into her loss-side streak that had most recently included eliminating Cecilia Strain 7-1 and Kelly Wyatt 7-5.
Pao advanced to the quarterfinals 7-2 over Shoop and was joined by Shea, who defeated Burwell a second time 7-4. Pao then defeated Shea 7-4 in those quarterfinals before herself being eliminated by Lewis 7-5 in the semifinals.
The final match, unlike the one they’d fought for the hot seat, did not require a 13th deciding game. It did, however, require 12 of them. Li completed her undefeated run 7-5 and claimed the event title.
The top four in the tour standings remained the same, with Pao at the top, Liz Taylor in 2nd place, Nicole Nester in 3rd and Linda Shea in 4th. Lai Li, though, jumped from 13th to 5th, edging Judie Wilson out of that slot into 6th. Rounding out the top 10 were Kia Burwell, Carol V. Clark, Shelah Joner and Christine Pross.
Tour director Linda Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Triple Nines for their ongoing hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA Physical Therapy, George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor), and Britanya E Rapp of angle aim Art (for the live stream). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for June 26-27, will be hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
There was little doubt in anyone’s mind that Caroline Pao signed on to the April 10-11 stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT), looking for her seventh straight win on the tour, dating back to 2019. Of course, everyone else who signed on was looking for a win as well, including Liz Taylor, who’d finished in 3rd place, behind Pao and Nicole Nester in the tour’s season opener last month (March 6-7).
As she’d done in March, Pao was forced to seek this past weekend’s event title from the loss side. In fact, this time out, she was forced to win three on the loss side just to get into the finals. Liz Taylor had sent her over and though Pao would come back to challenge her in the finals, Taylor completed an undefeated run to claim her first event title since she’d gone back-to-back last November, winning the VA State Ladies 8-Ball Championship and a week, later, Stop #10 on the 2020 JPNEWT. The event this past weekend drew 19 entrants to Markley Billiards in Norristown, PA.
Taylor and Pao were on something of a collision course from the start. Pao got by Suzzie Wong, Shelah Joner and Christine Pross (7-2, 7-3, 7-3), as Taylor, awarded an opening round bye, shut out April Hatcher and then downed Kia Burwell 7-5. This set them up to face each other in one of the winners’ side semifinals. In the other winners’ side semifinal, the tour director, Linda Shea, squared off against Judie Wilson, who, following a bye, had chalked up two 7-4 victories against Nicole Nester and Kelly Fox.
A third straight 7-4 win put Wilson into the hot seat match for the first time since 2018 (her best recorded earnings year, to date), when she fought for it twice; once, in April, against Burwell (then, Kia Sidbury) and then, versus Shea in December. Taylor and Pao, in the meantime, battled to double hill, before Taylor prevailed. Taylor put the hammer down in the hot seat match, giving up only a single rack to Wilson.
On the loss side, Pao picked up Kelly Fox, who, following her defeat at the hands of Wilson had eliminated Sharon O’Hanlon 7-3 and Kris Consalvo-Kemp 7-4. Shea drew Pross, who followed her loss to Pao with victories over Rachel Walters 7-5 and Carianne Merkle 7-3.
Pao advanced to the quarterfinals 7-2 over Cox and met up with Shea, who’d defeated Pross 7-5. Pao eliminated Shea 7-3 in those quarterfinals and then, Wilson 7-4 in the semifinals.
Taylor got off to a bit of a rocky start in the extended-race-to-9 final. If she reached 7 racks first, it’d be over. If Pao reached 7 first, the race extended to 9. With the momentum of her three loss-side matches, Pao jumped out to an early lead that was four racks by the end of the 6th game, 5-1.
Taylor chipped away at that lead, winning four of the next six (7-5), but couldn’t stop Pao’s extension of the match to nine games. She did, however, stop Pao from completing any more games. Taylor won four in a row to claim the event title.
Tour director Linda Shea thanked Russ Urffer and his Markley Billiards’ staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Bitzel and Associates PTPA (Physical Therapy), George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor), and, for the livestream, angle aim Art (Britanya E Rapp). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of May 15-16, will be hosted by First Break Bar & Grill in Sterling, VA.
The last two times that Liz Taylor played on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour, finishing as winner, and later, 9th place in the spring of 2010, Barack Obama was President of the United States. Now, 10 years later, as the world waits to see who will be the 46th President, Liz Taylor made a somewhat triumphant return and went undefeated on the tour’s 2020 season finale. The victory came a week after she had successfully defended her title in the 2020 VA State 8-Ball Championships. The tour’s season finale drew 18 entrants to On Cue Sports Bar & Grill in Front Royal, VA.
After being awarded an opening round bye, Taylor advanced to defeat Tiffany Lear and Lynn Richard, both 7-3, to draw the tour’s second highest ranked player, Kia Burwell in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Playing in the other one was the tour’s #1-ranked player, tour director Linda Shea, who had also been awarded an opening round bye, and then shut out Dawn Takacs and defeated Christie Hurdel 7-2 to draw 4th-ranked Lai Li.
Taylor and Shea advanced to the hot seat match with identical 7-4 wins over Burwell and Li, respectively. In what would prove to be one of the more entertaining matches of the event, Shea and Taylor traded the opening two racks, before Shea began edging out to what appeared to be a commanding 5-1 lead. Taylor, though, won the next rack to make it 5-2, before Shea reached the hill at 6-2. Taylor won the next four to force a 13th and deciding game.
With three balls left in the deciding rack (6, 8, & 9), Taylor took a long, two-rail kick shot in an attempt to hit the 6-ball and it sent both the 6-ball and the cue ball, down table, where Shea had herself a bit of a connect-the-dots pattern to finish the rack and the match. The 6-ball went down smoothly, Shea had positioned herself well for the 8-ball and it went down, too. The cue ball fell either a little short or a little long, depending on your perspective. Shorter, and Shea would have had a credible shot to put the 9-ball in a corner pocket. Longer, and she could have put it straight into a side pocket. Where it lay, she had an oblique angle shot at putting it in a side pocket, and she came within half a ball of doing just that. But the half that didn’t make it, bounced the 9-ball out into the center of the table, as the cue ball meandered into place for a fairly straight-in shot for Taylor. She made it and claimed the hot seat, as Shea moved to the semifinals.
On the loss side, Burwell began her three-match march back to the finals against Christie Hurdel, who’d followed her defeat at the hands of Shea with victories over Kelly Costello 7-3 and Shelah Joner 7-4. Li drew Shanna Lewis, who’d lost a winners’ side, double hill battle versus Burwell and then, defeated Sharita Green 7-3 and Misti Zamora 7-2.
Li advanced to the quarterfinals 7-3 over Lewis, as Burwell downed Hurdel 7-5. Burwell then eliminated Li 7-3 in those quarterfinals. In the semifinal battle between the tour’s top two ranked players, #2 (Burwell) downed #1 (Shea) 7-1 for a shot at Taylor waiting in the hot seat.
It was Burwell’s third appearance in a 2020 JPNEWT final and she was still looking for a win. She’d been runner-up to Shea in July and to Caroline Pao in October. The wait, for Taylor, which included the quarterfinal and semifinal matches, did not appear to affect her game at all.
She broke out to a 4-0 lead, before Burwell got on the board with a rack; the only one she would record. Taylor came back and won three straight to complete her undefeated run.
Based on their number of appearances and how they finished throughout the year, Shea and Burwell will finish the JPNEWT season as the top two players on the tour. Lai Li’s 4th place finish edged her ahead of Kathy Friend into third place. Friend and Caroline Pao round out the tour’s 2020 top five.
Shea thanked the ownership and staff at On Cue Sports Bar & Grill for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, angle aim Art (Britanya E Rapp) and Turtle Rack. She also added her gratitude for the “girls” on the tour, who consistently lend a hand when needed, like Sharon O’Hanlon and Judie Wilson.
Though like most pool tours, the JPNEWT was affected by the pandemic, it had to cancel only tthree of its events; one each in April, May and June. At the same time, according to Shea, the tour attracted new players at almost every event.
“I’m feeling grateful,” said Shea, the day after the season finale and three days ahead of Thanksgiving. “It was a good year, everybody (in a broad circle of family, friends and members of the pool community) is healthy.”
Shea said that the 2021 JPNEWT schedule is in the works and that the tour will be improving on location and numbers.
“We have a lot of league pool players in the area, who generally play on bar boxes,” she said, “so this coming year, we’ll be at a total of 12 locations and two of them will have bar box tables to bridge to the area’s league players.”
“Overall,” she added, embracing activities beyond her direction of the pool tour, “I don’t think I have a thing to complain about.”
A few days shy of a year ago (Oct. 14, 2019), Caroline Pao and Linda Shea battled it out for an event title at Stop #7 of the 2019 J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour, hosted by Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA. They were also competing for the top spot in the tour rankings at the time. It was a short field of 12 entrants that day and they met, first, in a winners’ side semifinal and then later in the finals. Pao won both matches to claim the event title, her third of the season, but it wasn’t enough to move her into the tour’s top spot over Shea, who’d competed in all seven of the tour’s stops to that point.
This year (Oct. 10-11), things were a little different for the two frequent competitors on Shea’s tour. Though it was, this time, Stop #8 on the (2020) tour at the same location, and Shea was once again at the top of the tour rankings, there’d been a lot of proverbial water under the bridge of pool since that earlier matchup. It was Pao’s first cash payout since she’d finished 9th at the WPBA’s Ashton Twins Classic in January. Shea, on the other hand, was looking for her third win on this year’s interrupted tour, which had been forced to cancel stops #2 through #4. Shea won the first stop back (#5), was runner-up to Kathy Friend in #6 and then beat Friend in the finals of #7.
Enter Caroline Pao with her first appearance on the tour since that win a year ago and Kia Burwell, who, like Shea, had competed in all four of the tour’s 2020 stops and arrived in Dickson City as the tour’s #3 competitor behind Shea and Friend.
It was Burwell who met up with Shea, twice, and eventually eliminated her in the event semifinals. She met Pao, twice, as well, but was defeated both times, as Pao went undefeated to pick up her fourth JPNEWT win in four tries. The event drew 29 entrants to Eagle Billiards.
Pao showed little sign of any prolonged absence from the tables and marched to a winners’ side semifinal against Ada Lio, having given up only three racks in 24 games; none to Carol V. Clark, one to April Hatcher and two to Chari Slater. Burwell, in the meantime, got by Linda Cheung, survived a double hill battle versus Shanna Lewis and defeated Karen Carter 7-2 to arrive at her winners’ side semifinal against Shea.
Shea and Burwell got into something of a predictable double hill match at which Burwell prevailed to earn her spot in the hot seat match. Pao sent Lio to the loss side 7-1, giving her a winners’ side aggregate score, going into the hot seat match, of 32-4. Though Burwell put up a better fight than any of Pao’s previous opponents, Pao took the hot seat 7-3 and waited on Burwell’s return.
On the loss side, Shea picked up Shanna Lewis, who was working on a four-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently sent Christie Hurdel (7-2) and Chari Slater (double hill) home. Lio drew Kassandra Bein, who was also working on a four-match, loss-side winning streak that had sent Karen Carter (7-3) and Suzzie Wong (7-4) to the proverbial showers.
Shea advanced to the quarterfinals 7-2 over Lewis and was joined by Bein, who’d extended her loss-side winning streak by ending Lio’s 7-2. Shea then put a stop to Bein’s winning streak 7-3 in those quarterfinals. Burwell, in turn, put a stop to Shea’s modest two-match, loss-side winning streak with a 7-3 win in the semifinals.
Pao showed no sign that waiting for the finals had affected her play. In fact, she gave up one less rack in the finals against Burwell than she had in their earlier hot seat match. Pao completed her undefeated run with the 7-2 win and in her first appearance on the 2020 tour, moved among the top 10 competitors on the tour. Burwell, in the absence of the tour’s #2-ranked player (Kathy Friend), moved into second place behind Shea.
Pao, who noted after the event, that she doesn’t play in as many tournaments as she used to, as a result of work commitments, did enjoy being back.
“It was actually fun competing again,” she said, “especially since I don’t get to compete as much.”
“Kia (Burwell) has been working on her game,” she added. “She’s always been a tough competitor, but is much tougher now. I really enjoy sparring with her.”
Though she and Shea did not meet in a match this time out, Pao remembers their past quite well. She’s aware, as well, that her own inability to compete as often has a way of keeping her out of contention for any of the top spots on the tour.
“Linda is a great player,” she said, “and I enjoy competing with her because she is such a strong competitor. I’d never be able to catch up to her in (tour) points since I would not be able to attend all of the events.”
“I only got lucky to be ranked as high (last year) because I was able to play in three events,” she said, “and was fortunate enough to win the three events I played in.”
She added her first in 2020 to make it four events.
Tour director Linda Shea thanked the ownership and staff at Eagle Billiards, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Coins of the Realm, angle aim Art (Britanya E. Rapp) and the Turtle Rack. The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for Nov. 7-8, will be hosted by Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD.
