(l to r): Wayne Fenton, Will Wilson, Stephen Ho Lem, Brady Gollan & Brian Kvasnicka
Brady Gollan has won the annual Spokane Open five of the eight times the tournament has been held. With the exception of 2015, when John Schmidt defeated him, he’s won three of the last four. On Labor Day weekend, he came within a single game of claiming his sixth Spokane Open title. Derailing that sixth title was Stephen Ho Lem, who was defeated in a winners’ side quarterfinal, won five on the loss side for a shot at Gollan in the hot seat, and double dipped him (double hill in the deciding match) to claim it. The $3,100-added 8th Annual Spokane Open drew 97 entrants to The Black Diamond in Spokane Valley, WA.
Ho Lem was moved to the loss side in one of the winners’ side quarterfinals by Paul Potier, who advanced to meet Steve Smith in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Gollan, in the meantime, squared off against John Dougherty in the other one. Gollan defeated Dougherty 9-6 and in the hot seat match, faced Potier, who’d sent Smith to the loss side 9-7. Gollan claimed the hot seat 9-7 over Potier and waited for Ho Lem to get back to the finals.
On the loss side, Ho Lem opened his campaign against Josh Smith, defeating him 9-3 and then eliminated Cole Gibbons 9-5 to draw Dougherty. Smith picked up Eric Vargas, who’d eliminated Jack Haggie 9-2 and Wade Thompson 9-7.
Ho Lem and Vargas advanced to the quarterfinals; Ho Lem, 9-4 over Dougherty and Vargas, 9-7 over Thompson. Ho Lem, picking up speed, shut Vargas out in those quarterfinals, and then spoiled Potier’s bid for a re-match against Gollan with a 9-6 victory in the semifinals.
With the intangible advantage of momentum, Ho Lem took the opening set of the true double elimination final 9-3 over Gollan. Gollan fought back to force a 17th deciding game in the second set, but the title went to Ho Lem 9-8.
In addition to the list of 16 competitors who cashed in the event, Phyllis Fernandez and Adrianne Beach took home $100 each as the top female finishers.
Tour directors Will Wilson and Brian Kvasnicka thanked The Black Diamond’s owner, Wayne Fenton and his staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Admen Banner & Sign and Pepsi.
Mary Coffman's been racking 'em up and showing up on WPBA payout lists for nearly 15 years now. Her first appearance in our database shows her finishing in 17th place at a WPBA Regional Tour Championship (RTC), a little less than two months after 9/11. In 2013, she chalked up two victories on the Northwest Women's Pool Association (NWPA) tour, and finished in the money in the other six stops. She also finished in the tie for seventh place at that year's RTC. Last year, she was runner-up to Sheila Clark in an NWPA tour stop. This year, after finishing in the money at the Chinook Winds Open 8-Ball Ladies Division and both the 8-Ball and 9-Ball US Bar Box Championships, she returned to the winners' circle with a come-from-the-loss-side victory at Tour Stop # 6 on the 2015 NWPA Tour. The $500-added event, held on the weekend of September 19-20, drew 20 entrants to Black Diamond Billiards in Spokane, WA.
Following victories over Alicia Kvasnicka and Kim Toops, Coffman faced Kimberly Kirk in a winners' side semifinal. Suzanne Smith, in the meantime, looking for her third win on the 2015 NWPA Tour, had defeated Sharon Bledsoe and Bev Ashton, and squared off against Toni Sakamoto. Kirk sent Coffman to the loss side, and in the hot seat match, faced Smith, who'd defeated Sakamoto. Smith sent Kirk to the semifinals 7-4, and waited in the hot seat for Coffman's return.
On the loss side, Sakamoto drew Phyllis Fernandez, who'd gotten by Tamre Rogers and Toops, both 6-3. Coffman picked up Ashton, who'd shut out Adrianne Beach, and eliminated Lan Phong 7-4 to reach her. The two winners' side semifinalists advanced; Sakamoto 6-2 over Fernandez, and Coffman, surviving a double hill battle versus Ashton.
Coffman downed Sakamoto in the quarterfinals 7-3, and earned herself a shot at Smith in the hot seat with a 7-5 re-match win over Kirk in the semifinals. She completed her trip to the winners' circle with a 9-6 victory over Smith in the finals.
Kim Jones and Jana Montour have been trading victories on the Northwest Women’s Pool Association Tour since March. Montour opened the season with a win in March. Jones chalked one up in April, and then went on to win the Regional Tour Championships in May. Montour won the tour’s third stop in June. On the weekend of July 14-15, Jones won five on the loss side, including a victory over Montour in the semifinals, before defeating local favorite, Phyllis Fernandez in the finals. The $500-added event drew 27 entrants to Black Diamond Billiards in Spokane, WA.
Jones won her first two matches, against Alisha Rogers and Tayla Makus, before running into Mary Hopkin. They battled to double hill before Hopkin prevailed, moving among the winners’ side final four to face Montour. Fernandez, in the meantime, had opened her bid by surviving a double hill match against Adrianne Beach (double hill). She then defeated Alicia Kvasnicka and Joyce Robinson to move among the winners’ side final four and a match versus Shelby Locati.
Montour sent Hopkin west double hill, as Fernandez was busy sending Locati over 7-2. The battle for the hot seat went double hill, with Fernandez coming out on top of Montour, and waiting in the hot seat for the return of Jones. Montour’s appearance in the hot seat match allowed her to maintain her top spot in the NWPA tour rankings (just ahead of Jones) no matter what the outcome from that point on.
On the loss side, Jones defeated Fran Johnson 6-1 and Sandra Badger 6-3 to pick up Locati. Hopkin drew Kimberly Kirk, who’d gotten by Trinh Lu in a double hill match and Julie Valdez 6-4. Kirk prevented a Jones/Hopkin re-match with a 6-2 win over Hopkin, as Jones downed Badger 6-3.
Jones survived a double hill battle against Kirk in the quarterfinals, and turned to face Montour. A win for Montour would have guaranteed an extension of the point lead for her in tour standings, but Jones won it 6-3 for a chance to meet Fernandez and narrow that tour-leading gap to 45 points.
In the single race-to-9 finals that followed, Jones reached the hill, three games ahead, which is when it got interesting. Fernandez won the 14th and 15th rack to pull within one. In the 16th rack, Fernandez rattled the 8-ball in a corner pocket, leaving it right there for Jones. Jones, from up-table, put it in, but came back straight, up and down-table square on the 9-ball. She tried to poke it into the corner pocket, but not only did it rattle in that pocket, the cue ball came around the table and dropped into a hole.
“I tried to put bottom on it to avoid the scratch,” said Jones, “but when the 9-ball rattled in the pocket, the cue ball came around and headed to that other pocket.”
With ball in hand, Fernandez sunk the 9-ball to knot things at double hill.
Fernandez scratched on her subsequent break. Jones stepped to the table and forced a first foul on Fernandez. When Jones got the ball back, she did it a second time. With ball in hand for the third time, she forced Fernandez to kick long at the 1-ball. Fernandez shot at the short rail, and not only safely touched the 1-ball, but put it in. Jones would regain control of the table, and stepped up later, shooting at the 9-ball. It dropped readily, but the entire room went silent, as the travelling cue ball worked its way down (very slowly) toward a diagonal corner. It just did touch the long rail and bounce away safely, securing the event victory for Jones.
“I’d played it so it wouldn’t scratch,” she said of that final shot, “but in that moment (as the cue ball drifted toward the corner), I couldn’t celebrate the win until I was sure.”
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff of Black Diamond Billiards, as well as sponsors Billiards 911, Cue Tracker, and Horizon Rentals. They also thanked Rail2Rail Productions for their live stream of the event. Next stop on the NWPA Tour is scheduled for August 11-12 at The Parlor in Bellevue, WA.
On November 19-20th The Parlor in Bellevue, WA hosted the NWPA’s 7th and final tour stop of the 2011 Season. The tournament was ran on 10 9 foot Brunswicks and Rail2Rail Productions provided live streaming throughout the event. As always, The Parlor was a gracious host and even provided comedy club tickets to several of the entrants after the NWPA banquet hosted as a buffet style dinner at The Ultra Lounge. Some of the The Parlor’s upcoming events include The Vixen Gauntlet and Country Line Dancing on Wednesdays, Thursday/Saturday football specials with 16 HD TVs and all kinds of door prizes and giveaways, DL Hughley on December 8-10, and Comic Search open auditions on December 15-17.
We would like to give special thanks to our title sponsor MUELLER for their continued support of the NWPA, please show your support to the NWPA by supporting Mueller (www.mueller.com). We would also like to extend a warm welcome to two new players: Clodagh Lancaster from Redmond, WA and Sara Mullenniex from Bellingham, WA.
2011 NWPA Awards were given at the banquet Saturday night and included:
Also at the banquet, conclusion of our annual raffle took place. Ed & Shelby Locati, Phyllis Fernandez, and Liz Cole all won cues and cases donated by Mueller, Brian Johnson and Alisha Rogers both won NWPA merchandise, and Shawn Graves won the coveted Passion Party basket, donated by Liz Cole’s sister.
Fresh off her first top 16 performance at the WPBA’s Tour Championship event Liz Cole was the favorite to win. With that performance, Liz earned her 2012 exemption on the WPBA, so whoever earned second in the NWPA’s overall standings would prove to be the NWPA representative, along with Liz, on the WPBA for 2012. In contention were Kimberly Kirk and Deby Welfringer, both players would have to have their best tournament of the year to have an opportunity. Kimberly would need to win the event, while Deby would need to finish 3rd.
Twenty ladies came to play on Saturday morning, and unfortunately due to snow, a few of the tours’ top players were not in attendance. Matches started at 10 am, and the field was whittled down to 8 players who returned on Sunday. On the A side, Liz Cole squared off against Michelle Hughes (her first Sunday appearance), while Shelby Locati battled against recently crowned 2011 US Amateur Champion, Suzanne Smith. Liz and Suzanne both won their matches 7-4 and 7-2. Liz then defeated Suzanne 7-4 to secure her 6th final appearance of the season. On the B side, Kimberly Kirk played Jessica Orth and Deby Welfringer played Clodagh Lancaster. Both Kimberly and Deby defeated their opponents 7-5, and momentum from their morning wins propelled them through their second rounds where Kimberly defeated Shelby 7-6 and Deby defeated Michelle 7-3.
The next match would prove to be a true test, for if Deby were to advance she would be guaranteed a 3rd place finish and take over 2nd place in the standings. Kimberly had different plans, as she was also in contention for that 2nd place spot, and ended up defeating Deby 7-2. Kimberly continued her superb play and defeated Suzanne 7-4 to secure her spot in the final against Liz.
Path to the Final
Liz Cole: Andy R (6), Shari R (5), Kathy S (2), Michelle H (5), Suzanne S (4)
Kimberly Kirk: Bye, Sara M (0), loss to Michelle H (5), Andy R (3), Jessica O (5), Shelby L (6), Suzanne S (4)
Kimberly won the lag. Straight out of the gate, Kimberly continued stroking the ball well to take a 3-0 lead, forcing Liz to take her break early to regain her composure. After Liz’s break, a couple untimely errors by Kimberly allowed Liz to tie up the match at 3 games each. Both ladies were shooting great and the match was alos tied at 4-4, 5-5, and 6-6, however in game 14, with an opportunity to tie the match again at 7, a hung 8 ball by Kimberly allowed Liz to take a two game lead 8-6. Kimberly then scratched on the break for the first time of the set in the next rack and Liz methodically ran out the rack to end Kimberly’s hopes of securing 2nd place in the standings. Congratulations Ladies, Great Tournament for you both. Congratulations to Jana Montour as well, who with her 2nd place position in the NWPA’s overall standings has earned her tour card. Thanks to all who came out to support the NWPA. It was a great season and we will see everyone (and hopefully more of us) in 2012.
Five ladies returned on Sunday for a $100 Added Second Chance Tournament. A round robin format was used, so each lady played the others five games. Alisha Rogers won the most games to claim top prize, while only 1 game separated 2nd and 3rd places. Sara and Talya ended up tied for fourth position, but since Sara had defeated Talya in their match, Sara received 4th place prize.
