48 women came to compete at the final stop of the Hunter Classics 2001 Season in Alvin, TX November 10-11.  This Championship Stop would also crown the Tour Champion and it was a fight until the bitter end.

 

Gail Lave, Brenda Plantz and Leslie Anne Rogers were fighting for the title and even on Sunday morning no one was sure who would win.  Only one point separated these three ladies, but in the end, Leslie Anne Rogers would win the Tour Championship title and also the tournament!

 

This is the 5th time in a row Big Daddy's has hosted the season finale of the Hunter Classics Tour.  Many thanks for our wonderful hosts Vickie and Ed McKillop.  Also, a big thanks to Rich Walkuski for being our referee and Mike Roles for being yet again a great Tournament Director for us.  And thank you to Wes Hunter who donated a beautiful $1,900 Hunter Classics Custom Cue for this stop.  Debi Goode, Heather Pratt and Andy Guerrero were wonderful help over the weekend working at Bid Daddy's and making the ladies feel at home.

 

Leslie Anne Rogers of Arlington, TX won $750 for her first place finish and fought all year for the Tour Champion title.  Leslie has been placing high for several years now, including a runner-up finish in the main event in 1998 and three second chance tournament wins just last year.  However, this year she has had two runner-up finishes in the last three Hunter Classics Stops, which help her to be in the running for the championship title.  With this tournament win, it pushed her way ahead in first place in the points and now she can also claim the title of having won a Hunter Classics Event, after so many close times.

 

Sarah Ellerby, runner-up in the Amateur Nationals, received $550 for her second place finish, Nicole Bacon placed 3rd and received $400 and her highest finish yet!  Jeannie Seaver, runner-up in the Regional Tour Championship the previous weekend, placed 4th and received $250 after going hill-hill her last two matches.  Julie Stephenson, Hunter Tour Board Member, placed 5th as did local Dana Hanks – her highest finish yet.  Karen Smith and Brenda Plantz, traveling buddies from Colorado, both placed 7th, with their other traveling roommate Lisa Preston placing 9th.  The other three 9th-12th place finishers included last year's Alvin winner Sherri Hudson, Sherry Pouncey of Austin ,TX having her highest finish yet and Natalie Mans of Clearlake, TX playing in her first Hunter Tournament.  Congratulations to all of the women!

 

Sarah Ellerby's road to the finals started off with a bye and then wins over Gail Lave 7-5, Sybil Wingard 7-1, Brenda Plantz 7-5, Jeannie Seaver 7-5 and Nicole Bacon 7-6 before playing Leslie in the finals.

 

Leslie's road to the finals started off with a bye also, and then wins over Melinda Bailey 7-2 and Sherry Romero before losing to Jeannie Seaver 5-7.  At this crucial point in the tournament, Brenda and Leslie were both still in the tournament on Sunday, but on the one-loss side.  When play began on Sunday, Leslie had beat Natalie Mans 7-2 while watching Brenda Plantz play Sherri Hudson.  Sherri and Brenda went hill-hill and on the last game, Sherri missed the 9 and scratched which meant Brenda and Leslie had to play each other!  When the smoke cleared, Leslie defeated Brenda 7-4 and Leslie was announced the Tour Champion.  Brenda and Leslie will both receive invitations to the WPBA Nationals in December!  Congratulations to both of these ladies for a hard fight all year long.

 

Leslie then went into high gear – wow stop now?  And defeated Jeannie Seaver 7-6, Nicole Bacon 9-4 and then Sarah Ellerby 11-6 in the finals.  Leslie won the tournament by snapping the 9 in on the break and finishing her great year in style.

 

Numerous raffle items were raffled off, but some of the main prizes were autographed balls signed by professional pool players.  Winners of the autographed balls included Ismael, Robert Plata, Suzanne Walkuski, Linda Chestnut and Billy D.  Another great raffle prize was a gift certificate to the local favorite restaurant, Joe's Bar B Q, which was won by owner Ed McKillop.

 

Several cues were also raffled off.  The number one cue was the beautiful Hunter Classics Custom Cue valued at $1,900.  June Walter of San Antonio was very surprised, but very excited that she finally won a Hunter Classic cue!  The cue forearm is Goncola Alves w/5 ebony points, Ebony butt w/ Goncola Alves band and it has orange and white veneers and stitch rings, 5 Ivory inlays in butt and a black with white linen wrap.

 

The other cues for raffle were a $200 Rhino cue won by Jeannette Martinez of San Antonio, a $500 Olivier cue won by Audra Carter of San Antonio and a $1,200 Annie O' cue won by W.T. Wetsel of the Houston area.  Anne Mays donated the Annie O' cue and also played in the tournament.  She placed 1st in the second chance event, defeating Kawania Watson of San Antonio hill-hill.  Mindy Williams of Houston – newly awarded Most Improved Player of 2001 – placed 3rd with Heather Pulford of Austin placing 4th.

 

The second chance tournament raised money from a Lucasi Cue donated by professional pool player Jeremy Jones, but also raised money for the fire fighter's fund of September 11th.  $435 was raised for the fund, and will be sent to the "Widows and Children's Fund of the Uniformed Firefighter's Association."  Theresa Murphy of San Antonio won the Jeremy Jones Lucasi Cue.  Thanks to Jeremy for supporting us again this year in Alvin, TX.

 

The Hunter Classics members would like to thank Wes Hunter for his continued support and cannot wait to play in 2002!  Thank you Wes for supporting women's pool!  This tour would not be the largest, longest running regional women's tour without YOU.

Gail Lave wins the Fast Freddy's Hunter Classics tournament two years in a row!

 

Forty-two women showed up on this hot, Texas weekend to play some great pool at Mike Lynch's pool room, Fast Freddy's, on August 4-5, 2001 in Arlington, TX.  Although many of the women were Texans, some traveled from as far away as Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado to compete.  Even Gail caught a Friday afternoon flight from Missouri and almost missed her plane ride back on Sunday evening after her final match with Leslie Rogers, the runner-up in this event.

 

The Hunter Classics Tour would like to welcome the new players that joined us at this great event!  We hope to see you again soon!

 

Wes Hunter made another beautiful Hunter Classics Cue, this one valued at $1,700.  Made of tiger maple and cocobolo with teal and red veneers with a black and white irish linen wrap, Kathy Krabbenschmidt was ecstatic when she won it!  Thank you to Wes for supporting this tour with another one of his exquisite cues!

 

12 ladies survived until the Sunday matches, with the winners side matches of Leslie Rogers versus Sherri Hudson (who was very pregnant) and Nancy French (having a great tournament) versus Alicia Teskey (who had her highest finish yet, playing solid pool all weekend).

 

Houston-area girls LaDonna Ulrich and Nicole Bacon (who was playing with a broken finger) placed 7th/8th, with Mindy Williams having her best tournament yet at 9th-12th place, along with Linda Long.  Brenda Plantz, always one to contend with, placed 5th/6th along with Sherri Hudson.  Rounding off the top 12 were Austin ladies Heather Pulford and Deanna Kniola placing 9th-12th.  Congratulations to all of these women on a great tournament!

 

Gail Lave started her fight Saturday morning beating Kim Mills (7-2) and Wendy Echols  (7-0) before losing to Deanna Kniola (5-7).  She then fought through the loser's bracket beating Sandi Dunlap (7-1) and Shayla Neris (7-2) and came back on Sunday to compete some more.  On Sunday she beat Heather Pulford (7-4), Nicole Bacon (7-5), Sherri Hudson (7-4), Nancy French (7-1) and Alicia Teskey 9-7 before reaching Leslie in the finals.

 

Leslie Rogers had a tough road for her as well, playing 4 nail-biting double hill matches along the way (including the finals).  Leslie got a bye the first round, then proceeded to beat Kathy Krabbenschmidt (7-1), Nicole Bacon (7-4), Mindy Williams (7-6), Sherri Hudson (7-6) and Alicia Teskey (9-7) before meeting up with Gail in the finals.

 

The finals was a hard fought race, with both wanting to taste the win.  For Leslie, it would have been her first Hunter Classics Tour win (and she was playing very well) and Gail could see how close herself was to winning this event two years in a row.  Going back and forth, tied several times, it then down to the last game in a race to 11.  Gail came out on top, winning with a score 11-10 and $750 richer, with Leslie placing second and winning $550.  Alicia got 3rd place and $375, with Nancy French placing 4th and receiving $250.

 

Downstairs on Sunday, 18 women were fighting in the Second Chance Tournament, with $100 added.  Melissa Norton, Sherry Pouncey, Beth Shriver and Stephanie Tuinstra all placed their highest yet, finishing respectively, 1st ($100), 3rd ($50), 5th and 6th ($15).  Melinda Bailey finished 2nd ($70), with Kelly Harmon (always consistently placing) finished 4th ($30).

 

Mike and his staff were wonderful as always and we can't wait for their stop again next year.  Randy Cole ran the tournament smoothly for us ladies and again, thank you to Wes Hunter.  Without Wes, we wouldn't have the longest running regional women's tour!

 

Don't forget to visit us at our next stop in Las Vegas, September 8-9, when a WPBA Qualifier will be in contention at this Hunter Classics event!

 

Visit us on the web for all information: www.hunterclassics.com.

40 women came to compete on April 7th and 8th at Legends Billiards in League City, TX.  12 of the women paid the extra $50 to have a chance at winning the WPBA qualifier and it was a hard fight to get it.  Five of the top 8 finishers were in contention, but in the end it was Noriyo Yurino (who is from Japan, but currently lives in Canada) who came out on top.  Noriyo won $750 and the WPBA Qualifier.

 

The weekend was well-hosted at Legends Billiards where room owner and Tournament Director Mindy Cohen made us all feel welcome, as always.  Her many pool tables allowed us to not only get play done early, but also had practice tables available for us.  Thanks Mindy!  Mindy had the help of Jimmy Moen, Dennis Strickland and Chuck Mills calling shots.  We also had WPBA Professional Belinda Campos visit our tournament over the entire weekend.  Thanks Belinda!

 

A big thank you to Wes Hunter for his continued support of the Hunter Classics Tour.  Dwight Brookland won the beautiful Hunter Classics Custom Cue valued at $1900.  This time the cue was of Brazilian Rosewood, Tiger Maple and Ivory Inlay with a Black Linen Wrap!  Also raffled off where autographed cue balls by Vivian Villarreal and Johnny Archer.

 

After the smoke cleared on Saturday, 12 women came back to play in the big event on Sunday.  The rest of the ladies competed in the Second Chance Tournament.  LaDonna Ulrich (local favorite) came out on top of the Second Chance Event with Trish Kaston (from Missouri) coming in 2nd, Kelly Harmon coming in 3rd (who had a great main event finish as well!) and Karen Smith (from Denver) coming in 4th.

 

On the other side of the room, Michelle Cortez, Julie Stephenson, Nicole Bacon and Deanna Kniola were waiting for the winner's brackets matches. On the winners side it was Shayla Neris (this was Shayla's first time to be on the winners bracket on Sunday!), Sherri Hudson, Melanie Koger, Leslie Rogers, Sybil Wingard (great tournament!), Lisa Marr, Noriyo Yurino and Brenda Plantz.  As play went on, Melanie Koger beat Noriyo for the winners bracket hill-hill, running out nicely.

 

Noriyo then had to play Brenda Plantz (who had just beat Lisa Marr and Deanna Kniola).  Noriyo won 9-4.  It was time for Melanie to play Noriyo again.  After being tied 5-5, Noriyo came out on top with a score of 11-9.  Congratulations to Melanie for another great finish and for Noriyo on her first Hunter Classics win and the WPBA Qualifier.  On their way to the finals, Noriyo beat LaDonna Ulrich 7-2, Tasha Salandanan 7-1, Kim Mills 7-3, Sybil Wingard 7-3, Lisa Marr 7-4, lost to Melanie Koger  6-7 for the winners bracket, beat Brenda Plantz 9-4 and Melanie Koger 11-9.  Melanie had a bye and then beat Gail Lave 7-2, Teresa Hayes 7-1, Leslie Rogers 7-2, Shayla Neris 7-2, Noriyo Yurino 7-6 and then lost the in the finals to Noriyo Yurino 9-11.  Looks like it was only Noriyo that could get past 2 games against Melanie!  Great tournament ladies!

 

Other news surrounding the tournament was the missed group of San Antonio G.rls, who were competing in a city tournament back home.  Some of the Dallas/Fort Worth girls were also missing, playing in their own league tournament as well on this weekend.  A special note to Crystal Livingston (all of 12 years old), who won her first match in the Second Chance Tournament 5-1!

 

Again, a big thank you to Wes Hunter who is thought of every day of the year that the ladies get to play the sport they love.  And, don't forget to visit Wes and the Hunter Classics Tour at www.hunterclassics.com.

WPBA Touring Pro – Ramona Biddle wins first Hunter Classics Amateur event Of 2001 – Melanie Koger wins qualifier spot.

 

The 1st stop of the year was an exciting event. 42 ladies from across the USA and world competed for the top spot at Corner Pockets in Albuquerque, NM. The tour was happy to host Sarah Ellerby from England and Noriyo Yurino from Taiwan/Japan.

 

Wes and Cindy Hunter were in attendance all weekend at this event. This gave the players a chance to thank them in person for sponsoring the tour. The Hunter Classics tour is very appreciative for the many years of support from Wes and Cindy. The quality and beauty of the Hunter Classics Custom cues make winning one of them a coveted event.

 

As usual, it was a fierce battle for the top prize and qualifier spot. Anna Kostanian, a local player and only 13 years old was the talk of the tournament. This young lady showed stamina and the talent of a veteran player. Her hometown support was very visible and audible during all her matches – a tough distraction for her opponents in addition to Anna’s level of play.

 

Play commenced at 10am on Saturday. Play went on until only 12 players were Left for Sunday. On the winners side was: Ramona Biddle, Anna Kostanian, Sarah Ellerby, and Melanie Koger. On the one loss side – Julie Stephenson, Leslie Rogers, Noriyo Yurino, Miriam Martinez, Gail Lave, Susan Mello and Judi Wickelgren

 

Ramona made her way to the winner’s bracket match starting off with a bye, then by winning matches against Melinda Luerco (7-3), Cynthia Ferrer (7-4), Susan Mello (7-5), Anna Kostanian (7-6), and the win for the hot seat by defeating Sarah Ellerby (7-6).

 

Sarah Ellerby made her way via a first round bye and wins over Lucille Donahue (7-0), Noriyo Yurino (7-4), Gail Lave, and Melanie Koger (7-2).

 

Melanie determined to win the qualifier spot eliminated Leslie Rogers after her loss to Sarah. A special congratulations to Leslie Rogers for an outstanding tournament. She held her own through several tough matches with hometown favorites on Sunday to finish 4th.

 

The match for 3rd place was a fierce one. Both players were in contention for the qualifier spot. It was a see-saw match with Melanie reaching the hill with a 8-7 lead. Melanie left Sarah with an incredibly tough cut shot on the 9 which would bring the match hill-hill. After studying the shot, Sarah calmly fired in the 9 and then dropped her shoulders in disappointment as the cue ball promptly scratched in the corner pocket. Congratulations for Sarah for a 3rd place finish in her first Hunter Classics Tour event.

 

The finals was a marathon match that lasted almost 3 hours. Ramona prevailed with a win over Melanie.

 

Due to a technicality Ramona Biddle was able to play in the Albuquerque, NM Event. Newly enforced rules from the WPBA stipulate “no touring pros”; however Due to the “lateness” of the information from the WPBA – the Hunter Classics Tour held to the “old” rules – disallowing the top 32 for this tournament only. Ramona is currently ranked 34 on the WPBA tour.

 

On Sunday a smaller field then usual played for in the 2nd chance event. Sherri Hudson came on strong to defeat Melinda Bailey for the win. Brenda Plantz finished 3rd and Mindy Williams finished 4th. Congratulations to Melinda, Brenda and Mindy for consistently strong showings in recent 2nd chance events.

 

Congratulations to local player Evelyn Hampton for winning the Hunter Classics Cue in the raffle. This beautiful Hunter Classics Custom cue is valued at over $1900. Thanks again to Wes Hunter for his continued support! Many thanks to Corner Pockets, owners and staff. Local players Rachel Rumschlag and Evelyn Hampton ran the boards. Many thanks for a job well done.