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.