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elleni.com
@ the WPBA San Diego Classic Left Minneapolis on a packed flight to San
Diego. The flight was ok. Sat next to two high
school girls. Got to the hotel and while waiting at
the lobby counter stood behind Jeanette Lee. The night before the tournament there was a
Charity Pro Am. The
WPBA and the casino were raising money for the
"Anna Fund." Amateurs paid $50 to be on a team with
one or two other amateurs and one touring pro. I
was on a team with Ming Ng, ranked number 16, with
two other guys. The mini round-robin tournament
works like this... Teams play two twenty minute
sets against two different teams. In that time
teams play as many racks of "scotch-doubles" nine
ball, with three or four people taking turns to
shot, after the two sets the two teams with the
most wins play each other in the finals. Now, since
its all for fun, sharking of all sorts are
allowed-- except touching the other players. Look
out. Our team
played against Melissa Herndon's in the first
round. Ming was really peppy, but our team was not
that good at the sharking thing. We tied with
Melissa's team 3-3. The second round we played against Jeanette
Lee's team. Well, Jeanette knows a thing or two
about sharking. She chalks in your ear as you are
down on a shot or stands in your line of sight
while telling you that you're going to miss. At one
point my shot was on the eight ball, the pervious
shooter left me with only a bank shot. I lean over
the table to shoot and Jeanette leans down next to
ma and says, "Those are really nice glasses... I
really like those..." I stopped an handed them over
to her to hopefully distracter her while I
shot.
I made the shot, but scratched! Jeanette jumps up
and downs and high-fives
her team mates. Darn. We ended up losing to
them 1-5. That five was enough to put Jeanette
and team mates into the finals. Check out some
great
photos by Paul Parks of me and many others at
the Pro Am. The other team in the finals was Allison
Fisher's team. They ended up wining. Her team meats
got bags of prizes, dinner certificates, tournament
passes, etc. After the mini-tournament audience members got
to again donate to the charity for a chance to play
against a player of their choice. I'd looked
forward to playing Vivian Vivarreal, but her plane
was late. I chose Jeanette instead. Don't tell her
she was my second choice. I got to play two racks
with Jeanette. After losing the first rack, I went
to rack, but she
racked and told me to break the second rack as
well. She let me shot both, but I really only had a
chance in the second. She missed and I shot the
six, but ran too far on the seven. I had a tight
shot and made the ball, but did not get out to the
way in time and fouled. Don't give Jeanette Lee
ball-in-hand wit only two balls on the table. All in all it was a fun evening. The tournament
starts tomorrow morning. For the first day of the actual tournament I was
not too sure about seating. They had set up two
bleacher sections the night before with a few
tables and chairs. I was the fifth person in line
and got a good set right up front. The room was
laid out with six nine-foot Brunswick tables and
the seating for the audience all around. The tournament format was double elimination,
race to nine racks, alternating breaks. There are
always 64 players in a WPBA tournament. For this
event the top 48 finishers get prize money,
although those at the bottom only got $525. The top
prize was $9000. The first round of matches started around 10 AM.
The biggest surprise of round one was the loss of
Jeanette Lee to Fujinaga. Jeanette was down
something like 6-8 and was at the table faced with
a difficult run out from the six ball. She tried to
cut the six in the side and missed leaving Fujinaga
to run out for the win. That knocked Jeanette to
the losers bracket facing a long haul to try and
make it into the finals. Vivian Vivarreal played two matches the first
day and won both. She beat Vicki Paski, 9-4 in
round one, and then Lisa Marr, 9-3. The most exciting match of the night had to be
the battle between Sara Ellerby and Tiffany Nelson.
They were playing at the one table of which I had
an obstructed view and I'd not really watched them
too closely. At one point Sara was up 8-3. I
remember thinking that match would be over soon,
but it kept going. Tiffany must have just decided
she was not going to give up that easily and even
with the alternating break format got back to 8-8,
hill-hill! It was an amazing come back. In the
final rack Tiffany had the break, I think. She ran
down to the eight,but rolled too far for the
natural shot in the corner. She stood there
thinking for a while and I'm sure she was really
frustrated that an hours hard work may go down the
drain for a little too much roll. After thinking
for a while, she shot the eight and left it on one
rail with the cue on the other. Poor Sara, once all
but having won, came to the table with only an
attempt at the safety or a long bank. By this time
quite a crowd had grown around their table, even
though it was after 11 PM. Some of the other
players in the event standing behind me debated the
best choice. They deiced, as Sara did, to go for
the bank. She missed. But she left Tiffany a short
rail bank and very narrow at that. Back a the
table, Tiffany again thought a bit and then went
for it. The eight just barley made it in the pocket
and set hew up with a straight in shot on the nine.
After being up 5 racks, Sara Ellerby was sent to
the losers bracket. This was the day where players began to be
eliminated. The first part of the day was filled
with one-loss matches. One players stays, the other
goes home (or joins the audience as many did). Jeanette, now in the losers bracket, had her
first day two match against a young girl named
Rhee. Jeanette beat her 9-3. Already in the losers
side, Rhee was out of the tournament. That
afternoon, she played Sharon Weis and won 9-5
moving on in the losers' side to face Sara Ellerby
the next morning. Vivian, with two wins on day one under her belt,
faced Melissa Herndon for her only match Friday
evening. Vivian won 9-7 in a tight set that showed
a bit of the practice at safeties Vivian must have
been doing. Now, only three matches between her and
finals. It'll be Helena Thornfeldt or Tiffany
Nelson in the next round. This day saw my favorite player knocked to the
losers bracket. Vivian lost to Helena Thornfeldt,
4-9, in a round four afternoon match. Vivian's "go
for it" style does not work well against
traditional safety play. She'd prefer to try to
make a shot than to play a safety when there's not
a guarantee of a run out. When faced with the
results of safeties, she can become frustrated.
This loss meant she needed to win the next five
matches to get to the finals. Its a hard time on
the losers' side. Her first match in the losers' bracket came
later in the evening. Vivian met Kim Shaw, another
Englishman and snooker player. Kim, like her fellow
countrymen, plays a good safety game. Vivian
answered her safeties well with some of her own,
and led 4-2 half way through the match.
Unfortunately, Kim got some really lucky rolls that
turned the match in her favor. With Vivian in the
lead having just played a good safety, Kim was
forced to jack up to attempt a hit. She barely go
the hit and although she couldn't make the ball,
the seven caromed off some other ball and went in.
Kim went on to run the rack and won the match 9-5.
After the match I asked Vivian to sign my shirt and
she was heard to say, "I don't mind losing, but
hate losing like that... I should have been up 5-2
but for that lucky roll of the seven ball [in
rack seven]." Another big name got knocked out earlier that
Saturday morning. Jeanette Lee faced Sarah Ellerby
and lost 5-9. Jeanette's will to hang in the match
showed as she called for several hit watches from
the tournament director, Steve Tipton. That's OK,
Jeanette, Loree Jon Jones would take out Ellerby in
the next round later that day. The end of day three saw the last six players
fighting for the final four TV spots. Having
knocked Helena Thornfeldt to the losers side
earlier in the day, Alison fisher was guaranteed a
spot in the finals. Helena, for her late round lost
was guaranteed TV time, but had to battle in the
semis to meet Allison again. The other four players left were, Julie Kelly
versus, the girl that knocked out Vivian, Kim Shaw;
and Karen Corr versus Melissa Herndon. I just could
not hang in there through the end of the eveing,
past 11 PM, and just assumed Kelley and Corr would
pull out their matches. Check the brackets
to see how every progressed. TV day! My friend Vicki came out to watch the
televised finals with me. The night before she
asked if she should dress up. I really didn't
know,b ut told her to wear something she'd be
willing to be seen on TV in. We got great seats
right up front and are sure to be seen on TV when
the matches air on ESPN. Look out for a future
update with the air dates. After three days of play there were only four
players left: Alison Fisher with no losses, Helena
Thornfeldt with only one loss to Fisher, Karen Corr
with one loss, and Julie Kelley also with one loss.
Helena would play the winner of Karen and Julie for
the chance to play in the finals against
Allison. The first semifinal match was Karen and Julie.
They are good friends. That afternoon, Karen was
not feeling well and had to leave to arena a couple
of times. Early in the set Karen was down 3-2
against her friend. Julie got some really lucky
rolls... One crazy shot that left her with only
another crazy kick that she made. The crowd loved
it and she laughed. After a second rest break Karen
made quite a come back to beat Julie. Still not feeling too well, Karen then had a 30
minute break before having to face Helena
Thornfeldt. Helena is a tough player, but not as
stoic as Karen and Allison. She's the one that sent
my personal favorite, Vivian, to the losers
bracket. I should have been rooting against her for
that, but the prospect of yet another Fisher-Corr
final was going against it. Karen seemed a bit shaky still, but put up a
fight against Helena. |
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elleni.com... best viewed at 1024x768 webmaster@elleni.com page last modified: Tuesday December 27, 2005 |
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