Feijen Wins Dynamic Billard Italian Open by Thomas Overbeck, EPBF Press Officer
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ith a clear 9:2 victory over Nick Malai (GRE) in the final match, Niels Feijen (NED) took the title of the Dynamic Billard Italian Open Champion 2015 at the Best Western Premium BHR Hotel in Treviso, Italy, today. Feijen left no chance for Malai in the final. In the beginning, Malai missed some easy shots which was punished by Feijen straight away. It looked like Malai got really frustrated, being in his chair for so long watching Feijen take rack after rack. In fact, Malai could not get a foot on the floor in the final match. Therefore, the result of 9:2 in favor of Feijen is fully deserved. After winning the 9-Ball World Championships and the straight pool European Championships last year, Feijen had his last Euro-Tour victory in June 2013 in Austria. He was in the final against Nick van den Berg in December but he lost that quite clear. „I got tortured last time by Nick, so I am really happy that I was able to win it this time“, stated Feijen. „I think that around 40 guys can win a Euro-Tour. It is one hell of a competition. I am very happy to win this tournament“, added Feijen. Though he had lost the final match, it has been a great and successful tournament for Nick Malai as well. He defeated Mario He (AUT), Petri Makkonen (FIN) and Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) today, three really strong players; two of them belong to Europe’s Top Ten ranked players.
Top eight finishers: Niels Feijen (NED) Nick Malai (GRE) Mario He (AUT) Karl Boyes (GBR) Ralf Souquet (GER) Petri Makkonen (FIN) Oliver Ortmann (GER) Marco Teutscher (NED)
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Niels Feijen With that victory, Feijen overtakes van den Berg and takes the lead in the Euro-Tour rankings as well.
Top Ten Euro-Tour rankings:
Niels Feijen (NED) Nick van den Berg (NED) Mark Gray (GBR) Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) Ralf Souquet (GER) Mario He (AUT) Karol Skowerski (POL) Denis Grabe (EST) Albin Ouschan (AUT) Francisco Diaz-Pizarro (ESP) The event was hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion, IBP. For further information, please check the event website at www.eurotouronline.com, visit our Facebook page or contact the EPBF press office atpress@epbf.com
Karen Corr Goes 42-8 to win JPNEWT Season Opener
Linda Shea (tour director) congradulating Karen Corr
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aren Corr started the 2015 year on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour the way she ended the 2014 season; on a winning note. In the $1,000-added season opener ($500 from Coins of the Realm) that drew 32 entrants to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of March 7-8, Corr played 50 games of 9-ball and won 42 of them, including back-to-back 7-1 victories over tour director Linda Shea, who, as a result of playing in almost twice as many events as Corr during the 2014 season ended up as the tour’s top-ranked player last year. They met first in the hot seat match. Corr had gotten by Shanna Lewis, Susan Shinn (who had chalked up an eventbest three racks against her), and Delia Mocanu (for a 21-4 record) to draw Nicole Monaco in a winners’ side semifinal. Shea, in the meantime, had defeated Connie Eddins, Nicole Fleming, and Joy McFeaters-Haas (for a 21-10 record) and played Meredith Lynch. Corr defeated Monaco 7-2, as Shea was busy sending Lynch to the loss side 7-5. Corr took the hot seat 7-1 and waited on Shea’s return. On the loss side, Kim Whitman and Kia Sidbury were
making some noise that would see them both win six on that side of the bracket and face each other in the quarterfinals. Whitman had defeated Sidbury 7-1 in the opening round, and she had been sent over by Monaco in the second round. Sidbury got by Melissa Jenkins (double hill), Lynn Richard, Eugenia Gyftopoulos, Mocanu, and Kassandra Bein to draw Lynch, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. In addition to wins over Judie Wilson and a shutout over McFeatersHaas, Whitman survived two double hill matches, against Nicole King and Jia Li, to pick up Monaco. Whitman eliminated Monaco 7-3 to chalk up her fifth loss-side win, as Sidbury was chalking up her sixth in a 7-2 win over Lynch. Kim Whitman ended Sidbury’s loss-side campaign 7-5 in the quarterfinals, and got a shot at Shea in the semifinals. Shea took that match 7-5 for her second shot against Corr, who repeated her hot seat performance, claiming the season opener 7-1.
April/May PQB 7
Don Samples 2015 Memorial 9-Ball Event
Danny Smith
by Bob Hunt
D
uring a bleak February in Memphis TN, the 2nd annual Don Samples 9-ball event took place at The Rack. This event memorializes the original owner, Don Samples, who passed away a short time ago. Many years ago, Don suffered a spinal injury inside his club that placed him in a wheelchair. He was an innocent victim who suffered by the hand of others. Even in that wheelchair Don expertly played, competed, and supported the game. He always said to me, “Bob, you have to love the business to be in it!” During my history as a referee, that thought always carried me through some rough times. Originally named the Longbranch Saloon, The Rack carries with it a ton of history and many legendary players rolling balls on those old tables. Although Don was linked to that wheelchair, his love for billiards never diminished, supporting and competing in NWPA wheelchair events for many years, until he finally retired a few years back on a farm in Mississippi and passed away shortly thereafter. The new owner of The Rack, Ken Roberts, had this famous old room in great shape for the event, replacing 2 of the Diamond 9ft tables with 3 Diamond 7ft tables, commemorating the earlier days of The Rack’s well-known yearly tournament, the Super-Bowl 9-ball Open. This gave us seven tables to schedule the 55-player double elimination weekend event. Saturday night brought with it a second great event, Midnight Madness. In past years, Midnight Madness was held on Friday night following the player auction. There were no complaints on the freshly manicured tables or facility services; The Rack was ready for this event! Players love the Diamond Tables, Aramith balls, and Simonis cloth that have become an industry standard. Ray Hanson of PoolActionTV.com set up and monitored the TV table and tournament director, Josh Gilmore orchestrated the event. Bob Hunt was the event referee and Matt Martin skillfully held the event auction. With many thanks, this event would not have been possible without gracious sponsor support who included Miller Beer (A.S Barboro), Professor Q Ball, Woodworth Custom Cues, The Billiard Pro Shop and Fair Game Clothing. In addition, two thousand dollars added
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Devin Poteet
Josh Roberts
money attracted players from long distances to compete in this true double elimination, race to 7 event. The main event final came down to a pair of matches between Danny Smith and Devin Poteet. Danny, moving up from the loser’s bracket defeated Devin both matches to win the main event and Josh Roberts secured third. Danny Smith also surfaced victorious, winning the Saturday Night Madness and takes home the bragging rights and $4,000. All of these players local and distant were professional and skilled sportsman that played great matches. A great tournament, a great weekend, plus a lot of great pool, who could ask for more? We thank all the participants, sponsors, and organizers for this great event and hope next year’s event will be bigger and better yet! Total Danny Smith 1st $2,400 Devin Poteet 2nd $,1475 Josh Roberts 3rd $975 Joey Grey 4th $750 5-6th $450 ea. 7-8th $225 ea. 9-12th $150 ea. Total auction payouts $9,070 • Total payout of event $20,620
Ernie Gutierrez and Fred Mail Inducted into International Cuemakers Hall Of Fame by Chris Hightower
Ernie Gutierrez
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rnie Gutierrez has been inducted into the International Cuemakers Hall Of Fame in the living cuemaker category! Ernie was born in 1941 in Bogota, Columbia and came to the USA in 1957. He started building cues in 1961. He pushed the artistic design of his earlier cues to levels unseen at the time. He named his cues after his daughter Gina and called them Ginacue. He introduced the use of Linen Phenolic for joint rings. He took a break from building cues from 1973 until 1988.
When he came back he did not disappoint as he started turning out some really high-end cues and became famous for his super clean inlay and leatherwork. Ernie also re-popularized the butterflies between the points and mastered the use of flat bottom veneered points that look like v-groove points. Ernie’s North Hollywood shop is one of the nicest one man cue shops in the world and he has a dedicated machine or tool for just about every part of cuemaking. His cues are highly desired by both collectors and players.
Ernie Gutierrez
Fred Mali
Fred Mali has been inducted into the International Cuemakers Hall Of Fame in the deceased cuemaker category! Rarely does a man of Fred’s educational background pursue cuemaking as a career. He was educated at Buckley, Groton, Yale and Harvard. He became the CEO of one of the oldest family run companies in New York, The Henry W.T. Mali & Co., Inc. (Mali Cloth) founded in 1826. Born in 1930 as Fredrick Johnston Mali, he was the fifth generation to be directly involved in the Billiard industry. He engineered many of the automated machines that manufactured the Mali brand of cues. His influence in the Billiard industry was wide spread as his company manufactured one of the most popular brands of table cloth and American made pool cues. He was also involved in the establishing of the Billiard Congress of America. Fred first started manufacturing a line of cues for AE Schmidt Company in 1965 and named the cue manufacturing plant Cuesport. Shortly after this he started manufacturing his own line of cues under the Mali name. The Mali brand of cues never sought to enter the high-end cue market, but always sought to provide quality cues in the player’s price range. They continued manufacturing the cues in the United States until
Fred Mali 2001 when they closed the factory. The Mali brand name continued on with imported cues. Fred passed away in 2007 and his influence on our industry still continues today. To see the complete Hall of Fame visit www.internationalcuemakers.com April/May PQB 21
USBA Officers President Jim Shovak East Islip, NY 516-238-6193 Secretary Tom Paley Fenton, MO 636-861-3437 Treasurer Merrill Hughes Huntington Station, NY 631-338-9698 Steve Andersen Wyoming, MI 616-530-8665 Ricardo Carranco Los Angeles, CA 323-490-8075 Victor Cuzzi Miami, FL 786-366-7293 Pedro Piedrabuena San Diego, CA 213-458-3950 Mazin Shooni Nashua, NH 248-910-4466 James Watson Bronx, NY 347 255-4330
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Pedro Piedrabuena Wins USBA National His fifth consecutive USBA National Title
Carom Cafe Hosted the USBA Nationals March 9 2015.
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he 43-year old Pedro Piedrabuena took the American three-cushion title for the fifth time in a row and the eighth time overall. The billiard club owner from San Diego defeated Young Gull Lee in the final 40-27 in 27 innings. Miguel Torres was third after a victory against Sonny Cho (40-23 in 29). Piedrabuena, which was not among the best players in the preliminaries, where he lost against Chris Bartzos, was by far the best in the knockout stage. In the quarterfinals, he defeated the same Bartzos 40-21 in 22 (series 12), in the semifinals, he outplayed Miguel Torres 40-27 in 21 and in the finals Young Gull Lee in 29 innings. Miguel Torres (1.438), Chris Bartzos (0.938), Sonny Cho (1.141) and Hugo Patino (1.265) were the group winners in the semi-final groups. Second in the groups finished Pedro Piedrabuena (1.226), Michael Kang (1.080), Young Gull Lee (0.869) and Jamil Isreal (0.754). Young Gull Lee outplayed one of the contenders, Hugo Patino, in the quarterfinals (40-29 in 33). Michael Kang lost in the quarterfinals against Sonny Cho: 40-32 in 27. In the semifinal, Piedrabuena defeated Torres and Young Gull Lee beat Sonny Cho (40-19 in 40).
Young Gull Lee finishes runnerup Prize Fund 1st $4,100 3rd $2,100 5th $1,700 7th $1,300 9th $625 11th $625 13th $525 15th $525 Best Game High Run Total
2nd 4th 6th 8th 10th 12th 14th 16th $275 $275
$3,100 $1,900 $1,500 $1,100 $625 $625 $525 $525
$21,950
President’s Desk: Our Nationals is over with Pedro Piedrabuena winning for the fifth straight time. This year he was in the final match against Young Gull Lee from New York.
Pedro Piedrabuena
Young Gull Lee
It was nice to see another face in the crowd vying for the National Championship. Congratulations to both players for their accomplishments. Check details
Miguel Torrez
Sonny Cho
on the tournament/calendar page for the National Championship Tournament on our website: www.USBA.net The Verhoeven Open at Carom Café will be held from
Hugo Patino
Jamil Isreal
July 21-26 preceded by an International Women’s Tournament from July 18-20. Don’t miss it! The best in the entire world will be there. Paul Frankel (Professor-Q-Ball) and Mazin Shooni will be traveling to Philadelphia for the Allen Hopkins Super Billiard Expo
Michael Kang
Chris Bartzos
being held at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks from April 16-19th. Mazin Shooni (2006 US Champion) will be holding a special 3cushion clinic for youths 18 and under. There will be some challenge matches between four players: Mazin Shooni, Hugo Patino (2003 & 2009 US Champion) and top pool players Mike Dechaine and Shane Van Boening. Also Yura Ra will be holding a few small tournaments for all players. This is all great promotion for our game. Thanks to Mazin, Paul Frankel, Yura and our Treasurer, Merrill Hughes and Secretary, Tom Paley. April/May PQB 27
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