Canadian Cue Sport Association 1st Annual British Columbia 8-Ball Championships

Feb 12, 2006

BC Shows How It’s Done
The "CCS 2006 British Columbia 8-Ball Championships" held in Langley January 25-29th had it all. A great turnout, great competition, a great setting and a great tournament crew. This was the first ever Sanctioned Singles, Team and Scotch Doubles Championship for BC. For pool players who wanted to have fun, it was THE place to be.
With almost 400 Players from all over BC and even some from Alberta and Ontario, entries were 20% more than expected. The competition was fierce and exciting in all Divisions with many Champions present. What a setting! Held at the Cascades Casino & Coast Hotel, it was like a ‘mini Vegas’. You could stay right at the Tournament site, all play was in a Ball Room setting upstairs and if luck wasn’t going your way there, you could always test the waters downstairs in the Casino. Thanks to the great job done by the Tournament Crew of Bill Unwin and staff, the Director Chris Kelly and the Refs headed by Jeff Phythian, the Tourney ran smooth and on time, from start to finish.

The Mens A Advanced Singles was a ‘re-match’. Steve Cherewyk – 2004 Canadian Champion versus Dave Martin – 2005 Canadian Champion. Both from Calgary AB, Dave lost to Steve in the Finals of the 2004 Canadian Championships in Toronto before winning in the 2005 Finals with 5 straight ERO runouts. This time, it was Dave over Steve. Doug Foster of Salmon Arm, BC finished third with a great win over Stan Tourangeau – bar box legend and four time Canadian Champion from Vancouver BC who finished fourth. The B Open Singles was won by Chad Deck Calgary AB and the C Standard Singles was won by Jeff Cannon Calgary AB.
The Womens A Advanced Singles was won by MaryAnn McConnell of Port Alberni BC, a longtime and very accomplished Pool and Snooker player. Making it to the Finals certainly wasn’t easy in this event either. Congratulations to Candis Penalung of Kamloops BC who had to get past Andrea Wilson – 2005 Western and 2005 Canadian Champion from Victoria BC who finished third. The B Open Singles was won by Kara Leonard of Calgary AB.
The A Advanced Mens Team was another dogfight. Top dog this time was the experienced team Greene Machine (Al Greenlee, Steve Cherewyk, Danny Gilbert, Russ Whittle and Barry Hooey) – 2005 Western Champions of Calgary AB over the young guys from Juice Box Productions ( Mark Downey, Raj Chana, James Coutoteille, Chad Deck, Brandon Shreves and Jeff Cannon) also from Calgary AB. Finshing third were the Dragons (Curtis Bech, Larry Wilson, Bobby Lee, Morris Lee, and Yudy Lee) from Victoria BC who bested the Mix (David Harry, Tommy Harry, Randy McFarland, Christian Carroll and Ken Chung) from Nanaimo BC. The B Open Mens Team was won by the Stickmen (George Leroux, Chuck Kennedy, Ricco Masrshal, Doug Beaver and Terry England) from Kamloops BC and the C Standard Mens Team was won by the Classics (Darren Hutchinson, Jules Russo, James Mohr, Rick Campbell, Donald Parson, Mike Johnson, and Ed Johnson) from Victoria BC.
Judging by the noise and excitement, the Womens Teams may have had the most fun of all. Winning the A Advanced was the Killer “B”s (Kathie MacDonald, MaryAnn McConnell, Janice Stromar, Michelle Gamble, and Andrea Wilson) from Nanaimo BC over the Eagles (Bena Robinson, Tracy Dales, Leanne Dales, Jen Bodner, Bonnie Caskey and Ingrid Cline) from Victoria BC. Finishing third was the Chalk It Up team (Danielle Lacamell, Peggy Sexsmith, Brenda Reeves, Tania Kozsan, Joyce Hall and Helen Volos) from Maple Ridge BC. The B Open was won by the Panthers (Candis Penaluna, Nadine Sutanto, Barb Leroux, Deborah Howell, Michelle Jones and Michelle Dimond) from Kamloops BC.
In the Scotch Doubles, it was the team of Candis Penalung and George Leroux from Kamloops BC who took the top cash and the Falcon cues in the Finals over Tammy Anderson and Steve Cherewyk of Calgary AB.
Special thanks to the Cascades Casino & Coast Plaza for hosting us and all the Vendors and Sponsors who help make an Event like this possible – Falcon Cues, Q’s 4 Less, Rockie’s Pool Accessories, Axis Custom Embroidery, West Coast Extraction Systems, U-Can-Cover and Jeff Phythian for the Event Banner.
The CCS would also like to thank the Leagues and Players who supported this first ever Championship. The 2nd Annual will be held at the same place - the Cascades Casino & Coast Hotel in Langley BC Jan 31st to Feb 4th, 2007. Mark your calendar and help spread the word. It’ll be bigger and even better.