Canadian Cue Sport Association 4th Annual British Columbia 8-Ball Championships

Feb 12, 2009

PENTICTON WINS!
The 4th Annual CCS 2009 British Columbia 8-Ball Championships were held February 4-8th, at the beautiful Lakeside Resort Hotel & Casino in Penticton BC. Once again, the host hotel and the local organizers, Gord and Sabrina Monteith of the SOPL league, did another super job of looking after everyone and making us all feel welcome. Good road conditions and an ‘on time’ earlier finish on Sunday helped make it a great weekend of pool action.
So what happened in between? Another super smooth, hotly contested tourney in all events. There were more teams than ever from all over BC. Alberta was also well represented and there were even some players from Ontario making the trip. In the end, it was new Champions in nearly every event with Okanagan players showing they can play with the best.
Congratulations and good luck to the new Champions, all of whom have won either CCS sponsored Paid Trips and/or Entries to compete in the upcoming CCS 2009 Western Championships April 29th to May 3rd at the Acadia Rec Centre in Calgary AB.
Special thanks to the always first rate Tournament Direction provided by Chris Kelly from Calgary and the very solid ACS certified Referee Crew headed by Jeff Phythian from Calgary. They make it look easy but it’s really the result of lot of experience and hard work.
The CCS also thanks the Lakeside Resort Hotel for hosting us and all the Sponsors who help make an Event like this possible – Lake City Casinos, Falcon Cues, Tips Pro Shop and Shaw Cable.
The CCS looks forward to seeing everyone again next year/same time in Penticton at the 2010 BC’s and before that at the 2009 Westerns in Calgary for those who can make it.
MENS SINGLES

Russ Whittle of Calgary AB claimed the A Advanced top spot in a very tough field. The big story though had to be who he faced in the finals. That was Andrew Koverko of Kamloops BC., playing his best tourney ever. After getting bumped up to the A Advanced after the B Open Qualifying round, he defeated Vegas Masters Serge Tremblay of Ladysmith BC, Nick Kruger of Penticton BC, Andy Mizan of Kamloops BC before finally losing to Russ in a 2 set final. Well done! It was Andy Mizan who ended up finishing 3rd. Advancing to the A by winning the B Open Qualifying was Chris McNeill of Penticton BC.
The story of the B Open was that 2nd, 3rd and 4th were all claimed by players who advanced from the C Qualifying. It was Bob Leonard of Calgary AB who finally emerged victorious but congrats to Mike Mittermuller of Burnby BC 2nd, Joe Orel of Campbell River BC 3rd and Trevor Peoples of Victoria BC 4th on a fine tourney.
Also advancing to the B, by winning the C Standard Qualifying, was Geon Barrett of Kamloops BC.
The C Standard was one by Mike Bigelow of Burnaby BC over Stuart Trimble of Penticton BC. Neal Ram from Burnaby BC finished 3rd.
WOMENS SINGLES
The A Advanced and B Open were combined this year with a spot of 2 games in a race to 5 given to the B ranked players. That turned out to be a tough spot as the B Ranked players claimed the top 3 spots. Congrats to Jessica Waldron of Nanaimo BC who won out over Mary Rayner of Calgary AB in the finals. Tina Waldrem of Vernon BC finished 3rd.
MENS/MIXED TEAM
Nobody can say that the local Penticton area boys can’t play pool.
In one of the strongest fields ever in A Advanced, the team of ‘Westhills Coyote’ (Captain Nick Kruger, Timothy Lezard, Jeremiah Kruger, Chris McNeil and Rudy Friesen) played extremely well and never let up in coming from the B side in a well deserved two set finals win over another all star team, the ‘VI Stickmen’ from Vancouver Island (Captain Rob Clarke, Larry Wilson, Stewart Adams, Serge Tremblay, and Joe Orel).
‘Team Canada Eh!’ from Calgary AB (Captain Ted Harms, Scott Martin, Jeff Phythian, Greg Cairns, Bob Leonard and Russ Whittle) finished third.
Advancing to the A by winning the B Open Qualifying was ‘The Worst Team’ from Penticton BC (Captain Warren Lee, Jack Ramsay, Mike Turley, Owen Frank, John Rae).
The B Open finals were all Victoria as the team ‘8 Balls& A Pocket’ (Captain Tom Stromar, Trevor Peoples, Larry Abernethy, Mike Banning, Stacy Wallington, Ron Douglas) won out over ‘Bull Dawgs’ (Captain Curtis Beech, William Unwin, Herb Wilkerson, Eric Fisher, Brad Service).
The ‘Goodfellas’ from Calgary AB (Captain Chris Prechner, Ben Francis, Greg Simpson, Kelly Navin, Larry Pegg, Sean Simpson) advanced from C Qualifying and went the distance to finish 3rd.
Advancing to the B by winning the C Standard Qualifying was the local team of ‘Stix N’ Stones (Captain Rick Kotowich, Dan Moran, Bill Mitchell, Stewart Freeman, Glen Prochnau).
Carrying on a very strong showing by Penticton area players, the C Standard was won by the “Mug Shots’ (Captain Gord Monteith, Bryan Yastremski, Doug Halverson, Mike Williams, Kohn Kello, Rick Belliveau) over the ‘Over The Top’ team of Port Moody BC (Captain Francis Reyland, Gerri Nishio, Kim O’Brien, Carl Miller, Justin Bagnell, Kevin Bishop).
Finishing 3rd, were the ‘Fore Players’ also from Penticton BC (Captain Casey Kruger, Phillips Reynold, Dale Marchand, Allan Pillon, Stuart Trimble).
WOMENS TEAM
The top Womens Team was Gimme a Break of Penticton BC (Captain Karen Maier, Wendy Dion, Tina Windrem, Lois Hiltz, Char Wold) who claimed the 09 Westerns Team Trip by finishing 7-8th in the Mens/Mixed C Standard team finals.
The ‘Panthers’ of Kamloops BC (Captain Deborah Howell, Tawnia Cave, Vera Doell, Lianne Kidd, Kelly Robertson) also won a Team Entry to the 09 Westerns.
SCOTCH DOUBLES
Who says husbands and wives can’t play Scotch together? Although usually not recommended, the team of Larry and Andrea Wilson of Victoria BC in the A Advanced division, have proven once again it can be done by winning out over Nick Kruger of Penticton BC and Kara Leonard of Calgary AB in the finals. Cory Pointon of Parksville BC and Maryann McConnell of Port Alberni BC finished 3rd.
In the B Open, it was the infamous and well traveled Jim Pickett of Brampton ON who teamed up with local Wendy Dion of Penticton BC to claim the top spot over John Rae and Lois Hiltz both from Penticton BC. Third was claimed by Kim Hunt and Karen Maier also from Penticton BC.