THE KOREAN ASSASSIN RETURNS WITH A VENGEANCE

Nov 17, 2014

The amateur Canadian Women’s Tour had their 3rd stop of the season at the ever-active Petrina’s Billiards in Ajax, ON. Despite a lot of ladies being in Ohio for the Sleepless in Sandusky tournament, 8 women had braved the cold to come out and compete.
To start, we had newcomer to the tour Angela Carrigan have a strong performance against Guelph native Leslie Pappas. Despite stating that 8-ball is more of her forte, Carrigan had pulled off a victory against Pappas to continue onto the A-side.
Tournament veteran Marina Linguerri from Ottawa had made the trip with the goal to win her second tour victory. Her first opponent was tour producer Suzanne Peters. After some unlucky shots made by Peters and Linguerri capitalizing on some key errors made by Peters, she pulled a convincing 8-3 victory over Peters, knocking Peters to the B-side.
Anne Beattie and Jennifer ShawJennifer Shaw of Mississauga, a CPA 2, with a desire to learn and to become a more competitive player, had a tough draw with consistently steady player Sylvia Hadaway from Guelph. After making some great shots but missing out on some critical potting, including a couple of 9 balls, she had fallen to the more experienced playing of Hadaway with a score of 8-1.
Hanna “The Korean Assassin” Kwon, who has been struggling with the tour and not even placing in the last event, has come determined to walk away with the 1st place trophy. After placing in 2 events in Montreal in the AA division, she had more confidence coming into this tournament. Her first opponent, Anne Beattie from Guelph, had played stellar pool and at one point, was only behind Kwon by one game in a race where Kwon needs to win 9 games to Beattie’s 7. After missing a key 8-ball by Beattie, Kwon was able to pull off the next two racks to win, in a close final score of 9-5.
On the B-side, Shaw is now against tournament and league vet Beattie in a do or die match to stay in the tournament. Shaw was determined to gain her first victory in the tour and she did just that with solid potting and calm, steady nerves with a final score of 5-4.
The other B-side match between Peters and Pappas was to be a great one as well. Both player having been around the sport for years, it was definitely going to be a situation of the better player for that match will turn victorious and in this instance it was Peters. Despite having made only a few errors that would usually frazzle even the best players, Peters kept her composure to glide to the next stage of the tournament with a final score of 8-2.
Angela CarriganIn the winner’s brackets, there was Carrigan vs. Linguerri and Kwon vs. Hadaway. A phenomenal match-up between Carrigan and Linguerri was set. Both players were racing to 8 and the scores went back and forth for most of the match in this alternate break format. After a shocking miss by Carrigan on the 7, that put Linguerri on the hill. Linguerri then proceeded to complete the final rack that eventually pushed Carrigan to the B-side.
Kwon still had nightmares about playing Hadaway leading into this tournament after a convincing loss to Hadaway at the tour opener in Stoney Creek. Focused on the prize and some very unfortunate luck on Hadaways part had Kwon heading into the A-side finals with a score of 9-1.
Shaw vs. Carrigan and Hadaway vs. Peters made for some very interesting matches. The experience of Carrigan overwhelmed Shaw to beat her out of the tournament 8-1. Hadaway and Peters traded rack after rack, with Hadaway pulling it off in the end to win hill 8-7.
It is no surprise to see Linguerri and Kwon in the A-side finals vying to be in the hotseat. A rocky start had Linguerri down 5-1 at which time she started clawing her way back to tie it at 5-5. After some missed opportunities and some unlucky rolls, Kwon was able to secure her spot in the hotseat with a score of 9-5.
After squeaking by Peters, Hadaway had another tough match against Carrigan to head into the money rounds. Again, it was another match of trading racks and it was anybody’s game. Hadaway managed to again, squeak by another opponent with another hill-hill victory of 8-7. She then had to face the menacing Linguerri to work her way back to the finals but this time, there was no squeaking by. The superior play of LInguerri stopped Hadaway’s journey to the finals with a score of 8-5.
Linguerri meets Kwon again and was more focused in the final match then in the previous match-up. In this true double elimination format, Linguerri needs to beat Kwon twice in order to win the tournament. It was by far a much better match to watch, with break and runs, run outs, and great safety play. It was with the safety play that kept Kwon from being defeated by Linguerri and earned her the 1st place spot for the 3rd tour stop of the CWT.
Marina Linguerri and Hanna Kwon
A special thanks to Frank Kakouros, owner of Petrina’s for hosting the CWT’s 3rd stop and for volunteering to host another event in the New Year, Wayne Dwyer for streaming the event as well as for being referee alongside Tino Barbieri.
Hanna Kwon - $235 + Trophy
Marina Linguerri - $140 + Trophy
Sylivia Hadaway - $95