Diana Horton-Smith, Judy Spiller, Judy Jensen, Claudia Deardorff, Rochelle Zuckerbrow, Betty Weaver, Vickie Jones, and Kathy Smith
Blair Dreyfus
On Aug. 13, the CantaMia (CM) women’s club ventured down/up—I guess it’s a matter of perspective—to PebbleCreek (PC) to play a match against our women’s club. CantaMia sent three representatives—Claudia Deardorff, Vickie Jones and Judy Spiller, and PebbleCreek countered with five players—Kathy Smith, Rochelle Zuckerbrow, Judy Jensen, Diana Horton-Smith, and Betty Weaver.
The match was to consist of two rounds of play with the first team to reach 8 wins to be declared the victor. Time constraints only allowed for the second match to be a race to six. Both rounds were very competitive. The order of play was determined by the tournament director, me, and play began. Round one saw PC take the initial game but CM retaliated with 2 of their own. PC tied it up at 4 apiece and then CM ran off 2 straight victories. Not to be out done, PC women came back with THREE IN A ROW to take a slight lead. CM tied things up at 5 games each—very thrilling to watch as neither team wanted to give the other any room to breathe. PC once again ran off two games but, not to be outdone, CM won the next 2 to force a one-game winner-take-all game.
As per the previously approved match rules, each team got to select their representative for this crucial game. Canta Mia chose Vickie and PC chose Kathy. The play was spirited and went down to the only ball on the table—the 8-ball. Vickie had first crack at it but left a bank shot short of its intended mark. Kathy had a difficult cut shot at it and it too came up short of the mark leaving Vickie with an even tougher angle. She, however, was up to the challenge as she made an extremely difficult shot to secure the victory for CM 8-7!
The following match had a long way to go to be as thrilling as the first one but it certainly tried. CM won the first game but PC’s Rochelle played the first match’s winner, Vickie, in her first game of the second match. Vickie broke and made two balls. Rochelle then countered with a TABLE RUN to secure her victory and let CM know that this second match would be as difficult as the first. The match went back and forth for the first 10 games with the two teams once again tied at 5 apiece. At this time the pool gods intervened and, as fate would have it, the next game up in the order of play was Vickie and Kathy once again. This time PC’s Kathy prevailed in a much less thrilling manner but a victory nonetheless. Thus giving PC the 6-5 win and a TIE in number of games and matches played. The event ran over its allotted time and I’d like to thank the gentlemen who had the tables reserved after our match as they graciously allowed the ladies to finish up. Unfortunately that didn’t allow us time for a tie breaker. Between you and me and the fence post—I think a tie was the best outcome as all the women played well enough to win and this way they ALL had bragging rights for this month.