Elite Billiards Field Converge on Montreal

Elite Billiards Field Converge on Montreal
Canadian 9 Ball Tour Staff
Le Skratch Bar Billiards, located in Montreal’s south end, rolled out the red carpet and welcomed some of the country’s best 9-ball players into town. A nearly full field was looking to capitalize on tour event number six and the $10,000 added purse that accompanies each stop of the Canadian 9-Ball Tour, presented by Indigo and Chapters bookstores and Cineplex Entertainment.
The first major upset with respect to top seeded players occurred in Montreal without a ball being struck. Number-one seed John Morra failed to show up for his match and was disqualified. This completely opened up the top half of the draw, allowing for players like Stan Tourangeau of BC and Adam Smith from Detroit to take advantage. Danny Hewitt, the winner of the last tour stop in Quebec and former host pro at Le Skratch, was definitely going to be a hot favorite with the local fans and would be tough to beat. Jason Klatt and Ryan Solleveld from Winnipeg, coming off first- and second-place finishes, respectively, in Kelowna, were hoping to bring the same form to Montreal. Calgarians, Tyler Edey, and Edwin Montal would join transplanted Torontonian Erik Hjorleifson, in making the event a very formidable field indeed.
Former Canadian champion Harold Rousseau, a player who had a very poor record in Canadian Tour events to date, finally came through with a big win 9-4 over Adam Smith. Another former national champion, Chris Orme, did not share the same fate as Rousseau, losing to local talent Laurent Lledo by a one-sided score of 9-2. Last month’s tour event winner, Jason Klatt, was sent to the one-loss side by virtue of a nail-biting 9-8 loss at the hands of seasoned former touring professional Claude Bernatchez. Other big names all progressing through to the second round unscathed included Tyler Edey, Stan Tourangeau, Alain Martel, Jeff White, Francis Crevier, Luc Salvas, Jason Klatt, Danny Hewitt, Ryan Solleveld, Mario Morra, Nick Kruger, and Andrew Attard along with top guns Edwin Montal, Louis Fazekas, and Erik Hjorleifson, who enjoyed first-round byes.
The next few hours’ play provided a few surprises along with many expected results in feature battles. Luc Salvas tasted defeat at the hands of Ryan Solleveld, Jeff White fell to Alain Martel, and Danny Hewitt survived a scare with a 9-8 win over Andrew Attard. Some key match-ups in third-round action on the winners’ side saw Stan Tourangeau beat Harold Rousseau 9-6, Tyler Edey hammer Shannon Ducharme 9-1, Erik Hjorleifson defeat Mario Morra 9-5, Ryan Solleveld outlast Nick Kruger, and Francis Crevier survive a hill-hill match against Danny Hewitt.
Hewitt came back after his loss to Crevier with his best performance of the tournament in taking out Jason Klatt by a convincing 9-3 score. Stan Tourangeau, flying under the radar somewhat, was playing some solid pool and stayed on the unbeaten side with a 9-0 drubbing of Montreal’s Raphael Houde. The key match in round four would have to be Alain Martel versus Tyler Edey. This match lived up to its advance billing and went all the way to the wire with Martel scraping in a 9-8 victory over Edey.
Erik Hjorleifson was showing great form all day and carried this through to round four as he dismissed his buddy Ryan Solleveld to the one-loss bracket by a final score of 9-5. Number-two-seeded Edwin Montal knew he was in for a war with left-handed Francis Crevier. Crevier planted Montal in his chair early, but it was Montal providing the late finish from 2-7 down and putting Crevier to the west side with a 9-7 win.
A-side winners coming back for Sunday action include Stan Tourangeau, Edwin Montal, Alain Martel, and Erik Hjorleifson. Players fighting back from the left side with only one life are Raphael Houde, Danny Hewitt, Norman Pomainville, Adam Smith, Alain Robidoux, Francis Crevier, Ryan Solleveld, and Tyler Edey.
As the tour moves closer to their final event, they would again like to offer their sincere appreciation to Indigo and Chapters Bookstores and Cineplex Entertainment, Canada Billiard and Bowling, Dufferin Billiards, Stan James The Sports Bookmakers, Simonis Cloth, and Aramith billiard balls.