McCreesh Crushes Predator Competition
Predator 9-Ball Tour / Comet Billiards, Parsippany, NJ
by Lea Andrews
Memorial Day Weekend, the highly-anticipated weekend of the Indianapolis 500, the Coca-Cola 600, and the $1,000-added open Predator 9-Ball Tour stop at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ. In the field of 58 were many top names, including Mike “The Mouth” Sigel, Ryan “The Genie Man” McCreesh, Shawn Wilkie, George “Ginky” San Souci, and tour director Tony “The Silent Assassin” Robles, but only one man could come out on top, and that man was “The Genie Man.”
On Saturday night, the final four of the winners’ side emerged: San Souci, Robles, McCreesh, and Greg McAndrews. On Sunday afternoon, it was McCreesh versus McAndrews, while Robles, having sent Sigel west the night before with a score of 9-7, played San Souci, who had posted a 9-5 win over Bob Blackmore. In a tight hill-hill match, Robles secured the victory, earning a spot in the hot seat match against McCreesh, who’d cruised to a 9-0 win over McAndrews.
McCreesh continued his winning ways against Robles, playing well but also capitalizing on some uncharacteristic Robles errors. With the score at 8-2, McCreesh hung up the eight but left Robles partially hidden behind the 9. With a nice massé shot, Robles pocketed the 8, but the set went to McCreesh when Robles scratched on the 9.
On the one-loss side, McAndrews fell to Sigel 9-3, while San Souci bested Manny Chau 9-6. San Souci then came out very strong against Sigel, getting the score up to 6-1 and then 8-2, and although Sigel starting coming back, San Souci managed to hold him back, taking a 9-6 victory and earning his spot in the one-loss semifinal rematch with Robles.
San Souci got out to a very strong 7-1 lead, but Robles, who had seemed to be low on energy, seemed to perk up as he began notching up game after game, finally tying up the score on the hill. In the alternate-break format, San Souci broke the final rack but missed the 1, giving Robles a chance at the table but no shot. Robles attempted a safe but left San Souci out.
The finals, a single race to 11, saw McCreesh jump to a 5-0 lead, but his slow-roll miss on a 2 ball gave Ginky an opportunity to put some wins together, getting the score to 5-4. By changing his game up a bit, trying a different break and shooting with more confidence, McCreesh got the score to 10-5. In the final rack, San Souci played a safety on the 1 but didn’t manage to hide the cue ball, and McCreesh seized the opportunity to finish out the match 11-5, earning his first win on the Predator Tour.
Memorial Day Weekend, the highly-anticipated weekend of the Indianapolis 500, the Coca-Cola 600, and the $1,000-added open Predator 9-Ball Tour stop at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ.
Results:
1st Ryan McCreesh $1,000
2nd George San Souci $650
3rd Tony Robles $475
4th Mike Sigel $350
5th Greg McAndrews $250
Manny Chau
7th Joey Kong $175
Jeremy Sossei
9th Earl Herring $150
Jerry Tarantola
Bob Blackmore
Sean Morgan
13th Eric Toledo $100
Wayne Nicholson
Shawn Wilkie
Jonathan Smith