Tiger Billiar Finale Won by Chau and Lac
Tiger Pool Tour / Arlington, VA
by Andy Lincoln
The Tiger Pool Tour’s 2007 season wrapped up at Champions Billiards Café in Arlington, VA, December 8-9. This was a $4,000-added event that attracted a strong field of 53 open division entries and 16 women’s division players all hoping to make their final mark on the season.
Matt Clatterbuck had an uneventful Saturday with wins three easy wins to make the final four on the winners’ side. Points leader Shaun Wilkie also had no problems winning his first two matches 9-1 before facing the women’s division points leader, My-Hanh Lac. Wilkie played a controlled match and won 9-3. Tour founder Danny Green played well in all four of his matches to reach Sunday undefeated. Joining Clatterbuck, Wilkie, and Green in the final four was Manuel Chau, who has been a strong contender in the few events that he has played in this year.
Play continued Sunday with Clatterbuck and Chau advancing easily over Wilkie and Green, respectively, by 9-4 scores. The hot seat match was hard fought, with Clatterbuck winning on the hill 9-8. The elimination bracket played out with Larry Kressel coming back from 6-2 to win 7-6 against Brandon Shuff ending Shuff’s bid for the points lead. Kressel fell victim to a determined Danny Mulhollen III. Mulhollen had lost his first match but rebounded with six wins to pit him against Wilkie. Wilkie won this one 7-5 and then slipped past Green 7-6. Chau was not happy with his heartbreaking loss for the hot seat and defeated Wilkie 7-5 to earn a rematch with Clatterbuck.
The single race to 11 final between Chau and Clatterbuck was flawless. Clatterbuck took an 8-4 lead but watched as Chau evened the score at 8. Chau made the most of his next turn at the table, running out the set to win 11-8. Neither player missed an open shot in this match.
An even field of 16 players came out Sunday to shoot at the $1,000 share of the added money. Points’ leader Lac had a challenging day, winning over Bethany Kurtz 7-2, Ming Ng 7-4, and Asia Cycak 7-6 to reach the hot seat match. Her opponent was none other than second place on the points list, Cheryl Squire. Lac seemed to establish who was number one when she raced out to a 6-1 lead, but Squire fought back game after game until the score reached 6-all. Lac calmly sank the 5-9 combination to advance to the hot seat.
In the elimination bracket, Malea Haacke came out on top of Ng 5-4 and then put Cycak into fourth place. Squire seemed unfazed by her hot seat comeback that came up short, breezing through Haacke 5-0 to reach the finals. The single set race to 9 went back and forth until, after a timeout at 5-5, Lac took charge and won 9-6.
Open Results:
1st Manuel Chau
2nd Matt Clatterbuck
3rd Shaun Wilkie
4th Danny Green
5th Danny Mulhollen III
Brian Deska
7th Larry Kressel
Mark Touch
9th Brandon Shuff
Jerry Gruber
My-Hanh Lac
Chris Adams
Women’s Results:
1st My-Hanh Lac
2nd Cheryl Squire
3rd Malea Haacke
4th Asia Cycak
5th Bethany Kurtz
Ming Ng
7th Chanta Kry
Sharon O’Hanlon
Leave a Reply