The Riviera Hotel and Casino in fabulous Las Vegas, Nev., was filled with 227 bright blue, brand new Diamond tables and some 7,000 amateurs ranging in skill from recreational to Grand Master, and coming from as far as Tonga to compete in the 30th annual BCA Pool League National 8-Ball Championships, May 12-20.
Teams “Slightly Competitive” and “Strategeary” did Denver, Colo. proud, taking home their division titles. “Slightly Competitive” topped the 17-team field in the Women’s Master division, toppling the California CueTees in the final for the second year in a row. Slightly Competitive consisted of Bonnie Plowman, Julie Schultz, Samm Diep, Katrina Games and Chris Honeman. Team “Strategeary” outlasted all of the 695 five-man teams in the Men’s Open division, made up of Billiard Digest’s own Tom Ross, Scott Tollefson, Bob Winters, Bob Keller, and Chizolm Woodson.
In the most formidable field of the tournament, the Men’s Master Team division saw the Young Guns of St. Louis, Miss. take top honors, after besting the British dream team, Team Manston, made up of Men’s Master Singles winner, Michael Hill, and Men’s Grand Master Singles champion, Darren Appleton. All six members are highly decorated in their homeland game of British “reds and yellows.” The Young Guns have ample trophy cases as well, with four-time Missouri State champion Andy Quinn, Ozark Mountain champion Joe Woolford, two-time NCAA chamption Lars Varderman, Chuck Ralston, and the young gun of Young Guns, 18-year-old Justin Bergman, a former Junior National champion.
The Women’s Open champions, the Las Vegas CueTees, didn’t have to travel far to set forth on their undefeated streak through the 119-team field. Members Norma Deitz, Summer Anderson, Karen Arthur, Pam Fletcher and Sarah Chatterjee credit their team mascots, “Spot” the turtle and “Aces” the river rat, for their win.
In the singles tournaments, Lauren Ward of Los Angeles won the Women’s Open, beating Caroline Pao, who went on to win the Open Scotch Doubles tournament with partner William Rueben. In the Women’s Master Division, Rebecca Wagner, who has recently moved from Chicago to Las Vegas, beat her teammate and Chicago native Amy Latzko, who took first in the Master Scotch Doubles with partner Ike Runnels. In the Women’s Grand Master division, Tammy Jones of Dallas, Tex. defeated a familiar opponent in the final, Pamela Patton of Milwaukee, Wisc.
While friends and Englishmen Hill and Appleton swept the Grand Master and Master divisions for the men, Derek Cumm, a mailman in Buelah, Ariz., delivered in the Men’s Open final against Bergman, winning, 5-1.
In this, the 30th year of the BCA Pool Leage National Championships, over 7,100 players entered, and took home $92,250 more in prize money than the previous year.
