Atwell Claims U.S. Bar Table Championship Title

By Mark Whiteside

     After four days of hard-fought action o­n 24 seven-foot bar boxes, an 8-ball champion has been crowned to reign with the 9-ball champion, Scott Tollefson, as division winners of the U.S. Bar Table Championship held annually at the Sands Regency Casino Hotel in Reno, Nevada. Glenn Atwell, who won this tournament nine years ago, has done it again. After suffering a hill-hill loss to Felix Lukenbill, he stormed his way through the balance of the o­ne-loss bracket, playing perfect run-out pool game after game.

     The final four bracket of the division turned out to be two Americans - Atwell of Vancouver, WA, and Jesse Bowman, last year’s BCA Master 8-Ball Champion - and two young VNEA Master division teammates from Calgary, Alberta (their team also includes Edwin Montal) - 21-year-old Nick Kruger and 22-year-old Tyler Edey - who faced off in the king seat match. This left Atwell and Bowman competing to see which American would face the Canadians.

     Tyler Edey defeated teammate Kruger 5-2 and sat back to see who he would face in the final match. Meanwhile, Atwell was dismantling Bowman, who had appeared to be o­n a hot streak, defeating his previous four opponents, including Stan Tourangeau and Sandor Tot, by a combined score of 20-4. Atwell cooled Bowman off with a 5-2 victory that left Bowman with a fourth-place finish.

     Kruger and Atwell then battled for the right to face Edey for the $5,000 first prize. Atwell was playing great pool by then and defeated the young Canadian player by a 5-1 score, depositing Kruger in third place.

     In the finals, Edey and Atwell traded break-and-runs in the alternating-break format, making the score 1-1 in the race to 5. Edey broke next and made a ball but scratched o­n his first shot, and with the resulting ball-in-hand, Atwell ran out again. In four of the next five games, the player breaking came up dry, which can be disastrous against this level of competition. In three out of the four games, the non-breaking player ran out after the dry break, and two of these belonged to Atwell. Edey hung tough and tied the score at 4 apiece. In the case game, Edey made a ball o­n the break and began running the table. After making four balls, he left himself a very tough shot o­n the 14 ball. What followed were three very difficult shots, but the Canadian was able to make each shot but couldn’t get back in line. Finally he was faced with a kick shot o­n the 8 that he missed, turning the table over to Atwell with no balls tied up. Atwell stayed in line perfectly to win the set 5-4 and force a second and deciding set.

     The second set was a clinic in perfect position play. Atwell played two safes and missed o­ne shot enroute to a 5-0 whitewash of Edey. Atwell’s $5,000 check for winning almost hadn’t happened, as he had not planned o­n making the trip to Reno. The winner commented, "If it hadn’t been for a couple of friends, I wouldn’t have been here. They practically had to Shanghai me to get me to come.” What are friends for, anyway?