Fowler Wins Illinois Viking Event

By Bill Rosenberger

The Windy City of Chicago, IL, hosted a 48-player field at G-Cue Restaurant and Billiards o­n December 4-5, 2004.  Bill Fowler, a local favorite, did his fans proud as he took the victory. 

Fowler is not known as a tournament player, but he made his Viking debut count.  But Neal Vichiensaen was also battling to win his second straight event, including three straight hill-hill wins to reach the hot seat against Fowler.  As expected, the match went to the hill at 6 apiece, but Fowler came out o­n top to advance to the finals.

In the o­ne-loss side, Scott Cohen ousted Mark Pratico to reach the semifinals against Vichiensaen, and, for the fifth straight match, Vichiensaen went to hill-hill.  For the fourth time o­n Sunday, he was able to come out with a 7-6 win and advance to the finals.

In the finals, Vichiensaen was tired, and his energy was just about gone from the five straight down-to-the-wire matches.  Fowler jumped ahead early and ran away with the match 7-1.

Results:

1st Bill Fowler $960

2nd Neal Vichiensaen $600

3rd Scott Cohen $370

4th Mark Pratico $200

5th James Oswalt, Ed Flatt $100

7th Danny Gokhel, Manuel Chow $60

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