Richmond Prevails in Paradise

Tour regular Sheryl Richmond came out ahead o­n the Canadian Women’s Pool Tour’s fifth stop, which was held the weekend of Sept 18-19, 2004, at Pool Paradise in Waterloo, o­ntario.  The event was sponsored by Jeff Bell Custom Cues and Pool Paradise, with a $500 added to the purse.

Pool Paradise is owned by Kenny and Lori Chen.  The room has sixteen Black Crown 9-foot tables and two Black Crown 12-foot snooker tables.  The establishment also has a pro billiards shop that carries most top brands. Cue repair is available o­n site, and there is also a ball-cleaning facility.

Richmond cruised through the “A” side, including wins over Jane Adams 5-2 and Dorothy Brown 5-5.  The hot seat match saw Richmond match up with Naomi Williams, with Richmond coming out o­n top in the hill-hill nailbiter.

In the quarterfinal match, Dorothy Brown played her best game, defeating Star Williams.  Then she met Sharlene Watkinson, who had just defeated Susan Wipper to advance to the “B” side semifinals.   The match went hill-hill—in the final rack, Brown wasn’t able to see the 2 ball and was forced to play safe.  Watkinson was o­n fire and sank the 2 ball with confidence and ran the rest of the table, relegating Brown to fourth place.

After her loss in the winners’ bracket finals, Naomi Williams took o­n Watkinson in the semifinal match, tearing through with a vengeance.  She crunched four racks and amazing safety shots with a winning score of 8-1, which gave her the opportunity to face Richmond in the finals, giving Watkinson a third-place finish.

The final match saw the Williams/Richmond rematch, with Williams needing to win two sets to take the victory.  Williams was o­n fire during the first set and wrapped things up with a final score of 8-1.  The second set began with each player knowing that a loss would make the difference between first and second places.  Williams jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead and then snapped a 9 o­n the break.  She then took the next three racks to put her ahead 6-0 in the match.  Needing five racks to Naomi’s two, Sheryl concentrated o­n her game, and with steady nerves and taking advantage of opportunities, she took five consecutive racks to win with a final score of 5-6.

Results:

1st Sheryl Richmond
2nd Naomi Williams
3rd Sharlene Watkison
4th Dorothy Brown
5th Star Williams, Susan Wipper

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