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Sweeping Clean the Field, Abbink Scores First Place  After making waves with her skill around Michigan, Rachael Abbink headed for more northern territory and landed in first place at the fourth stop of the Canadian Women's Pool Tour event, held at the Silver Cue in East York.
The $500-added event was held on August 14, 2004, and was sponsored by Carolina Fernandez of Cfpromotions and Jeff Bell Custom cues. With a $1,300 total purse, 20 ladies came out to play, including new tour director Denise Belanger and CWPT regular Naomi Williams, who won a WPBA qualifier on stop two of the tour earlier this year.
Despite Williams strong showing earlier this season, she was forced to accept fourth place when she missed a few key shots, and Sophie Houle ran the table for the win. Houle waited for the outcome of the hot seat match between Abbink and Cathy Lafreniere to see who she would face off against in the match to determine third.
Abbink was hot off a 9-2 win over Sheryl Richmond when she met Lafreniere in the hot seat match. With Abbink still on fire, she continued her winning ways with confidence and used aggressive strokes to knock Lafreniere to the one-loss side with a 9-2 win.
The semifinal match was a struggle for Houle, who fought to keep herself in the game against Lafreniere. With only this match standing between her and a chance to avenge her hot seat loss to Abbink, Lafreniere was determined to take the win. Some errors by Houle allowed her opponent to streak out to the lead and to take a commanding 5-1 win on her way to the rematch.
Abbink and Lafreniere met again in the final match, with Lafreniere having to step up her game to have a hope of winning. She was able to take advantage of a scratch by Abbink to run a string of balls, only to miss the 9. Abbink took advantage to knot the score before she went up for the next break. Barely able to see the 1 after the break, Abbink pulled a safety shot, but didn't land it safe enough, and Lafreniere was able to sink the 1 ball. However, the shot she left for herself was a tough one, and Lafreniere rattled the ball in the pocket. Taking advantage the situation, Abbink ran the table with superb shape and stroke to win the tournament 11-6.
Results: 1st Rachael Abbink $530 2nd Cathy Lafreniere $325 3rd Sophie Houle $195 4th Naomi Williams $120 5th Darlene Gardiner, Sheryl Richmond $65 Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.
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