The Joss Tour Finale Begins

The Joss Tour Finale officially began with a field of 71 topnotch players from around the country.  Some new players arrived o­n Day o­ne, including Canadian power-shooters Danny Hewitt and Luc Salvas, 2004 BCA 9-Ball Open champ Karen Corr, Julie Kelly, Eddie "Spanish Pete" Vasquez, Frankie Hernandez, Jarrod Clowery, and Joey Korsiak.

During the players meeting, a moment of silence was held in memory of Larry Lisciotti.  Kerry Herbert, the owner of Spot Shot Billiards, and Larry used to be childhood friends and ran around together when they were 17 and 18 years old.  There's a lot of fond Lisciotti memories here in Portland.

The custom-made Paul Drexler cue stick owned by Larry Lisciotti is o­n display and for sale.  Barry Cameron of Cameron Cues, a loyal sponsor of the Joss Tour, as well as Michael Webb have brought in a fine selection of their cue lines to the fore.

The pool matches will begin at designated times, and two GC's have been segregated from the tournament for practice o­nly, allowing players to spruce up their game and stay in stroke.

Some of the chitchat o­n the rail has centered around choice of equipment, and “Kid Delicious” has been boasting about his brand-new Jim Mandigo break cue and says, "It breaks like burning hell."

Some feature matches o­n Thursday will include Mike Davis against Earl Strickland, Trump 10-Ball champion Danny Hewitt versus New York's power-shooter Frankie Hernandez, and Karen Corr versus Tony Ruberto.  Ryan McCreesh has won his first match and faces the Canadian machine gun Luc Salvas at 10:00 p.m. o­n Thursday.

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