The new, improved Hunter Classic Amateur Tour had it's best turnout ever April 1st and 2nd at Legend's Billiards in League City, Texas. After this weekend, it was evident that our tour is still one of most competitive, rewarding, and popular tours for women pool players today.
 

The pro tour qualifier got underway on Saturday morning with a field of 60 players from six states. Legend's Billiards, a well known pool hot-spot, accommodated the large crew wonderfully. With four separate playing areas, including bleachers for spectators, players had ample room to practice and compete on beautifully maintained Brunswick Medalist tables with Simonis cloth. Our gratitude goes out to Mindy Cohen and Ted Dean for hosting us! Their staff took exceptionally good care of the players and made it easy for us to focus on the competition. In particular, we'd like to thank Mindy and Mike Roles for doing such a great job running the brackets all weekend. In addition, a special thanks goes out to Rich Walkuski and Ron Gibson for working for us all weekends as our referees. And last but not least a big thank you to Lucille and Shayla for running the tournament!

As always, the players wish to express our deep gratitude to Wes Hunter and his wife Cindy who donated a beautiful $1,600.00 Hunter Cue for raffle. Without Wes' continued support this popular tour wouldn't be possible. In addition to the Hunter cue, won by Shazhad Sarwar, three other custom cues were donated for raffle to support this event. Our sincere appreciation to Jerry Olivier, Annie O, and Omar Alonzo for donating beautiful $800.00 - $1,200.00 custom cues that definitely enticed the ticket buyers! These cues, and several other donated raffle items, were the only things that could pull the spectators attention off the competitive play.

And what a tremendous field of players! There were many break and run outs over the weekend. In addition, the safety and kicking games of these well rounded players made strategic play as fun for spectators to watch as the run outs! We want to add a special note of thanks to the San Antonio crew who brought in so many new players to this Hunter Classic Tour event. As always, we were thrilled to have new players join us in our efforts to promote women's billiards. With some of the play we saw, we know for certain that the talent pool is just going to continue to grow!

The field was trimmed down to the top 16 the first day, and these players fought their way through a very tough field to have the opportunity to win on Sunday. Nobody was going to give up. The hot seat match was a familiar sight at Legend's Billiards with Houston favorites Kim White and Rose McCrory matching up for the winner's bracket -- but Kim held her ground. On the one loss side, Lisa Marr and Melanie Koger played an exciting hill-hill match with Melanie jumping out to an early lead. Lisa was not ready to quit, however, and she came back with exceptionally strong play to win the opportunity to meet Rose for the loser's bracket. Unfortunately for Lisa, Rose wasn't ready to quit either, and she emerged the winner for another opportunity to compete with Kim in the final. Finally, the two long days of play came down to one race to eleven. As always, both players showed exceptional skill and grace under pressure. In the end it was Kim White undefeated, winning $750.00 and a $500.00 qualifier spot in a WPBA event of her choice. Congrats to Kim who fought hard for the title. Congratulations also to Rose who played a terrific tournament and went home with $600.00 for second place.
 

The Hunter Classic trademark Second Chance Tournament also took place on Sunday. The Hunter Tour donated an additional $100 to the second chance event, making it even more exciting for the 32 players who participated. Congratulations to Leslie Rogers, a registered massage therapist, who won first place and $172 -- in spite of the fact that she was set up to give massages to other battle weary players in between matches! Congratulations to June Walter and Dana Hanks for 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. And a special kudos to new Hunter Classic competitor Connie Turner who's fourth place finish was her first time to cash in a tournament! Way to go Connie!

The next Hunter Classics event will be held at Billiards-Burgers-Beer, June 24 and 25th, in Denver, Colorado. It is a WPBA qualifying event! For more information please visit our web site at www.hunterclassics.com. 
 
 
 

PLACE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th/6th 5th/6th 7th/8th 7th/8th 9th-12th 9th-12th 9th-12th 9th-12th 13th-16th 13th-16th 13th-16th 13th-16th 17th-24th 17th-24th 17th-24th 17th-24th 17th-24th 17th-24th 17th-24th 17th-24th 25th-32nd 25th-32nd 25th-32nd 25th-32nd 25th-32nd 25th-32nd 25th-32nd 25th-32nd

PLAYER Kim White Rose McCrory Lisa Marr Melanie Koger Angel Paglia Heather Pulford Annie Gray Deanna Kniola Rachel Ross Genna Schaefer Audra Carter Becky Nelleson Kawania Watson Michelle Cortez Nicole Bacon LaDonna Ulrich Cynthia Ferrer Teresa Hetrick Lucille Donahue Jennifer Kraber June Walter The Wiz Karen Tippey Karen Eleferton Gaile Lave Leslie Rogers Nancy French Edwidge Cavanna Amy Ou Mindy Williams Sharon Townsend Andrea Boese

WINNINGS $750 + Qualifier $600 $450 $300 $150 $150 $100 $100 $60 $60 $60 $60 $45 $45 $45 $45 $35 $35 $35 $35 $35 $35 $35 $35 $25 $25 $25 $25 $25 $25 $25 $25