Joseph F. Giammarino
First we would like to thank Mission Royale and Conrad Leines representing Mission Royale Billiards Club for their hospitality, competition, hot coffee and tasty sweets. Another big thank you goes out to Dominic Borland, vice president of the Pool Players of the Brooke, for organizing this event and making sure it was a success, and he did just that. On Saturday, December 9, 2017, the Pool Players of the Brooke traveled up I-10 to Mission Royale in Casa Grande for an 8-Ball Challenge. Some of the players from both teams stopped by the Eagle’s Nest in Mission Royale for a quick and tasty lunch and some good conversation before the competition. Mission Royale has six beautiful eight-foot Brunswick pool tables in a comfortable billiard room. Last October we defeated Mission Royale for temporary ownership of the Traveling Plaque the Pool Players of the Brooke Travel Team purchased and now we were trying to defend our plaque. The format was simple and interesting: We drew cards to form four partner teams from SaddleBrooke and Mission Royale also had four teams. Our teams consisted of Tom “Blind Squirrel” Barrett and Jim “Shooter” Fabio, Jim “Rocket Man” Donat and Richard “Loose Rack” Galant, Joe “Fast Eddie” Giammarino and Randy “Thin Man” Smith and Dominic “The Doctor” Borland and Ron “Dblo7” Ridge. Each of our teams would play each of their teams three games of 8-Ball with each game won being one point for the winning team. There were a total of 48 points in the match. Each Pool Players of the Brooke Team results were Dominic “The Doctor Borland and Ron “Dblo7” won eight and lost four games with Dominic’s opening Break and Run the highlight of their day. Dominic and Ron played some pretty sporty 8-Ball on this day. Jim “Rocket Man” Donat and Richard “Loose Rack” Galant won eight and lost four games also. Jim and Richard produced great results for our team on this day. Tom “Blind Squirrel” Barrett and Jim “Shooter” Fabio won six and lost six games. Tom and Jim did not hurt their team with their performance. The last two unnamed players from the Pool Players of the Brooke won four and lost eight games. The final results were the Pool Players of the Brooke 26 and Mission Royale 22. Nice job, team PPB! The plaque is coming home! This is a continuation of a friendly rivalry with Mission Royale and their members. SaddleBrooke and the Pool Players of the Brooke are proud of their team and they thank Mission Royale and Conrad Leines for hosting this event. We will be mounting the traveling plaque in our billiard center soon. Rack ’em up!