PPB President Dick Dunbar (left) accepting the traveling bronze plaque from Rincon Country West’s Bob McKenna
Joe Giammarino
The Pool Players of The Brooke (PPB) would like to thank Rincon Country West Billiards Club (RCW), Bob McKenna, and RCW’s billiards team for their pool table prowess, camaraderie, and friendly competition. Another big thank you goes out to Tony “The Snake” Cardillo, PPB Travel Team captain for organizing this event. On Dec. 9 the RCW Travel Team ventured over to SaddleBrooke for an 8-Ball Team Challenge. We were competing on four nine-foot Diamond Pro-Am pool tables for temporary ownership of a traveling bronze plaque. The PPB team was made up of four two-player teams, and RCW also had four two-player teams. The PPB teams consisted of Joe “Fast Eddie” Giammarino and Joe “Ball Breaker” Vidmar, Phelps “Montana” L’Hommedieu and Gary “One Rail” Barlow, Dick Dunbar and Fred “The Baker” Dianda, and Ron “Dblo7” Ridge and Randy “Thin Man” Smith. Our opponent’s teams from RCW were Dave Jacobson and Jim Martinetto, Auguie Henry and Bill Schwenk, Bob Mckenna and Jim Wenszell, and, last but not least, two lovely young ladies, Laura Bellis and Cheryl Henry.
The format was simple and interesting. 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.
The first-round score was 10 to 2 in PPB’s favor. The second round went to the PPB with a score of 8 to 4. So, the score after two rounds was the PPB ahead of RCW by a score of 18 to 6. In the third round, the PPB won the round with a score of 7 to 5. Now, after the third round, the PPB was ahead by 25 to 11 over RCW. The PPB went into the final round with 25 points, which is all you need to secure ownership of the traveling bronze plaque. In the final round, the PPB again won the round by a 7 to 5 score to put the final score at PPB 32 and RCW 16. Special mention goes out to the PPB team of Randy “Thin Man” Smith and Ron “Dblo7” Ridge who won 10 games and only lost 2. Nice job, Randy and Ron!
We again had a chance to play for the traveling bronze plaque. This win puts the eighth bronze traveling plaque on the PPB’s wall in the Catalina Recreation Center. We enjoy seeing and visiting with our neighbors from other Arizona communities’ billiards clubs. SaddleBrooke is proud of their team, and they thank RCW for being such gracious guests. We relish our win and will once again enjoy another traveling bronze plaque on our wall.