Left to right: Fred Dianda, Jim Langseth, Dominic Borland, Tony Cardillo, Joe Vidmar, Dick Dunbar, Jack Hoverter; not pictured: Mike Collins, Phelps L’Hommedieu
Joe Giammarino
The Pool Players of The Brooke (PPB) would like to thank Rincon County West Billiards Club (RCW), Bob McKenna, and RCW’s billiards team for their 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. 13 the RCW’s Travel Team ventured up to SaddleBrooke’s Catalina Recreation Center’s Pool Room for an 8-Ball Team Challenge. We were competing on four 9-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 Fred “The Baker” Dianda and Jack “Crash” Hoverter, Phelps “Montana” L’Hommedieu and Mike Collins, Dominic “The Doctor” Borland and Joe “Ball Breaker” Vidmar, and Tony “The Snake” Cardillo partnered with both Dick “Pocket Blocker” Dunbar and Jim Langseth for six games each.
The format was simple. Each of our teams would play each of their teams three games of 8-ball, with each game being worth one point for the winning team. There were a total of 48 points in the match. The PPB has had ownership of the traveling bronze plaque since Dec. 9, 2023, so the PPB only needed to tie RCW with 24 points to retain ownership of the traveling bronze plaque.
The first-round score was 8 to 4 in PPB’s favor. The second round also went to the PPB with a score of 8 to 4. The score after the first two rounds was the PPB ahead of RCW by a score of 16 to 8. In the third round, the PPB won the round with a score of 9 to 3. Now, after the third round, the PPB was ahead by 25 to 11 over RCW. In the final round, the PPB again won the round, this time by an 8 to 4 score to put the final score at PPB 33 and RCW 15.
We again had a chance to play for a traveling bronze plaque. With this win, it puts the seventh bronze traveling plaque back on PPB’s wall in the Catalina Recreation Center.
After the match, the teams met at the RoadRunner Grill for lunch and some fun banter! SaddleBrooke is proud of their team, and they thank RCW for being such gracious opponents.