Joe Giammarino
The Pool Players of the Brooke (PPB) would like to thank SaddleBrooke Ranch Billiards Club (SBR), Jim Kauffman, and SBR’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 April 27, SBR’s Travel Team ventured down to SaddleBrooke 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 that has been in the PPB’s possession since April 22, 2023. The PPB team was made up of four two-player teams and SBR also had four two-player teams. The PPB teams consisted of Joe “Fast Eddie” Giammarino and Jack “Crash” Hoverter, Phelps “Montana” L’Hommedieu and Fred “The Baker” Dianda, Tony “The Snake” Cardillo and Dave Parker, and Dominic “The Doctor” Borland and Gary “One Rail” Barlow. Our opponent’s teams from SBR were Karl “English” Knight and Jim Mabbot, Bill DuBois and Phil “The Fixer” Jelleff, Bruce Keller and Gene Renner, and Tim Connolly and Peter Bratz. SBR also brought along alternate players Jim Kauffman, Keith Vincent, and Robert Blackburn.
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 9 to 3 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 SBR by a score of 17 to 7. In the third round, the SBR won the round with a score of 7 to 5. Now after the third round the PPB was ahead by 22 to 14 over SBR. The PPB went into the final round up by eight points and would have to win two games out of the 12 available in round 4 to keep possession of the Traveling Bronze Plaque. The PPB turned it up and won the round by a score of 7 to 5 to win the match by a final score of 29 to 19.
The Traveling Bronze Plaque will go right back up on the wall in the Catalina Recreation Center billiard room. We enjoy seeing and visiting with our neighbors from five miles up Oracle Road at SaddleBrooke Ranch. This event was a continuation of a friendly but fierce rivalry. SaddleBrooke is proud of their team and they thank SBR for being such gracious guests. We relish our win and will once again enjoy the Traveling Bronze Plaque on our wall. The PPB Travel Team celebrated our win by gathering at the RoadRunner Grill for lunch after the 8-Ball Challenge.