Joe Giammarino
The Pool Players of The Brooke (PPB) would like to thank SaddleBrooke Ranch (SBR) Billiards Club, Jim Kauffman, Cliff Terry, and SBR’s billiards team for their pool table prowess, camaraderie, friendly competition, and a congenial luncheon at the RoadRunner Grill after the 8-Ball Challenge. Another big thank you goes out to Tony “The Snake” Cardillo, PPB Travel Team captain, for organizing this event. On Saturday, Aug. 20, SBR’s Travel Team ventured down to SaddleBrooke for an 8-Ball Team Challenge. We were competing on four beautiful 8-foot Connelly pool tables for temporary ownership of a traveling bronze plaque that has been in the PPB’s possession for a few years. 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 Gary “One Rail” Barlow, Dominic “The Doctor” Borland and Phelps “Frnchfry” L’Hommedieu, Tony “The Snake” Cardillo and Jack “Crash” Hoverter, and Lowell “8-Ball” Hegg and Joe “Ball Breaker” Vidmar. Our opponent’s teams from SBR were Gene Renner and Tim Connolly, Phil “The Fixer” Jelleff and Karl “English” Knight, Jim Mabbott and Bruce Keller, and Jim Kauffman, Cliff Terry, and Kurt Warning. 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 1 point for the winning team. There were a total of 48 points in the match.
The first-round score was 6 to 6. The second round went to SBR with a score of 8 to 4. After the second round, SBR led the PPB by a score of 14 to 10. In the third round, the PPB again only had enough to break even with a score of 6 to 6. Now the PPB was down 20 to 16 to SBR. The PPB went into the final round down by 4 points and would have to win 9 games out of 12 to hold onto the traveling bronze plaque. The match was so close that it came down to the last game, and if the PPB would win that game, the match would end in a tie. Not this time. The PPB lost the last game and was only able to win the round with a 7 to 5 score. This was not enough to overcome the talented SBR cueists, and the final score ended up being 25 to 23 in SBR’s favor. Congrats, SaddleBrooke Ranch!
We again got a chance to play for the bronze plaque that has been on the PPB’s wall for close to four years. We were soooo close! 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. Relish your win and continue enjoying the bronze plaque on your wall, compliments of the PPB! Please do not send the PPB an invitation to the mounting ceremony!
Visit the Pool Players of The Brooke at poolplayersofthebrooke.blogspot.com.