By Kyle Richard
June 25, 2023
Tournament Chart:
Thirty excited players showed up to try to earn their shot at the inaugural 2023 CSNS Straight Pool Championships. Some people tried to leave once they figured out how difficult keeping track of the score was but I locked the doors and everyone settled in. For those who have never played Straight Pool there is much more safety and strategic play than one would assume. Intentional fouls even have to be used at times. Runs can end on a safety, scratch, miss or poor position. Shooting a ball is hard enough but the shot making difficulty is increased more when you must make a ball and go into the pack and not freeze yourself, scratch or end up with a good shot to continue your run.
The races were 125 on the A side and 100 on the B side. From the times we recorded the races to 125 averaged 2 hours and the races to 100 averaged 1 hr and 40 minutes. There were a few grueling and intense battles but overall everything went smoothly. The final 2 players were Colin Maloney and Wayne Thibodeau. Wayne scored wins over Dennis Larkin, Guy Tremblay, Nok Mantolino and Chad Davis before losing to Colin Maloney in the A side final. He went right back to work and dispatched Nok Mantolino to a third place finish to reach the finals. Colin Maloney's path to the finals consisted of wins over Brendan MacEachern, Jon Kynock, Chris Penney, Brian White and Wayne Thibodeau in the A side finals.
The finals were scheduled to be a true double knock out but Colin was excited to be able to win the first nail biting set, the title and to be able to stop playing pool. Great shooting to both of you and to the rest of the top 8!
I donated a small prize of $5 (bragging rights) for the "High Run of the tournament" which was won by Colin Maloney with a 61 in the A side finals! A shout out to Nok Mantolino who also had a nice run of 50 prior to that.
A huge thank you to Cue Sports Nova Scotia for allowing me to run this event on their behalf to show case this great game. Special thanks to Dale Brimicombe, Dooly's Portland Street, Tracey Goodyear and all the staff there! Special shout out to Brian McNamara for running the stream, it's much appreciated. Thanks to everyone who played especially to those who were not familiar with Straight Pool. I feel like there are a few more players who are going to play this game which made it a successful event, IMO. This is a great game to improve your focus and concentration!
Hopefully we can continue with these 3 new Provincial events and maybe even add a few smaller events mixed in to the normal events over the next few years. Thanks to all the players and to everyone that was involved in these 3 events!
1st-Colin Maloney
2nd-Wayne Thibodeau
3rd-Nok Mantolino
4th-Guy Tremblay
5th/6th-Brian White and Chad Davis
7th/8th-Mike Weagle and Lawrence Borden
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