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The McDermott Cue New England Women's Tour held a WPBA Qualifier October 29, 2007 at The Silver Cue Billiard Club against the backdrop of the annual Woburn, MA Halloween parade. As the marching bands and military passed by outside the woman battled inside for the WPBA spot. Tour director Marc Dionne generously contributed $10 to the prize fund.
The quarterfinal match was Liz Bernier versus Katie Fiorilla. Bernier won the last WPBA qualifier but was sent to the one-loss side in her first match by Erica Testa, who also sent Fiorilla to the one loss side. It looked like it would be an early day for Fiorilla as in the following match she trailed Christine LaChapelle 6-1. In mid-stroke on the 8 ball a cannon from the parade went off. LaChapelle was startled and missed the shot. In an attempt to lighten the mood one woman quipped, "It would have been funny if instead the cannon had gone off while I was breaking," but the damage had been done. Fiorilla fought on and won 6 games in a row to defeat LaChapelle then defeated Christine Carlowe 7-3 and Wendy Snow 7-6 before being overpowered 7-3 by Bernier.
Bernier went on to the semi-final to play Candi Rego, who was sent to the one-loss side by Stacie Bourbeau. Rego was really on her game and defeated Bernier 7-4 to earn a re-match with Bourbeau in the finals.
Rego took an early 6-2 lead in the final match but Borbeau won four games in a row to make the match hill-hill. Bourbeau bobbled the 3 ball in game 13 and Rego ran out to win 7-6. Because this is true double-elimination format the women would have to play a second race to seven match. Bourbeau won the first 2 games with a really nice combination shot on the 9 ball in game 2. Rego took game 3, made a 4-9 combination in game 4, broke and ran in game 5, and won games 6 and 7 to put her ahead 5-2. Bourbeau won the next 3 to tie the match 5-5 with a particularly nice run out in game 9. A hung 9 ball in game 11 put Rego back in the lead, but Bourbeau made a combination shot on the 9 ball for a second hill-hill match in a row. Both women missed the 7 ball in the last game, but lady luck smiled on Rego as she missed the shot only to pot the ball in another pocket. Ironically Rego earlier lost a game by playing a lock-up safety shot where the object ball inadavertantly went into that same pocket, showing that luck can go both ways. Rego bore down and won the second set 7-6, just in time to watch the Red Sox finish winning the World Series.
Candi Rego will be playing at a WPBA event in 2008. Play well Candi!
Results:
1st- Candi Rego $250 and $500 paid WPBA entry
2nd- Stacie Bourbeau $150
3rd- Liz Bernier $50
4th- Katie Fiorilla $50 paid MNEWT entry
5th/6th- Erica Testa, Wendy Snow
7th/8th- Christine Carlow, Dena Brayson
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