David Mork

The IronOaks Breakers Pool League held the Fourth annual League Championships in 8 and 9-Ball at the Billiard Room in the Oakwood Clubhouse the last week of October. The 9-Ball Double Elimination Tournament between 12 of the 40 plus league’s players who qualified to play in the seeded tournament, played over 250 games of 9-Ball to decide the champion, who in the end, after defeating Bill Lange twice in the double elimination, was Sam Gilman; third place went to Jerry “Slick” Vickery, and fourth place was David “The Godfather” Mork. Sam will have his name on the plaque as the “League Champion in 9-Ball” on the wall in the Billiard Room and was awarded a cash prize and a trophy commemorating the win, and cash prizes were paid to the fourth place winners.

In addition, Sam was a double winner in the league as he also became the league champion in 8-Ball on Saturday afternoon. Of the 16 players who were qualified to play in the double elimination seeded tournament, cash prizes were also paid to the fourth place winners. The winner and “League Champion in 8-Ball” was Sam Gilman; Bill Lange was the runner up; Larry “Cuestick” Stadler took third place; and Don “X-Ring” Teusaw took fourth place. Over 220 games were played in the tournament in 8-Ball. There were six table runs in the 8-Ball tournament, one in the 9-Ball tournament. In the 9-Ball semi and final matches, Sam won the final 13 in a row. Sam joins an exclusive club of the league as he became the second double winner in consecutive years, joining Rod “The Babe” Thompson, who won both 8 and 9-Ball league championships last year and retired from league competition.

A new tournament named after our own Rod “The Babe” Thompson, was played this year. Rod put up the prize money and ran the Baber Second Chance Tournament, a single elimination tournament in both 8 and 9-Ball for those who were not in the money in the league championships. This tournament was played prior to the semi-finals of the league championships. The Baber Second Chance winners were Keith “the Rabbi” McDonald in the 8-Ball tournament and Fritz Derheim in the 9-Ball tournament. This provided those players seeded in the lower brackets and who were eliminated twice early in the league’s tournaments as a result of being paired against the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seeds to have more time on the pool tables. This new tournament provided 12 members who played in the league championships to have a second chance to win prize money.

We have four new members for the upcoming league year, Wendell Harris, Mark Moberg, Randy Oliver and Albert McCabe. If you would like to join our league contact our Tournament Chairman, Willie Foster, at [email protected] and you may be able to play in the Fifth annual Tournament to be held in November 2016. Now, let’s play pool!