WWS at Ox | Event One Report
Earlier this year we were delighted to announce our plans to stage the first World Women’s Snooker (WWS) tournament in the United States of America at Ox Billiards in Seattle.
As we work towards a first international tournament, our friends at Ox have got the ball rolling with a series of local warm-up competitions, aimed at encouraging American players to pick up a cue and play our wonderful sport. Check out a report below from Ox on how the first event progressed…
On November 14th at noon, OX had the first warm up competition in preparation for the World Women’s Snooker tournament at OX sometime next year. We had four players for the competition— Jaime, Marissa, Claire, and Jocelyn.
The competition was a round robin with the top two scorers advancing to the finals. Jocelyn won all her 3 frames, Claire only lost one frame (2-1). Marissa (1-2) had a chance to advance to the finals if she had beaten Claire in her final round robin frame. In that frame, Marissa crawled back from an early deficit and nearly stole one from Claire. But Claire was resilient and held on until the black ball and won. Jaime (0-3) had tough frames with Jocelyn and Marissa, and took them to the limit.
Each round robin frame had suspense and some really nice pots from the players. The competitive juices were flowing and everyone played tough. I could not sense any nerves with these players as all seemed to be very comfortable with the pressure of the competition. That says a lot given the difficulty of the sport.
Claire and Jocelyn advanced to the finals which was a race to 2 frames. The first frame was a nail-bitter with Jocelyn staying ahead of Claire 53 – 41. There was some pinpoint safety play as well as aggressive scoring. In the second frame, Jocelyn was too much and won by a score of 50 – 13. Well done!
Well done to all the players! I can see that these players will improve on their way to the WWS tourney at OX. Remember, this will be the FIRST time ever that WWS holds a tournament in the US, and Seattle will be the host city! We have word that several Australian and UK players are eyeing this event. When they visit, we will be gracious hosts, but on the baize, we will compete and show them we can play snooker too!
We will have at least two more of these competitions through the end of January, and that will cap off the first season. Our second season will start in February. Note: any woman player can join at anytime.
If you are a woman cueist and want to participate in this historic event, please send an email. In addition, if you are a coach, referee, sponsor or want to support these players in any way, please do the same.
Report by Mike Dominguez.
