2009 USBA Tour – Dave Van Lokeren Emerges Victorious!

Dave Van Lokeren Emerges Victorious!

Dave Van Lokeren

The 2009 USBA Tour continued with a great “B” tournament held at World Class Billiards in Peabody, Massachusetts. Room owners, Joe DeAmato and John Magulas added money to the prize fund and were extremely gracious hosts to all the players.

Four Soren Sogaard tables were freshly covered with Simonis 300 rapide cloth and played beautifully throughout the tournament. The Tables were vacuumed daily and were cleaned thoroughly with a slightly damp microfiber cloth after every match.

In all, there were 21 players competing for a first place prize of $ 2,000.00 with a total prize fund of $ 7,000.00. The players were divided into 3 flights with 7 players each. The top 2 finishers of each flight along with the two best 3rd place finishers would play an 8-player round robin in the finals. The prelims were to 20 points and the finals were to 25 points. Final placement was determined by wins/losses, total points scored, head-to-head and points-against. Averages were kept throughout the tournament by the players but it was not a determining factor in the placement.

Click on flight name to see PDF chart:

Flight A: Tony Ferrara goes undefeated, 6-0, to win the flight, averaging .659. Dave Van Lokeren finished 2nd with a 5-1 record and a .644 average. Dan Kolacz finishes 3rd with a 4-2 record, but misses out on the finals because he only scored 9 points in each of his losses. In one of those losses, Dave Van Lokeren scored 20 points in just 15 innings.

Flight B: Joe DeAmato wins the flight going 5-1 and Jim Watson finishes 2nd, going 4-2. Ellis Lawrence, who was shooting great, had one more match against Rick McGuire. The winner would make the finals and the loser would not. Rick McGuire rose to the occasion, scoring 20 points in just 17 innings to earn the spot.

Flight C: John Magulas shot great, going 5-1 to win the flight. Bob Page had a spot in the finals sewed up but had one match left against Jim Shovak. Shovak needed to win to make the finals. A loss would allow Leonard Collibee to enter the finals. Bob Page started the 20 point match with a bang, scoring 11 points in just 3 innings. With the score 13-2 in favor of Page, things didn’t look too good for Shovak. After a few more innings, it was 15-6. Both players started playing safety as Shovak started scoring. With the score at 18-16, Shovak ran a two to tie it, and then another 2, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a 20-18 win.

Finals: With the 8-player round robin to 25 points each, it was anyone’s tournament. All the players played admirably and many matches could have gone either way. After 3 rounds, the favorites were Dave Van Lokeren, Jim Watson and Jim Shovak, all with 3-0 records.

Finalists: Bob Page, Joe DeAmato, Jim Watson, John Magulas, Tony Ferrara, Rick McGuire, Dave Van Lokeren, Jim Shovak

Going into the final round, there were 3 players who could still win the tournament, Jim Watson, Dave Van Lokeren and Bob Page, all with 5-1 records. Dave Van Lokeren won his match, finishing 6-1. Bob Page lost to Joe DeAmato, 25-3, giving Page his 2nd loss and not a whole lot of points. Jim Watson needed to win against Jim Shovak to force a playoff match with Dave Van Lokeren, but lost 25-22. Watson settled for 2nd place. Joe DeAmato was 2-2 after 4 rounds, but won his last 3 matches to finish 5-2 and fought his way into 3rd place. Great comeback, Joe. Bob Page (5-2) settled for 4th place, Jim Shovak (4-3) finished in 5th place, Tony Ferrara (2-5) came in 6th, John Magulas (1-6) finished 7th and Rick McGuire (0-7) came in 8th place.

Joe DeAmato (3rd), Dave Van Lokeren (1st), Jim Watson (2nd)

Next month, the USBA Tour will be held at Carom Café Billiards in Flushing, NY for a
$ 40,000.00 International Open Tournament on August 17-23. Click here for more info.

We would like to thank the following:
-Joe DeAmato and John Magulas, owners of World Class Billiards for putting up their room, for adding money to the prize fund and overall making it a fun time for all.

-Brandon, Teabault and Leo for keeping the tables and balls clean and did whatever was necessary. Thanks, guys.

Sponsors:
-Iwan Simonis
-Aramith (Saluc)
-Adam Cue Company

USBA Tour Sponsors:
David Levine, Jim Shovak, Bob Jewett, Professor-Q-Ball (Paul Frankel), Creative Billiard Shirts, Michael Kang, Andrew Janquitto, Dean Harrell, Pedro Piedrabuena, Robert Byrne, Tom Resk, Sonny Cho, Mazin Shooni, Dr.Cue Promotions (Tom Rossman), Bruce Warner, Mike Walo, Jim Watson, Tommy Thomsen, Tom Haskin, Jamil Isreal, Bob Roach, Mike Melloy, Don Sperber, Norm Brust, Ed Friedman and Pat Young.