Diamond Eight was the setting for the second stop on the Dominiak Cues Northeast Amateur 10-Ball Tour, held on Saturday February 7th, 2009. A strong field of 28 players from throughout the Northeast (Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania) as well as local New York players, made the trek to compete in the $500 added (cash and prizes) tournament. See some great photos of the day, by Rob Francoeur, on Rob’s web site.
Notable players in attendance included Senior Olympics Champion and local Tom Acciavatti, 14.1 enthusiast Chuck Hill, New Hampshire’s Scott Dwyer, Springfield’s Tony Hubbard, tour stop #1 winner Rob Francoeur, and local area top guns Shawn Moulton, Chris Smith, Lee Lemieux, and Frank Rich. Also in attendence and taking advantage of the free entry for juniors was 13-year-old Ethan Early, who came all the way from Pennsylvania to compete and make his presence felt.
The double elimination format would see Chuck Hill face Shawn Moulton for the hot seat battle; at hill-hill, Chuck left an opening for Shawn, who took full advantage and ran out to send Chuck to the 1-loss side.
Tom Acciavatti, after a 1st round loss, dug in to defeat tough opponents including Lee Lemieux, Rob Francoeur and Frank Rich, to arrive at playing Chuck to win the 1-loss side, and the hope to meet Shawn Moulton in the finals. But Chuck Hill had a different idea, as he was able to relegate Tom to 3rd place by winning the tight hill-hill match.
The finals would prove to be almost a mirror of the first match between Chuck Hill and Shawn Moulton on the winners side. Both playing steadily and deliberately. The match went hill-hill in the race-to-5 finals. The final rack was nip and tuck with a few trouble balls on the table that neither player wanted to surrender. Chuck finally got an opening and was on a very nice run only to miss a tough 7 ball, but left Shawn down-table with the cue ball, and the 7-ball rolled up just a shade past the side pocket, leaving a thin cut on the 7 into the side and 2- or 3-rail shape for the eight. Shawn took aim after contemplating a bit and deciding a good safety was not available, he fired at the 7-ball but it was not to be. He left Chuck with a roadmap to the win which he steadily ran out for the title, first place cash and a new Dominiak Cue.
Final results
- 1st – Chuck Hill $300 + NEW Dominiak $320 cue
- 2nd – Shawn Moulton $210
- 3rd – Tom Acciavatti $130
- 4th – Frank Rich $85
- 5th/6th – Lee Lemieux $65
- 5th/6th – Rob Francoeur $65
For future stops and details about the tour, see the official Dominiak Cues Northeast Amateur 10-Ball Tour site.
Congratulations and special thanks to all the Diamond Eight players who came out for the day, including Shawn Moulton, Tom Acciavatti, Frank Rich, Scott Winchell, John Robinson, Chris Smith, Lee Lemieux, Chris Delaney, Stefan Mendrick, and Ed Skawinski. We made a great showing with 4 out of the top 6 spots!
