The J. Pechauer Custom Cues Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) embarked on a new venue on the weekend of April 21-22, 2012. With $500 added to the prize purse, Markley Billiards of Norristown, PA drew 20 ladies to compete in JPNEWT’s third tour stop of the year. This venue isn’t new to some of the non-PA ladies as they competed in an in-house tournament at Markley’s during the 2012 Super Billiards Expo weekend. Megan Smith has been on fire! Last month she took first place at VIP Billiards and although she took second in the 2012 WPBA East Coast Regional Tour Championships (RTC), she will represent the east coast at the upcoming WPBA US Open to face-off against the west coast champion. Her skills continue to shine through as she played undefeated at this Norristown, PA tour stop. Day one concluded with Megan Smith rocking her way through the bottom half of the bracket. She took out Kia Sidbury, Linda Shea, and Erin McManus sending them all to the B-side to fight for a chance as b-side winner. Meanwhile, Melissa Jenkins worked her way through Pauline Mattes, Kathy Friend, and Dawn Fox. Day two met Melissa Jenkins vs. Megan Smith to battle it out for the hot seat. The one-loss sifted down to matches scheduled for Kathy Friend vs. Erin McManus and Briana Miller vs Dawn Fox. Smith continued her streak of wins taking the hot seat. Meanwhile, Friend sent McManus home while Miller followed suite with Fox. Coming down to the final four, Friend could not get through Miller. This left Jenkins her final chance to come back for a rematch against Smith. However, Melissa did not make it through Briana. The finals were an interesting match against two of the top ranked ladies of the JPNEWT. As in the RTC finals, Megan worked her way from behind but with better results. Briana reached 7 games won prior to Megan, forcing a modified race to 9. This put a light under Megan’s feet; she did not allow Briana to win another game. Congratulations to Megan, defeating Briana 9-7. Other top winners included Briana Miller, Melissa Jenkins, Kathy Friend, Erin McManus, and Dawn Fox. The ladies of the JPNEWT continually thank our sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues for supporting women in billiards. A special thanks goes out to Russ, Rich and Michelle for hosting this event at Markley Billiards! Your room and staff were awesome and we look forward to returning again this year in June. Next stop is held at a new room for the WPBA US Open qualifier. Ladies, come on out to First Break Café in Sterling, Virginia with $1000 added to this event!
- by Kia Sidbury

JPNEWT took its March 17-18, 2012 tour to VIP Billiards in Catonsville, MD. VIP is a new venue added to the JPNEWT tour thithis year With $500 added to the prize fund, eighteen ladies put their skills to the test to compete for top dollar. VIP's own Jess Didier joined in on the event as well as, new comer Danielle Hecht. JPNEWT is growing, adding new members each month this year. From the top half of the bracket, Briana Miller dominated the field as she sent Charlynn Dzambo 7-0, Kathy Friend 7-2 and My-Hanh Lac 7-2 to the 1-loss side. Meanwhile, from the bottom half of the bracket, Megan Smith smashed through Ji-Hyun Park 7-0, Courtney Hall 7-1, Judie Wilson 7-0. Both Briana and Megan faced-off with a hill-hill match sending Briana to the 1-loss side as well. Megan patiently waits for her next opponent from the hot seat. Tour director, Linda Shea, worked her way through several rounds on the 1-loss side (defeating Susan Shinn 7-5, Eugenia Gyftopoulos 7-2, My-Hanh Lac 7-3, and Judie Wilson 7-3) before meeting a close match against Briana Miller. A hanging 9-ball in the pocket caused an upset to Miller, leaving Shea an easy one-nine combo win. This win gave Shea the opportunity to face-off against Megan Smith for first place. However, after a long wait for the finals, Megan maintained focus and didn't loose her fire, taking a 7-3 win over Linda. Congratulations Megan on your top notch performance and win! Other top finishers included Linda Shea, Briana Miller, Judie Wilson, Sharon O'Hanlon and My-Hanh Lac. Well done ladies! The JPNEWT thanks all the players, spectators, and ustream.tv viewers for supporting ladies in pool. A special thank you goes to our sponsor J. Pechauer and VIP Billiards for hosting this event.
- by Kia Sidbury

J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour's 2012 opening event was held at Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of February 25th. This event featured a strong field of twenty-four players with $500 added to the winning pot. Yet another season opening was met with a win by a fired-up My-Hanh Lac. My-Hanh had a strong run through the winner's bracket of this event, defeating Pauline Mattes, and Ji-Hyun Park. Lac had a close call in her match against Linda Shea in a hill-hill battle. My-Hanh pulled through to defeat Shea and Susan Shinn to follow before heading to the one-loss side after falling to Briana Miller. Meanwhile, from the bottom half of the bracket, Brianna Miller defeated Borana Andoni, Kathy Friend, Nicole Vincent (hill-hill match), and Charlynn Dzam. Her victory of My-Hanh Lac put Miller in the hot seat. However, Lac was determined to redeem herself and defeated Kathy Friend for a rematch against Briana. The fight was worth it for My-Hanh as she took first place win over Miller. Congratulations My-Hanh and the other top finishers for great performances at this event. A couple of notable mentions are the efforts of Charlynn Dzam and Susan Shinn. Both of these players made it to the money rounds from the winner’s bracket for the first time in this tour. Keep up the good work ladies. The JPNEWT would like to thank all the players for participating in the event. A special continued thanks to Triple Nines for hosting this event and J.Pechauer Custom Cues for supporting the tour. - by Kia Sidbury

JPNEWT took its October 1-2, 2011 tour to Cosmo’s Billiards in Dickson City, PA. With $750 added to the prize fund, twenty ladies put their skills to the test to compete for top dollar. We are thankful for the owner of Cosmo’s, Carol Clark, for including herself in this event. Besides the usual ladies that compete in this great tour from month to month, two other ladies decided to join in – Melissa Jenkins and Melanie McLeod. We hope these ladies will join us again. Tour Director Linda Shea and Briana Miller have tangoed first place finish during the last few stops, but this time two other top ranked ladies battled it out. What a season finale this was, not only for top dollar but season finale rankings! My-Hanh had a great start during this event as she defeated Nicole Nester 7-3, Linda Shea 7-3 and Meredith Lynch 7-0. However, during a close match against Megan Smith, she was sent to the 1-loss side with a final score of 7-5. From bottom of the board, Megan Smith breezed through matches against Denise Reeve 7-1 and Sharon O’Hanlon 7-2. She then met up with Tina Meraglio, ranked #3 prior to this event, who gave her a fight to the end in a The race was close, but Shea did not win 7 games before Miller. This extended the race to 9 and awarded Miller a 9-6 victory over Shea. Seeing this is Briana’s second JPNEWT win at Castle Billiards, maybe we should crown her Castle’s princess. Congratulations Briana! Other top finishers included Linda Shea, Kaori Ebe, Kathy Friend, Gail Glazebrook, Kia Sidbury, Courtney Hall and Judie Wilson. The JPNEWT would like to thank all the players for participating in this event and would also like to thank all those who are following us on www.ustream.tv during the event. A special thank you goes out to Cosmo’s Billiards for hosting this event and supporting women in billiards. - by Kia Sidbury

On the weekend of August 13-14, 2011, with $1000 added to the prize fund, nineteen ladies registered to compete in JPNEWT’s sixth event of the year held at Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The competition was intense. There were two new players competing in this event: Cyndy Haefner a returning JPNEWTer and Kaori Ebe of Tokyo, Japan. We hope these ladies will join us again. Tour Director Linda Shea had taken first place in the last two stops, sweeping through opponents from both the east and west sides of the board. It appeared the same would occur during this event as she dominated matches over Shanna Lewis 7-1, Courtney Hall 7-0, Kia Sidbury, 7-2 (first time in winner’s bracket on Sunday) and Briana Miller 7-3. These wins put Linda in the hot seat. Prior to being sent to the one-loss side by Shea, Briana Miller took wins over Ji-Hyun Park 7-2, Gail Glazebrook 7-3, Kathy Friend 7-3. Miller had a close match against Tokyo’s Kaori Ebe, but defeated her in the end. Although Kaori loss to Miller, she earned a rematch against Miller in the semi-finals. With a double-hill match, Miller topped Ebe and prepared herself for the finals and a rematch against Shea. The race was close, but Shea did not win 7 games before Miller. This extended the race to 9 and awarded Miller a 9-6 victory over Shea. Seeing this is Briana’s second JPNEWT win at Castle Billiards, maybe we should crown her Castle’s princess. Congratulations Briana! Other top finishers included Linda Shea, Kaori Ebe, Kathy Friend, Gail Glazebrook, Kia Sidbury, Courtney Hall and Judie Wilson. The JPNEWT would like to thank all the players for participating in the event and would also like to thank all those who are following us on www.ustream.tv during the event. A special thank you goes out to Castle Billiards for hosting this event, allowing JPNEWT to broadcast live through your Ustream account, and supporting women in billiards. Next stop Cosmo’s Billiards in Dickson City, PA on October 1 & 2! - by Kia Sidbury

On the weekend of June 25-26, J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour held its fourth event of the year at Champion Billiards Sports Café in Frederick, Maryland. A field of seventeen ladies traveled from near and as far as Ohio to compete for top winnings. Some of the top finishers included Linda Haywood-Shea, Briana Miller, Tina Meraglio, Megan Smith, Shanna Lewis, and My-Hanh Lac. Megan Smith had dominated much of this year’s tour; she earned both the Virginia and New York State championships. However, this month’s tour took on a turn of events as tour director Linda Haywood-Shea topped all opponents taking first place. Linda “Hurricane” Haywood-Shea defeated Sharon O’Hanlon 7-4 and Kia Sidbury 7-3, but the storm dissipated to the likes of Tina Meraglio, losing 7-1. However, on the 1-loss side, the storm reappeared sending home every opposition that crossed her path. “Hurricane” Haywood-Shea defeated Shanna Lewis 7-3, Megan Smith 7-1. She was faced with a rematch against Tina and defeated her 7-3. In the meantime, Briana Miller dominated the winner-side defeating Denise Reeve 7-0, Courtney Hall 7-1, Megan Smith 7-4, and Tina Meraglio 7-6. As always, she played fearlessly, firing in balls left and right until she was met by Linda in the finals. The strong winds of the Hurricane prevented Miller from reaching 7 wins first, extending the match to a race to 9. In the end, Linda took first place in this event. If you did not have the pleasure of watching this match live, you can always recap it on Ustream. Ladies, bring you’re A-game to the next event, because the “Hurricane” is back! The JPNEWT would like to thank all the players for participating and those who follow us on Ustream.tv during this and all previous events. A special thanks to Champion Billiards for hosting this event and supporting the tour. Next stop Elkridge, Maryland!

A strong field of twenty-one women came out to enjoy Holden Chen’s room and hospitality on May 21-22nd in West Hempstead New York. Megan Smith continues to dominate the tour by defending her title from last year. She was able to defeat Briana Miller in an exciting final 9-8. Briana had been on a tear on Sunday, handling Lai Li 7-3, Meredith Lynch 7-0, Shanna Lewis 7-1 and Tina Meraglio 7-0! She was playing fearlessly and firing everything right in all day long until the match with Megan where both women battled it out. Tina Meraglio won the qualifying spot for the WPBA US Open that will happen next month (June 15-19) in Tulsa Oklahoma. Congratulations to her. She has taken 2nd and 3rd place in our last two events and is playing very well! Other top performances came from Shanna Lewis who has also placed in the final four in the last two events and a relatively new cast of top finishers: Denise Reeve and Meredith Lynch took 5th/6th and Naomi Fingerhut and Lai Li took 7th/8th. Good job ladies! The JPNEWT would like to thank all the players for participating in the event and would also like to thank all those who are following us on www.ustream.tv during the event. The streaming went great this weekend and it was great to have some fans following us! Again thanks to Holden and Raxx for hosting the event and supporting the tour. Next stop Maryland!

The opening event of the 2011 J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour was held at Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of April 2-3. The event featured twenty-five of the region's leading up-and-coming players, and where feature matches were streamed live on the web, which will be a great addition to this year's season. After taking a hiatus from the game, My-Hanh Lac came out firing at this season opener. My-Hanh had a strong run through the winner's bracket of this event, defeating Kim Meyer-Gabia 7-3, Colleen Shoop 7-6, and Eugenia Gyftopolus 7-2, before heading to the one-loss side after falling to Kathy Friend 7-5. Meanwhile, Cheryl Squire was also on the trail to the hot seat, taking wins over Meredyth Lynch 7-3, Linda Shea 7-5, Briana Miller 7-3, and Kathy Friend in the winner's side final, 7-3. On the one-loss side, My-Hanh Lac got back on track after her loss to Kathy Friend, knocking out Tina Meraglio 7-5, Briana Miller 7-6, and turned the tables on Kathy in the semifinal, winning 7-5 to move on to the finals. In one single race to nine in the final, My-Hanh Lac took on undefeated Cheryl Squire, where My-Hanh won definitively by a final score of 9-4. Congratulations to both finalists for great performances at this opening event. The JPNEWT would like to thank all the players for participating in the event, including Katcef Brothers Inc., Budweiser who has donated an amazing cooler to be raffled as well as beer and food specials for this event and Triple Nines for hosting the event and supporting the tour.
- by Allison Fischer of NYCGrind.com

The Virginia State Championships, sponsored by TAP, Pool's Amateur Tour (Mid Atlantic Region), will be taking place on April 30th & May 1st. This event is also a WPBA Regional Tour Stop with $1000 added and will take place at Hi Cue Billiards, 940 South George Mason Dr #A, Alington, VA 22204-1557, (703) 892-2874. For more information on this event please contact Allan Davis 703-786-8095 or email him at TAPMidAtlanticVA@gmail.com

We would like to announce that the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s 9-Ball Tour is now affiliated with East Coast Pool Tournaments, a brand new Facebook community. The goal of East Coast Pool Tournaments (ECPT) is to unite all the pool players, spectators and Tournament Directors along the entire East Coast from Florida to Maine in hopes to increase player and spectator turnouts at individual events. ECPT will provide scheduled tournament dates, event updates and announcements from Pool Tours/Tournament Directors that are part of this community. By gathering the entire East Coast pool community in one place Tournament Directors will have a much easier time getting important and sometimes critical information out to their players and spectators in an instant. ECPT is NOT meant to replace Tour websites by any means. ECPT will simply be an extension of Tour websites. Information on ECPT will be limited. For more detailed information on a particular event such as format, rules, etc. you will need to visit the individual Tour websites. Links to every Tour website that is part of the community will be provided on our Facebook page. We encourage you to sign-up to the East Coast Pool Tournaments community by simply following the link below and clicking on ‘LIKE’. If you are not a member of Facebook then you may have to sign-up first and then follow the link below. > East Coast Pool Tournaments Facebook community