Guinness 8 Ball competition opens
James Adderley usually plies his trade for News 5 on Mondays…but every now and then an interesting sporting event comes along that merits his attention at other times. Such was the case last night with one of the nation’s favourite pastimes.
James Adderley, Reporting
As mangoes continues to flow in abundance, and the nation’s school children excitedly continue the countdown to the long holidays, the boys of summer nights roared on to the front page last night in the fifth presentation of the National Guinness Eight Ball Pool Tournament at Catt’s Place. They’re out to be the best they can be in the game of billiards, and as you can see, they’re organised, they have their banner, and the man with the bugle is in full effect. Who are these boys of summer nights?
Otto Cattouse, V.P. Belize Billiards Assn.
“We have been doing this since 1984 and we’re trying to advance to Central America, within our regions, because you have a lot of talent here in Belize. We have Mr. Mike Estephan as the president and this year we have five teams. Ambassador Lounge is a newcomer, we have MJ’s Grand, we have Advance Advertising, which is our defending champ from last year, we have Lion King and of course we have ourselves, Catt’s Place.”
The Belize Brewing Company has given this sport its full support from the very beginning and the company’s representative, John Waight, articulated this special relationship.
John Waight, Supervisor, Belize Brewing Co.
“We selected billiards for some very good reasons. We found out that billiards has been dying in Belize, so based on that we decided to start it up and bring back billiards in Belize. Cayo and Belmopan is playing for the west. To the south we have Dangriga and P.G., and for the east we have Belize City, San Pedro and Caye Caulker.”
Meanwhile people, a newcomer to the sport is one of tonight’s combatants, the Ambassador’s Lounge, and team owner Alfonso Ramirez seems ready to go.
Alfonso Ramirez, Owner, Ambassador’s Lounge Team
“The Ambassador Lounge has been involved in darts for about twenty odd years, so we decided to add something, a new sport. We have been following the Guinness tournament the last couple years, and since it’s interesting we decided we would form a team and give it a go.”
James Adderley
“How long have you been working at it?”
Alfonso Ramirez
“Well the Ambassador Lounge team is a brand new team, we only had our first meeting on Monday, but we have a veteran player that doubles as a coach, and we have two other players that have been playing a few years. The other players have been relatively new.”
James Adderley
“Who would you call your key figure?”
Alfonso Ramirez
“Tuti Fruti, better known as Zetina.”
Austin Waight, Player, Advance Advertising
“Advance Advertising has been in billiards for the last three years. We came in second the first two years and then first on the third year, so we’re defending champions right now and we’re looking to take it again.”
Now to the action. The first rack for the 2003 season is broken by Tuti Fruti Zetina, and the former boss of Belizean billiards could not get a ball to fall. For you who are not really in tuned with the sport, a player gets to shoot at either the stripes or solids, not both, before downing to eight ball for the win. And Angel Vargas of Advance jumps on his opposition.
Vargas immediately shows his dominance in game one, sinking the four, slicing the five into the far corner pocket. Rations perfectly for the eight ball, calls his pocket and Tuti Fruti goes down in game one. He would go on to lose 3-zip to Vargas, so much for the big man from Ambassador Lounge.
The next contender for Advance, Manuel “The Policeman” Ramos, starts with a successful break of the rack and believe it or not he never looks back as he takes game with out allowing Eddie Reyes to get even a shot. Ramos goes on to beat his opponent 3-zip and just what, the defending champion Advance Advertising goes on to win all five scheduled matches, conceding only one win in a possible fifteen for the Ambassador Lounge.
Nevertheless folks, things certainly will get a whole lot tighter and will develop much more intensity when Catt’s Place, a former three time champion, travels to MJ’s Grand this Wednesday. You won’t want to miss it. James Adderley reporting for News 5.
