52 women showed up to play on Easter weekend.  Imagine the field without the holiday!!  This was a very tough field, too!  The likes of Deanna Kniola, June Walter, Melanie Koger, Shelly Barnes, Rose McCrory, Julie Stephenson, Orietta Strickland, Maureen Finn, Kristi Carter, Holly Sholes, Dora Valdez, Judy Byam, Rachel Ross, Kim Tipton and newcomer Jana Carroll from Texarkana.  I have a feeling these girls will come to all if not most of the rest of the Hunter Classic's Amateur Women's Tour Stops!!  Especially with all of the rest of the stops being qualifiers to a WPBA Stop in 1999!

Well, the third stop on the Hunter Tour for 1998 provided us with a new Hunter Stop winner!  Holly Sholes won her first Hunter Stop on Easter Sunday, about 6pm on April 12th at Players in Arlington. Holly came through the winners bracket undefeated Saturday and Sunday and fought hard for her title. 

On Sunday, she met up first against Jana Carroll from Texarkana, won that and then had to play Melanie Koger for the Winner's Bracket.  Going hill-hill, Holly won after Melanie had a tough shot on the eight ball.  Holly then had to wait for the loser's side to finish up until she got to play the final race to 11 (against Melanie again) for the big win! 

Shelly Barnes had a great tournament!  She had to beat numerous tough players on Saturday and Sunday to meet Melanie to see who would play Holly for 1st or 2nd.  Shelly held her own, but by the time she played Melanie, she had already played and won five matches that day. Shelly was exhausted by the time she played Melanie, but only lost 9-7, putting in great effort throughout the tournament.  Then Melanie once again got to face Holly, but Holly came out ahead and eventually became the winner of the 3rd Stop on the Hunter Classic's Tour!  Congratulations Holly!!
 

Place	Hunter Tour Player	Prize	Points
1st	Holly Sholes	$1,000	100
2nd	Melanie Koger	$500	75
3rd	Shelly Barnes	$400	50
4th	June Walter	$300	25
5th/6th	Penni Adrian	$100	15
5th/6th	Jana Carroll	$100	15
7th/8th	Kristi Carter	$75	10
7th/8th	Diana Lewis	$75	10
9th-12th	Maureen Finn	$50	5
9th-12th	Gail Roles	$50	5
9th-12th	Kim Tipton	$50	5
9th-12th	Orietta Strickland	$50	5
13th-16th	Michelle Cortez	$40
13th-16th	Pamela Cipolla	$40
13th-16th	Kelly Jarmon	$40
13th-16th	Deanna Kniola	$40
17th-24th	Nikki Ferrell	$25
17th-24th	Cynthia Ferrer	$25
17th-24th	Nancy French	$25
17th-24th	Rose McCrory	$25
17th-24th	Donna Papin	$25
17th-24th	Melinda Bailey	$25
17th-24th	Deanna Bridger	$25
17th-24th	Julie Stephenson	$25

Our special thanks to Wes Hunter who donated another one of his beautiful custom made cue.  A HUGE thanks goes out to the staff at Players Billiards for such great hospitality, and putting up with 52 women on Easter weekend.   Richard was a terrific host and Holly, our Bartender, took care of all the players single-handedly.  Players Billiards is a very nice room with 14 8-foot Brunswicks and two 9-foot Brunswicks. Next time you are in the Arlington area, and are looking for a nice place to shoot some pool, stop by Players!  Also on hand was Randy Goettlicher representing Gentleman Jack’s who put in an extra $150 to the second chance tournament!

The theme this weekend was Easter (imagine that) and several stuffed bunnies and rabbits and geese were raffled off on Sunday.  All of the stuffed animals were very cute and one bunny was so big, it stood three feet high and was very cuddly!  Tammy Kroop and Lucille Donahue each      won a cute goose, a brown rabbit was raffled off to a local named Moon, a pink rabbit was raffled off to a gentleman named DG and a dark brown    bunny was raffled off to Barbara Riojas (who won it while shooting at an eight ball!).  The big stuffed bunny was won by Diana Lewis who cuddled the big guy throughout Sunday afternoon!  And, though DG won the pink rabbit earlier, his hefty amount of bought raffled tickets won him the $1600 beautiful Hunter Classics Cue!!  Congratulations to all!!

Top stories that made interesting talk:  Orietta lost her first match but still got 9th-12th in the tournament.  Kristi Carter lost her first match as well and ended up with 7th/8th in the tournament, and Shelly Barnes lost her second match and ended up getting 3rd in the tournament!  Congratulations to these ladies!  Coming from the losers side so early is hard work under pressure!