The Villages Billiards Club

Don't want to make a weekly committment to a league but would like to play 9 ball once in a while?

This opportunity may be for you!

Lynne Burke's Tuesday afternoon team 9 ball league is looking for subs. Teams are made of of 3 players who play 3 games with each opposing team member each week. It is handicapped and a great opportunity to meet and play with other players of various skill levels. Handicaps are performance based and will be determined after you play fo rthe first time.

If interested in being on the sub list, email Lynne at lynnebur2@gmail.com to let her know and please include your best contact phone #. 

We won't be taking reservations for this event before the official Invitation goes out in early December.

I HAVE A DREAM!

DO YOU LIKE TO WRITE OR WERE YOU A JOURNALIST IN YOUR PAST?

✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍

You may have noticed that billiards is like the red headed step child in The Villages media publications! When I send an article or press release to the paper, it may or may not get reported or covered, and if I don't, nothing appears in print! Thanks to club secretary Nita Swift weekly league and tournament results get posted, most of the time, and that's it! AND, though other sports may get human interest stories or reports on important activities in the Lifestyle section, billiards NEVER does! Billiards is perhaps the least althetic sport there is, and for many is social. Yet, our few and far between articles or notices get buried in the sports section where many of our members would never see it!  

AND IT AIN'T RIGHT! 

But I can't do it all! If you have had experience in the past with writing press releases or articles for the media and would consider giving back to the club, I'd like to talk to you.

If you have interest in reporting on our various events, tournments, leagues, and activities and doing spotlights on our members, and would be willing to send press releases and info to the newspaper, add to our facebook page, and create short news articles for the website, it would be a great service to the club and our sport.

Any, and/or all of the above would be amazing!  

THANKS,

Gale

Four Ways to Pay:

1. Mail your check made out to "The VBC" to Treasurer Wendy Lord at 955 Cambridge Court, The Villages, Fl 32162

2. Pay at our Monthly Membership Meeting

3. Pay any VBC Board member in person

4. Pay Now with a credit card on our Home Page - make sure you choose renewal for Single or Couple

The Cup Match Events Schedule for 2023 has been determined!

ADVANCED VBC PLAYERS MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

The Feeney & Ladies Cup Tournaments are the VBC's Permiere Tournament Events of the year for our most Advanced Men and Women VBC Player/Members. Each group plays a series of doubles and singles matches that include both 8 ball and 9 ball over three days of competition at La Hacienda Recreation in February.

Eligible Captains are determined from the prior year's individual performance with their team and the responsibility will roll down the list until somone is available and willing to be captains.The VBC will send out a notice to members announcing the opening of the draft. After a few weeks, the draft closes and two Teams of 14 players each are "drafted" from the list of VCB players that signed up for the draft list by the captains. All particpants must be VBC members or become one, to be included on the list. Once teams have been drafted, teams will practice over a period of weeks to prepare for the events.

The 2023 Cup Captains are:

Feeney Cup American Team - Brian Bedford

Feeney Cup National Team: Rich Ross

Ladies Cup American Team - Donna Gessert 

Ladies Cup National Team - Judy Donner

The Feeney and Ladies Cup Calendar of Events for 2023 is as follows:

October 31st: Start of the Draft

Sign up for the draft begins with an email Notice going out to the VBC membership to sign up.

SIGN UP FOR THE DRAFT DOES NOT BEGIN UNTIL THIS NOTICE GOES OUT!

November 11th: Captains & Draftees Meet & Greet Event - 4pm Ladies - 6 pm Men

Captains, and players on the draft list will receive an invitation to this event held at LaHacienda which, gives captains a chance to meet draftees that they may have never met before and whose game they are not familiar with, giving everyone as fair a chance as possible to make a team.

November 13th:

Deadline to be added to the draft list

Week of November 14th: Draft Week

Day & Time TBD by Wendy Lord and Captains

TOURNAMENT DATES: 

Feeney Cup: Thursday, Feb 2 - Saturday, Feb 4th

Ladies Cup: Friday, Feb 10th - Sunday, Feb 12th

Cup Awards Banquet Event: Saturday, Feb 25th

2022 Men's & Women's Invitational Report

Congratulations to the American "Red" Teams who ruled the Invitational event this year!

Captains Joe Conway & Nita Swift led their teams to victory with total team scores of 22 and 11 respectively. National "Blue" Team captains were Tom Mayo and Kyril Monts.

On the Men's side, TOP performer for the entire event and his American Team was Bill Swift with a perfect score of 20, never losing a match all weekend! He was followed by his captain Joe Conway, with 19. On the National Team, Howard Couch, Steve Hancharick, and Tom Mayo tied for first on their team with 17 wins each.

Women who tied for first were Terry Fickett, Sharon Manz, Maxine Yeager, and Bobbi Yush for the American Team, and Robin Huey, Diane Litynski and Donna Saunders for the Nationals.

I earlier incorrectly reported that Maxine Yeager was to be Next year's captain for the Americans. However, it will be Eileen Connolly for the Americans and Donna Saunders for the Nationals. While this years American and National Captains Joe Conway & Tom Mayo will go for a re-match and Captain their teams again next year!

Photos of the annual event can be seen by going to the pictures tab on this website, thanks to VBC member Roger Vigrass. As always, we want to thank Roger for his time & expertise in not only taking the photos but editing and posting them for us to see!

The concession per usual was successful in helping us defray the cost of this event. Player Team Jerseys represent our largest expense and our concession net profit including daily sales and cash donations was over $1200 this year which will take a big bite out of our expenses this year. Thanks To Pam MacMann for her endless effort & time to help run the concession. She helps make the concession possible! Thanks also to the MANY of you who donated Cash, Beverages & Food, as well as All Who Made Donations for Snacks And Meal of the Day during the event. It could not happen without YOU ALL!

An EXTRA BIG and SPECIAL thank you goes out to Wendy Lord for her hard work at organizing and overseeing the event from the drafting process all the way to the end, handing out the team photos and plaques.

Others who need recognition for their invaluable contributions are the Teams Coaches, event Score Keepers, and Officials Wayne Anderson and Larry Russo who help make this a really special billiards event for the VBC!

The 2021 Invitational matches were a nail biter!

Congratulations and Thank You to ALL who played, volunteered, and donated to make this event a success!

Men's Results:

After day one, the men were in a dead tie. Day two brought the Blue Nationals a tough day in the 9 ball doubles leaving the red team ahead by a 13 to 11 spread. The Nationals came back on day three and dominated the 9 ball singles with a resounding finishing score of 16 to 22.

Ladies Results:

The ladies event ran neck and neck fluctuating throughout the event! In the end, the Red American team and Blue Nationals after three days of competition were in a DEAD TIE! The three day event for the ladies came down to a sudden death doubles match with the Red Americans bringing home the win!

Top Individual results for all teams: 

Women’s

American

1. Gina Dutton, Nita Swift

2. Chris Chaffer, Terry Fickett, Sheila McDonald, Sue, Moore, Maxine Yeager

3. Bonnie Bowmer

National

1. Kyril Monts

2. Nancy Campbell, Birgit Gerheim, Irene Manoriti, Lin Myrick, Cindy Oosting

3. Robin Huey, Cindy Kella

Men’s

American

1st Tom Hauser

2. Bob Cornell, Al Hooper

3. Joe Conway, Paul Ledbetter, Zeb Riggs, Jim Turner

Nationals

1. Bill Canty, Tom Mayo

2. Charles Verdick

3. Bill Bellew,Dave Bowmer, Richard Ginn

The Education Program has been VERY WELL received and I have gotten some great feed back! It's a pleasure when we can offer something that is so well enjoyed! 

Classes are small for optimal learning and they have been filling fast with a long wait list! Thanks to the players/members who are helping with this effort! Greg Shearer, Mark Snodgrass, Jim Vicarro & Phil Leduc.

Since classes have such a large wait list, those on the wait list get first dibs on the next time that class is being offered. As soon as we get to a place where the wait list can not fill the class, more notices will go out for sign ups.

We expect them to continue into spring and as long as interest continues! Emails go out for them a few weeks before at 8am.

The Villages has grown by leaps & Bounds and we keep asking how far south it wil go!

As a result here are some opportunities to learn about BIlliards and play:

• FIRST - Thursday, Oct 14th at 2pm at Everglades Recreation, I will be giving a presentation on Billiards in the Villages to let residents know about the many opportunities there are to play our beloved sport!

TWO NEW activities are coming available at Riverbend Recreation S of 44:

• Drop in Open Play for Women starting October 20th - Wednesday mornings weekly at 9am -This is a dedicated time for women who play the game at any level to gather and play pick up games. IF there is someone there who is interested in organizing a round robin and the ladies agree, that's certainly an option and great practice for any skill level! NO SIGN UP NEEDED. JUST SHOW UP A BIT BEFORE 9am.
• Mixed Teams Handicapped 8 Ball League Targetted to start Nov 11th, weekly on Thursdays 2pm - 4:30pm. Final Format will be determined based on the number of people who sign up. Anyone wishing to participate in this league should email Gale at thevillagesbc@gmail.com ASAP.

Our NEW VBC education program is underway with the first three workshop notices out and filled!

If you didn't get in or missed them? No worries. Classes are small for optimal learning but each offering will be repeated thanks to the gracious volunteers who have committed to teaching as long as there is interest in classes through April.

Keep you eye out for the email notices that go out on Tuesday mornings at 8am for the next available class for sign up. And Wednesdays every 5 weeks for the Straight Pool workshop with Mark Snodgrass since this is a 5 week series.

Thanks again to Phil LeDuc, Jim Vaccaro, Mark Snodgrass and Greg Shearer for being so willing to share their knowledge with us!

We have ALL been enjoying going without masks and going about life Covid free since our Villages vaccination rates are so high!

BUT, I have been hearing of more cases since vaccines, and the reduction of masking and concern for social distancing has relaxed. We have four known cases that I have heard of in the last week within our membership. That's more in one week than I ever heard during masking and lockdown! FYI - Two of the 4 people that tested positive had dizziness & nausea! Not what you would think of as Covid related.

I don't want to be an alarmist but know that even if you have been vaccinated you can still get it, be asymptomatic or not, and pass it on to your friends and family. The best news is that if you do get it though vaccinated, you will not likely be very sick, end up in the hospital or die from it. BUT, some among us are NOT vaccinated and are at greater risk of becoming seriously ill or dying if they do get it.

Covid is NOT GONE!

PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES, YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY!

• IF you feel unwell, have any respiratory or flu symptoms, stay home! VBC leagues allow for make ups in arrears in these cases. You will not forfeit matches. Just let us know.
• IF you think you may have Covid, get tested or quarantine as recommended per the CDC protocol.
• IF YOU GET IT PLEASE NOTIFY ME IF YOU PLAY IN A LEAGUE OR HAVE PLAYED IN ANY OF OUR EVENTS so I can let people know they may have been exposed
• IF YOU GET IT AND DON'T PLAY IN ANY OF OUR ORGANIZED VBC EVENTS, PLEASE NOTIFY THE PEOPLE YOU DO PLAY WITH SO THEY CAN PROTECT THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES

Mike Fitzgerald organizes and teaches the VERY POPULAR W's beginner and novice billiards class on Saturday mornings at Big Cypress from 9:30 - 11:30am with the help of Ken Boguski. She is looking for a more advanced woman player to help these ladies learn and enjoy the game. IF you are interested in helping out, even if it's a few times a month that would be great! Maybe a few will step up and a scehdule can be worked out to help our novice and newbie women players learn to enjoy the game as much as we do! 

Email me at thevillgesbc@gmail.com and I will pass it on to Mike. 

(I don't include her email here to keep it private from the internet)

A few spots remain for the "Friday Nite Special" M's A/B doubles Tourney on Friday Sept 17th. This will be a round robin doubles event (not scotch). Group will be laddered to the best of our ability and B players will random draw for partners. Check in is at 4pm - 4:15pm at LaHa with start at 4:30 or sooner if all are checked in. Donation is $5pp to be paid out to the top 4 places, 40%, 30%, 20%, 10%.

DON't WAIT! Email Gale at thevillagesbc@gmail.com to sign up!

I often hear women ask if there is any place they can go to play with other novice women.

IF you are a novice woman billiards player looking for opportunities to play with other women of you skill level there are THREE options for you:

1. Mondays - Silver Lake 9am - 11am - This used to be an Intermediate group but  the rec dept. has changed it to an opportunity for Novice Women. Pladies who show up can play matches with a friend, practice or do a round robin and play matches with each other to help improve your game by playing more.
2. Thursdays - Chatham Rec 1pm - 3pm - Nora O'Brien runs this group for lower skill level ladies looing for an opportunity to meet other ladies and improve their game.
3. COMING IN OCTOBER South of 44 - Receration will be offering a ladies drop in play opportunity at Riverbend on Wednesdays from 9am - 11am. All skill levels will be welcome to show up and do pick up games, find others near your skill level to practice with, and help improve your game!

The VBC runs the Al Parker Tournament on the third Thursday of every month. After 11 months of play, the 16 players with the most cummulative wins for the year are invited to play in an annual Championship. Each players gets an APT t-shirt. Top 4 places receive cash prizes with the top prize at approximately $100. The new annual session will begin with the October event and run through August of 2022.

This year's Championship will take place on Sept.16th at Silver Lake beginning at 8:30am. though there is limited space, spectators are welcome.

Congrats to this last year's top 16 players participating in the Championship event!

Billy Schmidt

Grover Henderson

Greg Shearer

Charles Verdick

Ron Boyle

Char Potochar

Vince Gerheim

Larry Alania

Steve Hancharick

Les Johnston

Kelle Gardiner

Roger Payer

Bob Cornell

Dale Tromski

Richard Ginn

Ginger Eng

A VBC Pro Shop Open house is planned for Sept. 24th before our Monthly Member Meeting from 2:30 - 4:30 at LaHacienda.

We haven't had one of these for a while but there isn't a better place for you to purchase Billiards Equiment at a nice discount! We sell to members only and don't advertise to the public so we can bring you the best deals!

Our inventory includes cues from action, Griffin and McDermott and we can special order MANY other brand names. In-stock Break sticks, single and double cue cases are available along with gloves, extensions, retractable bridges, cue clips and claws, as well as various tools to maintain your cues!

CARBON is the in thing in cues and shafts and we have a deal for you!

VBC Member Don Simpson will be on hand with his pro taper carbon shafts that he custom fits to your joint. They are available in 11.8mm, 12.5mm and 12.8mm tip sizes for $275 and can usually be delivered in a few days depending on demand. Don also sells carbon extendable extesions and does most any cue repair you can think of. BRing in your cues for price quotes on repairs and tip replacements! Tell him the VBC sent you! For every repair and sale, he makes a donation to the VBC.

THANK YOU FOR THE SERVICES YOU PROVIDE OUR MEMBERS DON!

Mark your calendar and come check us out!

Our Friday VBC 8 Ball League's next session will begin in mid November!

This league is made up of Teams of 8 players of various skill levels from advanced novice players to some of the most advanced players in the Villages. We use modified APA rules and a similar format where players play a handicapped match against another player.

We plan to expand this league and have received initial authorization from recreation to secure a location for a group of teams S of 44! There are MANY new residents in that area who are eager to play!

The S of 44 group would play in their own division on an afternoon at 2pm (day TBD) They would be incorporated in our end of session Best of the Best tournaments as well as Team Championships and our end of session Awards event. Final details are still to be decided.

We're looking for a minimum of 4 Teams of 8 players.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US GROW THIS LEAGUE?

• If you currently play in the VBC Friday 8 Ball League, live S of 44 and would like to move to a team closer to home, and OR captain a team, please notify your current captain as well as Judy Donner, League organizer at vbc8ball@gmail.com to let her know.
• If you have friends or family that might be interested in playing in this league, Judy is working on a wait list for next session. Have them contact her directly and ask them to include what their skill level might be. Judy will be visiting the current billiards groups S of 44 in the next few weeks to let them know about the opportunity.

Ladie's Cup American Team

Debbie Clifford - Captain

Joan Cabral

Dariel Dodge-Diestlekamp

Judy Donner

Jeanette Garber

Kathy Gittings

Fran Grooms

Carol Kemp

Joan Kreuzer

Janine LeBlond

Char Potochar

Elena Prikhodina

Karen Pritts

Joanne Sowell

Ladie's Cup National Team

Wendy Lord - Captain

Sherrie Aly

Gale Bellew

Lynne Burke

Mary Ciesco

Ginger Eng

Donna Gessert

Jean Light

Janet Lockhart

Pat Moses

Sally Moss

Michelle Nelson

Lynn Stone

Peggy Werner

M's Feeney Cup American Team

Mark Snodgrass - Captain

Larry Berg

Fred Caprio

Bob Deibel

Ken Duma

Grover Henderson

Steve Luskey

Larry Mazza

Dan Ramp

Billy Schmidt

Greg Shearer

Don Simpson

David Watson

Don Yost

M's Feeney Cup National Team

Rich Ross - Captain

Larry Davis

Pete Fleming

Paul Gagnon

John Groza

Bob Huebsch

Don Hunter

Phil Leduc

Rocco Manoriti

Clark Pidcock

Ron Ranger

Dave Reisinger

Steve Strasburger

Barney Stuart

As a courtesy to our members, here is a list of VBC Members who do cue tip replacements:

Ralph Albers - 352-350-4212

Dale Gregory - 513-403-1521

Thad Kulik - 978-994-4683 

Rik Peirce - 443-798-4155 (donates part of his proceeds to the VBC)

If you or any other VBC member you know of does cue repair, please let me know so we can include them next time.