SFPA

Hello captains, the board hopes the season has been going well for you, your teammates, and your host venues.

Election Day schedule change
The main purpose of this message is to notify you that we have added an off-week to the schedule to align with the November 5 election night. There will be no play on November 5. We have shifted the subsequent regular season and playoff weeks forward to account for this.

Board elections
The following board positions are up for election this season: Vice President (Thayer), Treasurer (Crystal), Member at Large 2 (JM), Co-Head Referee 2 (Justin). If you or one of your teammates is interested in running for one of these positions, please contact a board member by October 29.

New tournament venue
We will be trying out a new venue for the upcoming 9-ball finals on October 27 – the BreakRoom in downtown Berkeley. This venue is a longtime billiard room that has been recently renovated and reopened. It is easily accessible by BART (1 block from the station) and there is an inexpensive parking garage nearby.

There are five remaining qualifiers for the 9-ball tournament. The $25 entry fee pays for participation in all the qualifiers and a T-shirt. Dates and times for these events are posted on the league calendar.

West Coast Challenge
This season is not a WCC-qualifying season, so the team event will be contested for pride only and the Hi-Lo and individual tournaments will have cash prizes. The upcoming Spring 2025 season will be a WCC-qualifying season, with the event set to be hosted by Long Beach in August 2025.

Shot clock
In the captain’s meeting, I made an error when talking about shot clock decisions being pegged on specific times like 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30. Rather, they are pegged on the time when each 4-game round begins. The precise language is laid out in the handbook:
– With the match starting at 7:30PM, if the first round (games 1-4) is not completed by 8:30PM (1 hour after the start of the match); captains noting when the 2nd round begins, if the round (games 5-8) is not completed within an hour of the start of round 2; captains noting when the 3rd round begins, if the round (games 9-12) is not completed within an hour of the start of the round. The shot clock shall only be imposed at the beginning of a quarter following when one of the above criteria has been met.

A match is considered “back on track” once the next round takes fewer than 60 minutes and use of the shot clock can be ended.

Thank you
Thanks for all you do for the league and good luck the rest of the season!

Full results from the West Coast Challenge in San Diego have been posted on the WCC 83 page.

The San Diego Pool League did a fantastic job organizing and hosting the event at the Sheraton Mission Valley hotel. Ten fresh Diamond tables were shipped in for the occasion. The SFPA thanks Kevin Hewitt, Ann Camonayan, and the other SDPL board members and volunteers for all their hard work in making the event happen.

Long Beach swept the awards, winning the team competition, open individuals, women’s individuals, and Hi-Lo scotch doubles. San Francisco’s Happy Lounge Rawhides held the GT Garage Hitters to a 9-4 win in the second round, which ended up being as close as the Long Beach team came to losing. Both the Rawhides and the Hi-Lo team of Kevin DeWar and Rocky Angel ended up finishing in 3rd place.

San Francisco performed strongly in the open individuals, taking three of the top eight spots. Marcelo Aviles finished 3rd, Nithin Tharakan finished 4th, and Steven Waldon took the 8th spot. Yuko Takahashi rounded out the trophies for SFPA with a 4th place finish in the women’s tournament. A number of San Francisco players also cashed in the three night tournaments – Skip Perry, Marcelo Aviles, Guy Argo, Steven Waldon, Nithin Tharakan, and Kevin Scheper (twice).

We look forward to seeing the LAPL, SDPL, and LBPL in a year’s time in Long Beach for West Coast Challenge 84!

The SFPA delegation will be heading down to San Diego over the next couple days to compete in the 83rd edition of the West Coast Challenge. We will post updates and results on the WCC 83 page as they start to roll in. Good luck to all players!

Congratulations to the following players for their finishes in the captain’s tournament:

1st – Evan Burgess, Pilsner InnDecisives
2nd – Guy Argo, Smoke & Fizz
3rd – Kameha Barnette, King Cuong’s Den
4th – JM Reasonda, Bus Stop Flyers

We hope that everyone had a great first week of regular season play! Some upcoming tournament dates have been posted:

The captain’s tournament will take place this Saturday at the Pilsner Inn. One player per team can participate in this event.

The Luby Invitational will be contested at the Cinch on September 28. All new league members and players with a combined record under .500 for the last two seasons are eligible for this fun and free event.

Finally, dates for the eight 9-ball qualifying events have been posted for late September and October.

We will be finalizing the remaining tournament dates soon and will post them when they have been locked in.

Good luck and happy playing!