The newly formed, first ever Santa Rosa County American Poolplayers Association (APA) ladies’ pool league completed its first Local Team Championship (LTC) and sends its first team to Las Vegas nationals in August. July 18 the league will host a fundraising tournament at Oops Alley to help pay for travel costs not covered by the travel assistance from the Santa Rosa APA.
According to league founder and member, Cynde Watson, she, Aureila Bush, and Krystal Manning last year wanted to play in an APA ladies’ league and trekked to Fort Walton Beach since no league existed in Santa Rosa County. Watson said Bush couldn’t take the smoke at the venue. The answer was to approach Matt Miley, owner of the Santa Rosa APA league about starting their own ladies’ league. The result, she said, was the formation of eight teams.
Watson said it was an “amazing group of ladies, lots of billiard talent for sure.” The tournament, she said, had two sessions to complete by mid June. The team she played on, the Southern Belles, she said, took the top spot in the first session after the winning team had to drop out, won the second session outright, then won the LTC. The championship, she said, had “many ups and downs but (was) a great battle.” The win meant a trip to nationals for the Southern Belles, made up of Team Captain Cynde Watson, Co-Captain Krystal Manning, Aureila Bush, Susan Bentley, and Arlene Boyd.
Watson said due to circumstances beyond their control, she and Bush will not be joining their team at nationals. Watson had to seek out two players she deemed worthy to take their places. She said she had many to choose from and decided the two she felt best to represent and meld with the remaining three ladies going would be Suzanne Stall and Jessica Burcham. “We are very honored they both agreed to go as part of Team Southern Belles,” Watson said.
The July 18 tournament starts at noon and is a Scotch Doubles tournament, meaning two on two where players on a team take turns after every shot until one misses, and then the next team can shoot. Teams can be male-female, male-male, and female-female. The rules when shooting, Watson said, are simple. “Call your pocket. It’s ball in hand for any foul i.e. not hitting a rail after object ball was hit, scratching, and not hitting the object ball.”
The cost to enter is $20 per team and can be prepaid this week. Watson said registering the day of the tournament is an option as well, if there is room. Watson invites all to come out and join in the fun, food, drink, and pool to help support this historic pool event in Santa Rosa County. Call Watson at 485-4040 for further information.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Newly formed ladies pool league sends team to Vegas