Billiards Congress of America Pool Leagues
Riviera Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas
Nevada
USA
www.playbca.com
11-20 May 2006
Darren Appleton
Brits show the Yanks a thing or two, or three, or four!!!
Over 7,000 players went to Vegas this year but it was Darren Appleton, playing eight ball on 8 foot Diamond tables with super fast Simonis 760 cloth, who showed the rest of the world what this game is all about.
Darren playing for the first time ever in this Grand Master's event went undefeated through the field of 38 runners to lift the trophy and the $3750 first prize.
This event is for those considered better than Master's and can include pro players who are not in the Professional 9 Ball Tournament which runs at the same time in the Riviera Hotel
Click on "Read More..." for the report and more photos.
Darren Appleton
Darren saw off some classy players in this showpiece tournament including youngster Gandy Valle from the Phillipines, Bobby Pickle, well known bar box player and recent IPT qualifier Shane Vanboening.
123 at the Masters event, Karl Boyes - 2nd, Mick Hill - 1st, and Andy Richardson - 3rd.
In the Master's Event there was even more success for the UK players with the top prize of $5600 going to Mick Hill, 2nd prize of $4200 making its way into Karl Boyes bank account and Andy Richardson completing the rout by taking third spot and a prize of $3260.
Lee Kendall
Mick went undefeated in the tournament which attracted 169 players and beat team mates Andy Richardson, Chris Melling and Karl Boyes twice in this double knockout event.
The Team... minus Daz!
In the Player Member Tournament, yet another Brit was a high placed finisher with Andrew Breene coming second and lifting the prize of $3800.
Karl Boyes
About the BCA National 8-Ball Championship
It is played on 228 Diamond 7 foot tables covered with Simonis 760
It is organised by the Billiards Congress of America Pool Leagues, (not to be confused with the BCA who sold their interest in leagues and tournaments just over a year ago to Mark Griffin who is half owner of the company that makes Diamond tables )
The tournament is run along the same lines as before when the real BCA were the organisers.
This year there were 21 events in total.
| Competition | No. of Entrants |
| Men's Open Singles | 1376 entries |
| Womenīs Open Singles | 400 entries |
| Menīs Masters Singles | 169 entries |
| Womenīs Master Singles | 66 entries |
| Menīs Senior Singles | 267 entries |
| Super Senior Singles | 139 entries |
| Womenīs Senior Singles | 90 entries |
| Menīs Player Member Singles | 262 entries |
| Womenīs Player Members | 48 entries |
| Menīs Grand Masters | 38 entries |
| Womenīs Grand Masters | 10 entries |
| Menīs Open Teams of 5 | 696 entries |
| Womenīs Open Teams of 5 | 119 entries |
| Menīs Master Teams | 19 entries |
| Womenīs Master Teams | 17 entries |
| Open Scotch Doubles | 403 entries |
| Master Scotch Doubles | 64 entries |
| Menīs Trophy Teams | 91 entries |
| Womenīs Trophy teams | 9 entries |
| Artistic Pool Tournaments | |
| Speed Pool Tournaments |
Report and Photographs
Courtesy of Peter Aprile
(Peter played in the Super Senior event for over 65īs and finished 49th, his best result was 5th a couple of years ago).