Students rack their balls

The Department of Student Activities held an intramural billiards 8-ball tournament Oct. 24 in the game room lounge in the Student Activities Center.

The event was free of charge as long as students presented their IDs before entering the lounge to participate in the tournament.

The billiards tournament is held once each semester and offers a change of pace from the normal intramural events provided by the Student Activities Department.

It is a different recreational event from common intramural sports such as flag football,” said Andy Hudgins, coordinator of Intramural and Recreational Sports. “It brings in a different crowd.”

Sophomore Eric Raymond was one of the six students who participated in the tournament. Raymond said that the tournament is a fun way to play the game of billiards without intense competition and pressure.

It is a nice relaxing way to play billiards,” Raymond said. “And with the tournament being school-sponsored, (GC&SU students) don’t have to worry about entry fees.”

The players played the billiards game of 8-ball instead of 9-ball.

In 8-ball, players try to knock in balls based on their coloring, solids or stripes. After all their balls have been knocked in, the players try to knock in the 8-ball and call the pocket they are going to knock the ball in.

9-ball consists of players trying to knock the balls in numerical order into the pockets.

“In my opinion, 9-ball is a game of luck while 8-ball takes a little more skill,” Hudgins said.

The tournament was double elimination and the matches were best 2 out of 3 series in the game of 8-ball. The player who won two games was the winner of the match.

The championship match featured Justin Burch, a junior who did not lose a single series, and Maurice Jackson, who lost his first match and won three straight elimination matches to get the championship.

However, Jackson’s luck ran out when Burch won 2-0.

The grand prize for winning the tournament was a GC&SU T-shirt with the Bobcat logo on the back and the words “Intramural Champion”.

Burch liked the fact that he was receiving a shirt.

“I’m going wear around it campus and be happy,” Burch said.

A good reward after a hard night’s work

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 4 2005. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry