On the 4th Day of the Western Regionals the championship doubles were contested. Each of the 3 doubles teams entered played a 2 1/2 hour match against the other two teams.

In the first match Tim Hanks and Jim Hanks took on Steve Scalpone and Eric Sawyer. In this game Eric and Tim quickly built 4 ball breaks that took each team to 4b. Steve and Jim got into a tactical struggle trying to get the second balls going. After several missed opportunities by both teams, Jim finally got his ball around to 3b on last turn where he missed the hoop with Steve's ball right there. Fortunately for Jim, Steve missed the first roque after hitting in giving Tim and Jim a 17-10 win.

In game 2, Steve and Eric were matched against a couple of legends of the game, Jim Bast and Erv Peterson. Steve quickly recovered from game 1 and ran his first break to 4b. The game then developed into a series of tactical maneuvers to try to keep both Eric's and Jim and Erv's bills from building breaks. Jim and Erv and Eric all missed several opportunities to keep breaks alive before Eric finally sustained a break and ran it through rover on last turn securing Steve and Eric a 22-4 win.

In game 3 Jim and Tim took on Erv and Jim. Erv hit in on the the 3rd ball and started a 3 ball break that broke down at 3. Tim hit in and was able to take his ball to 4b. Erv's hit in failed and Jim started the second ball break. After trying and failing to peel Tim's ball at 4b after 3, 5 & 6, Jim gave up on his triple peel options but put his break at risk as he broke down at 1b. Erv was able to hit in and take his ball to 4b but failed to set a good leave when his short roque near the peg failed. It took Jim and Tim several turns to finish from here but eventually Jim pegged the two bells out for the championship 26-9.

Congratulations to Tim and Jim for winning their first Western Regional doubles championship and to Steve and Eric for their runner-up finish.

It was particularly special for me to win the title with my son Tim!

Priceless!!

Jim Hanks. Tournament Coordinator