Yukon team finishes 15th at Calgary eight-ball tourney

The Bannock Burners showcased some northern talent this past week at a Canadian eight-ball championship held in Calgary, Alberta.

The Bannock Burners showcased some northern talent this past week at a Canadian eight-ball championship held in Calgary, Alberta.

The Yukon group finished 15th in a 37 team field, winning four rounds out of seven.

The five-some arrived back in Whitehorse earlier this week pleased with their C divisional showing.

“Everybody was a little nervous at first and then once we got into it we realized that no sense being nervous,” said Joe MacLellan, one of the players on the Bannock Burners. “We kept telling each other play the same way we played back home because that’s how we got there.

“So once we got back in our zone we did good.”

The Burners qualified for the national tournament after winning this year’s Porter Creek Billiards Club weekly eight-ball league back in April. The team accumulated 1,277 points after three playoff rounds, finishing with more than 50 points than the next closest competitor.

Besides MacLellan, members of the Bannock Burners include Mike Achtymichuk, Raelynne Gartner, Henry Mills and Rob Sinclair.

The Burners not only faced a much stiffer competition in Alberta, but also smaller tables, which had a faster tournament-style cloth.

The smaller tables took some getting used to for the Yukoners, creating challenges as a result of not having as much room to move the cue ball around.

For Achtymichuk, the recent national championship was his first non-Yukon eight-ball tournament. He said he enjoyed the competition, but admitted to having some initial trouble adjusting to the faster tables.

“The cloth was so fast down there compared to up here,” he said. “I have a hard shot as it is and instead of it going down about a foot it would go down three or four.

“It’s hard to play shape playing with that cloth.”

Achtymichuk said he eventually got used to the differences and went 2-2 in the final round.

“I was starting to play better and better as the matches went on,” he said. “It was a great experience, I learned a lot from just watching other people play. They are really good down there, they play really well.”

One of the highlights for the five Burners’ players included winning their opening round matchup.

The Burners’ first round opponent was a team that was contemplating entering the B division, before eventually deciding on the C.

Each round was a race to 13 wins and after 12 games, the Yukon squad found itself trailing 8-4. In spite of this deficit, the Burners weren’t about to go quietly and managed to close the gap to 12-10.

Wins from MacLellan and Sinclair tied it all up at 12 all, leaving a final game played by Gartner, who admitted to being nervous in the deciding contest.

“I had one ball to make before the eight-ball and I was shaking uncontrollably, but I managed to make the shot to win it,” she said.

For her final two shots, Gartner had to cut the one ball into the corner and then come back around to put the eight-ball in the side pocket.

She set herself up perfectly and made no mistake on the eight.

“I got it, it was awesome,” Gartner said. “I let out a big ‘Whoop.’”

She said Calgary tournament was awesome and hopes to go back next year for singles and scotch doubles.

“It was good to go down and just experience a bigger setting.”

Mills also had a good time in Calgary and was happy about the team finishing 15th.

“The games that we did lose, it was close,” he said. “It was a lot of fun actually, that’s the big time down there.

“It was nice meeting people from all over, all the way from Regina to Victoria. People were really friendly down there.”