JOOLA USA

The Homenetmen Ararat Open was held last April 29th.  This was the inaugural tournament for this club.  The Homenetmen Ararat is a club where members of Armenian ancestry meet and socialize.  The building provides facilities for different sports, dance and it even has a cafeteria.

With only 9 tables, this one day tournament was limited to 6 events for schedule efficiency.  Even with a $500 first prize purse for the Open winner, this tournament attracted only a limited number of high level players.  Several tour-naments were held in the last month and this could explain the lack of entries.  Those 52 players who entered were treated to one of the most efficiently run tournaments that I have witnessed.

The basketball gym at the club was used for the tournament.  While the ends were well lit, the middle area was slightly dark.  With so much varied lighting, I opted not to take any photos.  Two foreign players; Sayari Ohno from Japan and Susan Johnson from the UK provided additional color to the otherwise normal TT tournament players.

In open semifinal, Coffee Lu lost 4-1 to Barney Reed.  Coffee would win game 2 but would struggle through-out the match.  Barney just had too much variety of shots to keep Coffee from getting anything going.   In the other semifinal, Ben had no trouble is his 4-0 win over Rudy Miranda.  Rudy kept fighting to the end, Ben was just more consistent and relentless in attacking Rudy from both sides.  For the finals, both Ben and Barney agreed to play 3 out of 5 instead of 4 out of 7 games.  These two combatants are both familiar with each other's game.  Barney starts out swinging mostly attacking with his forehand with  inside out loops to Ben's forehand, forcing Ben to back away from the table.  Anyone that knows Ben's game, knows he is in extreme control when he is on or near the table.  Anytime he moves away, he is vulnerable.  Ben, comes back to win game 3 but Barney continues to put pressure and forces Ben to back off from the table.  Barney takes the 4th game to win $500 first place.  It was a disappointment for Ben as his family from London was sitting in the bleachers cheering for him.

In my two hour drive home, I get a phone call at 5:30 asking me who is playing in the Open.  I told my friend Barney won 3-1 over Ben.  The tournament finished at 4:15 and I was half an hour away from home!  A plan is in the works by this club to organize a two day tournament in the future.  The lighting in the mid section is also going to be improved.  Overall, a very well run tournament with a lot of smiles at the end of the day.