Women's billiards tourney with $30K in prizes coming to Lakes Region during Motorcycle Week

GILFORD — During an already busy week, 16 top billiards players from all over the world will come to the Lakes Region to compete in the $30,000 Women’s Professional Billiards Association Bike Week Showdown, June 12-15, at Winni Bar & Billiards.

Players will compete for a $30,000 prize pool in 10-ball and scotch doubles games with first place receiving $9,000. One $35 admission ticket will allow access to matches on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and an additional ticket is needed for Saturday’s championship matches.

Ron Boucher, who puts together Tavern Players Magazine, said anyone who attends will get their money’s worth.

“For people that like pool, just shoot a couple occasional games at home, or something like that, it makes it very exciting for the fact that they're coming here,” he said.

The tournament has an international draw. Players represent countries including Austria, Australia, Scotland, Canada, Bulgaria and Taiwan. And domestically, players come from states like Texas, Indiana, New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida.

Tournaments like this one with such international appeal on the East Coast usually take place in larger cities like New York or Boston. The WPBA was looking for an East Coast tournament location, Boucher said, and conversations with representatives at sponsors Diamond Billiard Products and Viking Cues led the organization to reach out to Boucher, who then recommended Winni Bar & Billiards. Boucher reached out to co-owners Shawn and Wendy Feaster and Eric Walsh. While Shawn has already hosted a lot of tournaments, this one particularly grabbed his attention because all the competitors are women. He sees more women than ever starting to play billiards, and a tournament like this will expose a new demographic in the Lakes Region to the sport.

“I'm actually more excited that it's women than I would be if it was for the men. The men, they would draw a big crowd, no question,” he said. “The woman, there's a lot of women pool players and we're trying to really dive into that demographic and get the ladies out there to come and try a league or tournament. And so, I'm hoping that this kind of helps kickstart that.”

More than Boucher’s venue recommendation encouraged the WPBA to host the tournament in the Lakes Region. President Dean Roeseler said Laconia Motorcycle Week was a huge interest for them.

“During Bike Week with all the bikers in, with a couple hundred thousand — which is an awful lot — I don’t know where they put them all, and this new pool room Winni Bar & Billiards, it seemed like a perfect place to hold it.”

Dean is already planning to make this an annual event.

June 10-14, the 31st Best of Bikers tournament will also take place, where amateur billiards players compete for a $2,000 prize pool, and first place takes home $700. There will also be challenge matches at The Margate Resort, where players can pay to enter themselves into a raffle for four different levels, and challenge the professional players. If any player wins against one of the women, they receive an extra raffle ticket for their level.

The challenge matches consist of four levels. The first level winner will receive a custom Viking cue with a Weirs Beach design. Level two players will compete for a new Diamond home version pool table. Level three only has 25 available tickets, and includes both level one and two draws, a polo shirt, gift certificate, and a special drawing for a cue and case. For level four, anyone can purchase one of the 300  raffle tickets for a chance to win an Indian Motorcycle. Purchasing a ticket will also offer the chance to play against a pro, receive two games of 9-ball, a selfie, and an autographed cue ball. The first 100 contestants will also receive a gift certificate to PearsonCues.com.

Boucher said the tournament would not have happened without the sponsors. There are two New Hampshire sponsors, Woodstock Inn Brewery in North Woodstock and Hobbs Tavern & Brewing in West Ossipee, and other sponsors include Pabst Blue Ribbon, Jameson, Jaegermeister, Absolut, Twisted Tea, Dunkin’ Donuts, White Claw and Teremana.

Roeseler encouraged everyone to come out, especially motorcyclists who have been to Laconia Motorcycle Week before and are looking for something new.

“I'm not a biker, but I know if I was on a week-long thing, I'd be looking for new things to do,” he said. “If they've been going there for years, this is something that's new. This is something that they can stop in and and check out, and I think it's a perfect storm, so to speak.”