23rd Tr. Pr. Rel. w/out results - VNEA

On Wednesday, June 1st, the World’s #1 Exhibition Pool
Player Dave “Ginger Wizard” Pearson attempted to break
a Guinness World Record by clearing 10 racks of 15 balls in
less than 8:51.1 seconds. With a nice crowd cheering Dave
on, he gave several gallant efforts toward breaking the
record although he came up just seconds short on his best
attempt. The crowd loved it and Dave was incredible.
Another very worthwhile event took place during the 31st
Annual event - The VNEA “Cues For Kids” Program. Many
gracious companies donated cues, cases, clothing, etc. to be
raffled off during the tournament with the proceeds going
directly to the growing VNEA Junior Program. Thank you
very much to the following companies that donated merchandise:
VALLEY
Connoisseur Of Custom Cues
Discount Custom Leather Fantom Cues
Fisher Cues Frank’s Center
GW Cues J & J America
OMEGA BILLIARDS Palmer Cues
Pechauer Cues The Custom Cue Connection
The Team competition concluded in the early afternoon on
June 4th. It was now time to start preparing for the highly
anticipated 31st Annual VNEA Awards Banquet and
Entertainment Extravaganza. When the doors opened at 5:30
that evening, the players were greeted to a stage and surrounding
that looked like it came from a Hollywood set.
With an ultra-modern look, constantly changing strobe-type
lighting and a fog-machine puffing at every award winners
entrance, the set stole the show from the get-go!
As always, the players were treated to their pick of over a
dozen beverage stations, and the great sounds of the Blues
Brothers. Also, an incredible buffet style dinner was
served to the party-goers. The act entertained the crowd
throughout the hour long cocktail party and then hung
around to greet the players and have their pictures taken
with them.
Once again serving as the 31st Annual emcee was VNEA’s
Director of Marketing & Promotions Brian Elliott. Brian
made sure that each and every award winner received their
accolades and with the brilliantly lit set, everyone who
stepped on the stage knew that they were part of something
special.
An incredibly entertaining slide show of the weeks activities
was compilated by Britt Pearson Photography of Las
Vegas which documented a lot of the weeks tournament
festivities and this was shown to the party goers to great
crowd approval.
Gregg Elliott, VNEA Executive Director, acknowledged the
remarkable Manufacturer/Supplier members that help support
the growth of the VNEA International Championships
by displaying their products during the tournament. They
included: Connoisseur of Custom Cues, Discount Custom
Leather, Fisher Cues, Frank’s Center, GW Collection, J & J
America, Omega Billiards, On-Site Stress Relief, Palmer
Cues, Pechauer Cues and The Custom Cue Connection.
Sponsoring this years championships were:
Valley • Omega Billiards
On top of everything that the sponsors do for the tournament,
nothing is more rewarding for the players than the
Daily Cue Raffles that take place on 6 different occasions.
Thousands of dollars of cues are given away at this
event thanks to Tournament Sponsors Valley and Omega
Cues.
Every year the VNEA acknowledges some special people
behind the scenes who work incredibly hard throughout
the tournament. The following people were awarded
beautiful plaques for their hard work:
• Statistician Of The Year - Barry Cooper
• Set-Up Person Of The Year - Chuck Kiss
• Referee Of The Year - Amy Roche
Valley continued their support of the Annual VNEA
Championships by giving away a phenomenal Valley
Home Pool Table at the banquet. Jarmo Huovineu, from
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, was the lucky winner of the
beautiful table.
If the audience wasn’t entertained enough at this point,
then they were certainly in for a big, jolt of funny which
came in the form of professional comedian Alonzo
Bodden. Alonzo is the winner of the hit television show
“Last Comic Standing” and he was also a winner with our
pool playing crowd. His material was hilariously fitting
and his interaction with our crowd was priceless! There
could not have been a better way to end the show!
Another successful event was in the books and all of us at
the VNEA would like to thank every one of our players for
their continued support and we promise the future of your
Association is going to be
GREAT!
BALLY’S R
L A S V E G A S