Morning all, Reggie here. The result that was still hanging when we signed off last night is in. Wales' Jordan Shepherd has won the Pan American Heyball Open in Arequipa, beating England's Stephen Ellis 7–4 in Saturday night's men's final. Over in North Carolina, Amigos and Rack Of Ages booked their places in Ultimate Pool USA's $112,000 8-ball teams final. And later today in Brazil, four amateurs play for a two-year World Snooker Tour card.
AREQUIPA — SHEPHERD TAKES THE MEN'S TITLE
Last night's roundup left Ellis already in the final, waiting on the other semi. That semi went Shepherd's way: he beat England's Craig Brown 7–3, then saw off Ellis 7–4 on Saturday evening, per CueScore. The final was logged at 18:19 local time on table 16 at Coliseo Arequipa.
Shepherd did not lose a match all week — six wins from six, 41 racks to 23. Ellis arrived on a heater of his own, including a 7–0 semi-final whitewash of Alex O'Donoghue, and finished runner-up at 6–1.
Saturday's knockout, race to 7, as listed on CueScore:
Quarter-finals
- Jordan Shepherd 7–4 Lee Stephens
- Craig Brown 7–4 José Alberto Delgado
- Stephen Ellis 7–2 Jesus Crovetto Mayuri
- Alex O'Donoghue 7–5 Arfan Dad
Semi-finals
- Jordan Shepherd 7–3 Craig Brown
- Stephen Ellis 7–0 Alex O'Donoghue
Final
- Jordan Shepherd 7–4 Stephen Ellis
The champion collects USD 10,000 from a combined USD 116,000 fund split evenly between the men's and women's events, per the World Pool-Billiard Association. Play was on 16 JOY 9ft heyball tables and streamed on WPALive. The women's championship was also down to crown a winner on Saturday's programme; I'm not putting a name on that one until the official bracket confirms it.
CHEROKEE — AMIGOS AND RACK OF AGES FOR $112,000
We left Harrah's Cherokee last night with the semi-final pairings still to settle. By Saturday evening, Amigos and Rack Of Ages had reached the richest match in league pool history, per Sportshorts.
Friday's quarter-finals, from the DigitalPool snapshots carried by Billiard News, had already set the last four: Amigos 44–13 Drunken Masters, How You Like Me Now 28–2 Cue The Chaos, Big Time Rockets 29–16 Speed Killz, and Rack Of Ages 24–12 Lucky Break Birmingham. Amigos then came through against How You Like Me Now, and Rack Of Ages saw off Big Time Rockets.
The final itself was listed for 8pm Eastern on Saturday — 1am Sunday UK — with $112,000 to the champion and $50,000 to the runner-up from a $282,000 purse that pays through the last 32. As of this morning the overnight score had not yet shown up on the English-language wires. Brackets update on DigitalPool, and feature tables stream on Ultimate Pool USA's channels.
Sunday's individual programme is still running at Cherokee:
- National Open — sold-out field of about 512, $20,000 to the winner
- National Women's Open — $5,000 first prize
- Junior Open
CRICIUMA — A TOUR CARD ON THE TABLE THIS AFTERNOON
While the ranking tour packs up after Nanjing, a different route onto it is being decided in southern Brazil. The Pan American Open at Mampituba Country Club in Criciuma reaches its last day today. The winner earns a two-year World Snooker Tour card starting in the 2027–28 season, per snooker.org. Igor Figueiredo won it last year.
Today's semi-finals, best of 7, are listed for 13:00 UK time:
- Daniel Holoyda v Jason Williams
- Claudio Menechini v Noel Rodrigues Moreira
The final is best of 9 at 17:00 UK time.
How they got there, quarter-finals as listed on snooker.org:
- Daniel Holoyda 3–0 Hiago Lima Mendes
- Jason Williams 3–2 Edward Ling
- Claudio Menechini 3–1 Itaro Santos
- Noel Rodrigues Moreira 3–0 Rayan Menechini
BOLTON — AMATEUR GRAND FINAL HITS DECISION DAY
The IPA Amateur Series Grand Final heads into Sunday at Royal Sports Lounge. Saturday filled the winners' bracket through winner round 2. Today's losers' round 4 is listed from 10:00, winners' qualification at 11:15, the last 16 at 14:00 and the final at 19:00, all race to 8, with scores on CueScore.
Still in the winners' half overnight: Connor Pattie, Enrico Forgione, Scott Carpenter, Jack Park, Josh Thomond, Kyle Brown, James Kelly, Archie McCorkell, Kevin McLeod, Shaun Moore, Harvey Cunnah, Anton Riley, Dawud Qadir, Scott Mackenzie, Jordan Graham and David Markey.
The pot is £11,000, including £4,000 and an invitation onto the IPA Professional Tour for 2027 for the winner, per IPA Pool. The professional IPA Tour Grand Final follows next weekend, 13–15 November, at the Comis Hotel.
ALSO ON THE BOARD
- Leicester — the Sportsbet.io Champion of Champions starts tomorrow at the Mattioli Arena. Monday's openers are Mark Selby against Alfie Burden, then Barry Hawkins against Chris Wakelin, live on ITV.
- Karachi — the Sindh Snooker Cup played through its second round on Saturday at the Legend Snooker Club. The field is 151 players and the final is listed for 14 November, per Dawn.
That's your Sunday morning card. I'll be back later with Cherokee's overnight score, the Criciuma finalists, and however far Bolton has got.
— Reggie
Feature image: “Arequipa Cathedral at night (2011)” by Pierre André Leclercq, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
