bradb
10-18-2012, 01:38 PM
This is a vintage video of John Bear (my old pool instructor) in a 9ball tournament in Calgary playing Allain "Frenchy" Boutin (who installed my table a few years ago), Frenchy's the guy with the hat.
You may recognize the owner Jimmy Wych at the end of the series.
In this match Bear shows his safety play which was his specialty in Snooker. Incidentally, whenever he and Frenchy played snooker, Bear would give him a spot.
Sadly John Bear passed away a few years back. So he never got the chance to do the great things he was capable of in US pool.
Cliff Thorburn said that John had the smoothest stroke of anybody in the pool scene, and when John converted to pool he took that smoothness to the 9ball table and began winning tournaments. He also traveled down to Washington state sometimes to hustle the locals.
John's only downfall was he sometimes lacked confidence in himself despite his great talent. He would play easier players (like me) here in BC and give outrageous spots. Once he ran a 147 in snooker in 4 minutes. But whenever a top player would come to town to play John his game would sometimes falter. He came so close to winning the Canadian championship many times but something would always happen.
We all miss John Bear, maybe some of you out there in Canadian pool knew him.
-Brad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhKcmYCvBM&feature=relmfu
You may recognize the owner Jimmy Wych at the end of the series.
In this match Bear shows his safety play which was his specialty in Snooker. Incidentally, whenever he and Frenchy played snooker, Bear would give him a spot.
Sadly John Bear passed away a few years back. So he never got the chance to do the great things he was capable of in US pool.
Cliff Thorburn said that John had the smoothest stroke of anybody in the pool scene, and when John converted to pool he took that smoothness to the 9ball table and began winning tournaments. He also traveled down to Washington state sometimes to hustle the locals.
John's only downfall was he sometimes lacked confidence in himself despite his great talent. He would play easier players (like me) here in BC and give outrageous spots. Once he ran a 147 in snooker in 4 minutes. But whenever a top player would come to town to play John his game would sometimes falter. He came so close to winning the Canadian championship many times but something would always happen.
We all miss John Bear, maybe some of you out there in Canadian pool knew him.
-Brad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhKcmYCvBM&feature=relmfu