Whitehorse eight-ball player Joe “Cue” MacLellan is a resilient individual.
Just two weeks after suffering a stroke, MacLellan was competing at the 10th annual CCS Western Eight-Ball/Nine-Ball Championship in Calgary, Alta.
“I’ve been playing for 42 years now,” said MacLellan. “I just got out of the hospital. Two weeks ago, I was in the hospital - I had a stroke. So I think I did pretty good for the condition I was in.”
Competing in eight-ball at the event held last week, MacLellan placed 13th in men’s singles out of 64 players.
MacLellan took his first five matches on his way to winning eight of 11. In the first-to-win-five-games format, MacLellan won 60 games out of 81 in total.
He also ran the table, going from the break to the eight-ball, nine times in the singles competition.
“All these players are picked by playing in this league and some of the teams are chosen for winning in their division in their location,” said MacLellan. “There are 64 players, mixed up from Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, all through B.C. and the Yukon.
“Players from out east can come play in it.
“It’s all the players that ranked high in their division. So you get the best players from all across Canada.”
In addition to the men’s singles, MacLellan played in the team event after getting picked up by a B.C. team of four women and it also finished 13th.
“One of the girls just started playing this year, so we did pretty good,” said MacLellan.
“The girls went to play in the women’s and two girls on my team finished third and another finished second.
“We had a good team.”
Last week was MacLellan’s third time competing at the event; he finished 17th two years ago.
MacLellan hasn’t done too shabbily at home in the Whitehorse Eight-Ball League either.
Two years ago, he won the Tuesday league with one team and won the Thursday league with another. He also finished third as an individual in the league.
“You play pool at three different levels,” said MacLellan. “You play pool for fun; you play pool serious; and you play real competitively, when you go into these tournaments.”
MacLellan will be competing at a North American tournament in Las Vegas next week.
The intensity of the competition raises MacLellan’s game, he said.
“I went two years ago and out of 60 players I finished 17th,” said MacLellan. “A second tournament I played there, out of 56 players, I got third place.
“I do well at tournaments there. I focus more. I play the game much better because it’s serious.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com