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Volume VI, Issue 7 · Early April, 2011
Warren
County Report
VCU
carries state’shopes to Houston
Barking or theDog Park
Redistricting chaos
Athey retires -EXCLUSIVE interview
10, 17, 187615
Page • Warren County Report • Early April, 011 Read all issues in their entirety FREE on www.WarrenCountyReport.com
The sporting life
o advertise in Warren County Report:Contact Alison at alisond@warrencountyreport.com • 540-551-07or Angie Buterakos at angie@warrencountyreport.com - 540-683-9197
8 ball, corner pocket – Clatterbuck reminisces at Breaktime
No mean feat when local champion took world’s ‘Player of Decade’
Carol BallardWarren County ReportLast Monday aternoon at Break-time Billiards, owner Jake Burackerand champion pool player MattClatterbuck relaxed to take a tripdown memory lane – it ended upbeing our own local equivalent o Hollywood billiard classics like “TeHustler” and “Te Color o Money”– without the Hollywood intrigue, i not the big-game drama.Both men have played in poolrooms all over the region, but Mattventured out on the national poolcircuit in his younger years. “WhenI got out o college, I spent two yearsmaking a living playing pool. Someolder riends o mine and I wouldtravel to towns and play their bestplayers or money,” said Clatter-buck.He said that news o good playerstraveled ahead o them by word o mouth and players showed up wholiked to play or money. He said,“We’d walk in, and usually the bestplayer would get up, and i they didn’t want to play, they would di-rect us to a place where someonewould play. We never had one closecall.”His experiences didn’t match thedramatization o pool players in themovie “Te Color o Money” and inthe places he went, the players knew what they were doing and knew pretty much what to expect romthe game. He also said they didn’tpretend to be bad players in order toset people up.“We would know the name o thepeople where we played and therewas no hustling,” Matt explained,and Jake advised, “I you pull up tosome redneck place and see someold cars with bent-up doors andthe parking lot ull o beer cans, it’sprobably not a good place to go in.”Matt and his riends traveled asar west as Oklahoma, as ar southas Florida and as ar north as New York, pursuing the dream o makinga living playing pool, but those daysare temporarily over or him. “It wasa blast, a lot o un, but there was noreal uture in it, and it came to a stopwhen I ound out I had a kid on theway,” Matt said, and added, “I need-ed to settle down and not be away rom her all the time.” So he tooka ull time job with United ParcelService and has much more time tospend with his daughter Lexi, who isseven years old now.
Te upset
He still nds chances to entertournaments, and still competes onoccasion. Last March, the 31-year-old won at the Super Billiards ExpoAmateur Open held in Valley Forge,Pa. competing alongside 835 play-ers. “By doing so,” he said, “I was nolonger an amateur. It gave me a paidentry into the proessional SuperBilliards Expo 10-ball event this yearand I won cash and nished in 17thplace out o 7 players.In the rst round, he drew WorldClass player Mika Immonen, whohas won two out o three Opens.Te Finland native was the world’snumber one or two years in a row and has been named the Player o the Decade – no small competitionthere!“It’s a huge upset that I beat him.I work at UPS ull-time and can’t dothis as a proession and can’t prac-tice as much as that. I was playingagainst 7 guys who do this as a liv-ing. I’m proud o that,” said Matt.
Jake Buracker, Breaktime Billiards owner, and MattClatterbuck.Pool champion Matt Clatterbuck at Breaktime Bil-liards.
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Early April, 011 • Warren County Report • Page 3Read all issues in their entirety FREE on www.WarrenCountyReport.com
Memory Lane
Te pool-playing roots o the twoplayers who talked with us go backto their childhood and hold goodmemories or them-memories thatinclude both o their athers.Jake actually bought BreaktimeBilliards because he loves pool.“When I ound out this place wasclosing I thought I’d keep it open somy riends and I would have a placeto go. Tere’s not a lot to do in thetown and this is a good place to be,”he said.He said his dad used to shoot poolyears ago, was pretty good and wouldtake Jake along with him to Ramey’sGrocery in Bentonville, where they had two tables. “We used to play aspartners. Dad set it up so the cueball was in place and I didn’t have ahard shot. We played or money,” herecalled.Jake also said that in all the yearshe’s played, “I’ve never seen talentlike Matt has. It’s shocking what hecan do with a pool stick,” and added,“He stomped me all over the placewhen I was around , and he was1 or13. He beat me like a baby.”Matt was born and raised in FrontRoyal and has amily here. He grad-uated rom Warren County HighSchool in 1997 and then went toBridgewater College where he ma-jored in business administration,played baseball rom spring to theend o all and graduated in 001. Heplayed shortstop or the Front RoyalCardinals in the summer o 000.Pool was usually a winter sport orhim because he was busy playingbaseball the rest o the year.When he was about ve yearsold, his dad opened a pool room onMain Street and Matt lled in thetime waiting or his dad by standingon milk crates to reach the table andtrying to hit some balls, but he really started playing when he was around11 or 1. His dad was working atFront Royal Family Billiards andMatt would play by himsel or vehours at a time. He started playingin smaller, local tournaments whenhe was 13 or14 in Front Royal, Win-chester, and Middletown.Even though the days o riding thepool circuit all over the east coastare over, Matt still plays at BreaktimeBilliards about two or three times aweek and competes in regional tour-naments that he can drive to withinan hour or so. In the Planet Poolour, he went rom one pool roomto another once a month, and played5 to 75 players.Matt is proud o these wins: rstplace in a Pro Am mix o 3 ama-teurs and proessionals; rst placein two Maryland state 9-ball cham-pionships; becoming 008 VirginiaState champion in a tournamentheld in Virginia Beach; and winningour or ve regional matches.“I don’t regret my decision to settledown and take care o my daughter.It would have aected my relation-ship with her, but i it worked out Iwould do it again or a week or two.It’s denitely un, and i it paid likegol, I’d be a millionaire,” Matt said.Breaktime Billiards is located at460 S. Commerce Ave. and hostsull leagues three nights a week andtournaments on Saturdays, Sun-days and uesdays. Sundays are orleague players only. According toJake, they’re open rom 11a.m. tomidnight, and it’s pretty much am-ily-oriented. Kids can come in ater9 p.m. i they are with amily. “Wedon’t have explicit lyrics on the jukebox,” he said, and added that theirhourly rates are the most reasonablerates in town.You may reach Breaktime Billiardsat 540-636-844
(o watch Matt play against MikaImmonen online visit: youtube.com/ watch?v=bpe1PS7KIZQo read more about Mika “Te Iceman” Immonen, visit: mikaimmonen.com)
The sporting life
o advertise in Warren County Report:Contact Alison at alisond@warrencountyreport.com • 540-551-07or Angie Buterakos at angie@warrencountyreport.com - 540-683-9197
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