ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
CHARBEL'S SPORTS GRILL'S two teams beat the odds by capturing first and second place in the International 8-Ball Championship.
Charley Nakhle has only one regret about his recent trip to Las Vegas. He couldn't get a bet down.
In a place that runs on long odds, the Roanoke bar owner could have cleaned house if only he could have put a sizeable wager on his two teams in the 16th annual International 8-Ball Championship.
Talk about a 'dog exacta.In a field of 623 teams from 37 states and 18 countries, Nakhle's two teams of pool players from Charbel's Sports Grill finished 1-2 in the Open Division.
"If they'd laid odds on that happening and I bet it, I come back a millionaire,'' Nakhle said.
"Hell, I could have bought Roanoke.''
No doubt. The odds of two teams from the same state, much less the same city and the same bar, finishing 1-2 are astronomical.
Don't believe it? Just listen to Greg Elliott, president of the Valley National 8-Ball Association.
"It's simply unheard of,'' Elliott said via phone from his Las Vegas office. "If you figure each team has a 1-in-623 chance of winning, the odds of two teams from the same bar finishing first and second would really be huge.
"How huge? Put it this way, the odds would be so long that the Las Vegas people wouldn't even put it on the board. It's a great story, believe me.''
If Roanoke was looking for international exposure, Nakhle's boys certainly pocketed it. After his two five-man teams had run the rack on some of the world's best amateur 8-ball players, most everybody hanging around the Vegas Riviera hotel couldn't help but know about Roanoke.
"In Vegas now, Roanoke no longer requires the comma and state abbreviation,'' Nakhle said.
"Talk about a geography lesson. We put Roanoke on the map, baby.''
Obviously, the Star City has some stars. Apparently, most of them push a mean cue stick.
"People kept saying, "My God, where is Roanoke?'' said Dan Switzer, whose State Amusement Company helped sponsor the Vegas trip.
"They watched our guys and would say, `Do y'all grow 'em down there like this?'''
Evidently.
"People may not know it, but there are a lot of good pool players in the Roanoke area,'' said Bedford's Ray Detamore, the undeniable anchorman of Nakhle's winning fivesome.
"You can always find a good game in Roanoke. There's a lot of good competition and that makes you better. If you don't get better, hey, you go broke.''
Nakhle's team of Detamore, Roanoker Jarrett McPhearson, Wytheville's Willie Compton, Rocky Mount's Mark Dalton and Buchanan County native Eddie Hubble had few close calls.
After a team from Pittsburgh pushed them to the 24th game (25 is the maximum) in an early round match, Detamore & Co. put it on autopilot.
"We jumped out early and beat on everyone after that,'' said Detamore, a 51-year-old supervisor at the Bedford Weaving Mill.
"We were all playing good. Whenever we needed a big shot, somebody always made it.''
Compton, a 51-year-old retired truck driver, said the team got on a roll that would have broken the bank at any Vegas craps table.
"We knocked 'em down and we knocked 'em out,'' Compton said. "We walked through about everybody we played. It got to the point where it didn't make any difference who we played, just give us somebody.
"We played about as good as you can play. It got [to] the point where people were dreading to see us. After a while, we couldn't even get a side bet. And, believe me, that's a sign of weakness in this game. When people don't want a bet, it usually means they're running scared.''
Hubble said he wasn't shocked by the results.
"Our team had a lot of experience,'' he said. "Willie, Ray and I have been down the road before. Still, if you weren't there, you'd never believed it.''
Nakhle's other bunch wasn't exactly chopped liver. The team of Waynesboro's Mike Painter, Roanoke's Bill Aldridge and the Dublin trio of Chris Sheppard, Wes Largen and Ron Frank stumbled early but rebounded to advance through the loser's bracket to the finals.
"I thought our team was better than the one that won it,'' said Painter, who finished third individually in 8-Ball singles.
"Sure, we'd liked to have beaten those guys in the finals. But it doesn't bother me because I know I will get the money when we bet."
"If we play that team day-in and day-out, I'm betting on us.''
The winning Roanoke team took home $8,000, while the runner-up banked $6,600.
"It was no pressure for me in the finals,'' Nakhle. "At that point, I'm a winner no matter who wins.''
Nakhle threw his 1-2 punch by trying to get the best players on the Southwest Virginia bar scene.
"I recruited to get the best players in the area and then just let my horses run,'' he said. "I wanted to be the top dog and all these guys wanted to play on a champion. Let's just say I offered the guys more spending money in Vegas than some of the others.''
Painter, for one, had played before for Grover Flint's W.R. Brews team, which registered second- and third-place finishes in recent years past in the tournament.
"I'd like to thank Grover Flint,'' Nakhle said. "We couldn't have pulled this off without his support.''
He also gave an assist to State Amusement, which launched the Roanoke Valley 8-Ball League 15 years ago and now includes some 40 area bars.
"The league in Roanoke is tough, and that's the reason the local guys did so well,'' said Nakhle, noting that two other Star City entries finished in the top 128.
"When it comes to this game, Roanoke takes a back seat to nobody in the world. Just ask the Australians, the Canadians, the Germans. Believe me, there are five guys in Germany who know where Roanoke is.''
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. Roanoke's pool teams take topby CNBhonors in the tournament. Front row, from left: Jarrett McPhearson,
Wes Largen. Middle row: Eddie Hubble, Willie Compton and Mike
Painter. Back row: Bill Aldridge, Ray Detamore and Chris Sheppard.
2. Ray Detamore shows his moves at Shaddy's Lounge in Roanoke.
color.