Women on cue
All-female pool league in Austintown gets ball rolling for new members.
By JON MOFFETT
Vindicator Staff Writer
Five years ago, Carol Smith
needed a hobby. She was in an arthritis-care class at the Ursuline Motherhouse in Canfield when she was approached by an 87-year-old woman named Elva Knight, who asked Smith if she liked to play pool. Knight told Smith about a women’s pool club that played every Thursday at Wedgewood Lanes in the township.
Smith decided to check it out and has been playing pool once a week ever since.
“We’re not professionals. We just want to have fun and play pool,” she said, while laughing.
Smith, 52, of Berlin Center, and other area women are members of an unnamed pool group that plays Thursday nights from Labor Day until May. The group has been around since the early 1960s when formed by Knight and a group of friends.
Knight was working behind the counter at Mar-Hill Bowling Lanes at the time and would watch as patrons would come in and bowl, shoot pool and have a good time. She got the notion to form an all-women’s group and got the ball rolling shortly after.
An article in the Jan. 5, 1964 edition of The Vindicator reads: “Once a sanctuary for men only, the billiard parlor, in the same manner as so many other all-male pursuits, has given way to the fair sex.”
Knight, Smith said, was the bookkeeper and was in charge of recruiting new members. When Knight approached Smith five years ago, the club had more than 30 members.
To ensure Smith’s permanent place in the group, Knight asked her if she would like to take over the bookkeeping responsibilities.
“She asked me if I would be interested in keeping track of our records and our money,” Smith said. “I was a new member and I asked her if it would be better to ask one of the older ladies. But she said, ‘No, I think you qualify for the job.’ I was suckered into the job is what it comes down to.”
Knight died last March at age 93. In her obituary — which Smith cut out of the newspaper and keeps, along with the league information, in a folder — Knight is described as “an avid bowler, winning several metals [sic] in the Senior Olympics, and an avid billiards player with several leagues in the area.”
Smith has since taken it upon herself to help boost attendance, which she said is at an all-time low.
The group has about 10 members. Smith said she’d like to at least double that figure.
“I’d like to carry it on and get it started back up to where she had it,” Smith said of Knight. “But it’s been rough.”
At the club’s first official gathering, Smith was joined by only two others. Both Denise DeSantis of Cornersburg and Denise VanTassel of Youngstown were newcomers.
Aside from wanting the club to continue, Smith said she owes it to Knight and the other founding members — including current member Elva Franklin of Girard — to keep women coming back and bring new ones in.
“It would mean a lot,” she said. “I’d feel like I did something for her. And she would be proud to see the group back up and going.”
The group is accepting new women of any age group with a desire to play pool. The cost is $5 a week, which goes toward fees for the tables and the remainder is used for an annual bus trip to
Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa., or Mountaineer Casino in Chester, W. Va.
Women interested are also not required to commit beyond a single day. Smith said women who show up to play one week may not come back for a few weeks or at all. But everyone is welcome.
Smith said joining the group is as easy as showing up.
“If you don’t know how to play, we’ll show you how,” she said. “And if you do, you just join right in and start shooting pool.”
Anyone interested in joining the club is asked to call (330) 547-4132 or attend one of the Thursday sessions, 7 p.m. at Wedgewood Lanes.
jmoffett@vindy.com