Cecil Tugwell

playboy

New Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
24
I met him about 10 years ago in L.A..Saw him in cheap action and was not impressed..a friend of mine swears that this guy use to play like burnin'hell about 20 years ago..can anyone verify this?..the line I got was he played about like Jeff Carter's speed.

Also is there any video/footage of Cecil?.....and stories are welcome.:cool:
 

Cal

Verified Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Messages
266
From
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Cecil Tugwell

Accu Stats has a tape of Cecil vs Gary Spateh, I saw him gamble at Strawberry,s tournment not bad,very inovative (my opinion)
 

NH Steve

Administrator
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
12,283
From
New Hampshire
Isn't Cecil the player that had his right (shooting) hand broken, and as a result made the switch to shooting with his left hand? That seems like a tough transition to me...
 

jrhendy

Verified Member
Joined
May 24, 2004
Messages
5,717
From
Placerville, CA
playboy said:
I met him about 10 years ago in L.A..Saw him in cheap action and was not impressed..a friend of mine swears that this guy use to play like burnin'hell about 20 years ago..can anyone verify this?..the line I got was he played about like Jeff Carter's speed.

Also is there any video/footage of Cecil?.....and stories are welcome.:cool:

Cecil was a great player and beat Efren to win a one pocket tournament at Hard Times in Bellflower 16/18 years ago and this was after he had to switch to left handed. He beat Cole Dixson 4 to 3 in the same tournament and almost every match on both sides was eight and out. It was the fastest hill/hill race to four I ever saw. Most of the other matches were on their first or second game. He was hard to deal with at times, but he could play. I'm sure Jay or Freddie have some tales about him.
 

playboy

New Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
24
NH Steve said:
Isn't Cecil the player that had his right (shooting) hand broken, and as a result made the switch to shooting with his left hand? That seems like a tough transition to me...

Yeah that's the story I heard..of course by the time I met him..he shot righty

I hope someone comes on this thread and share some stories about him..I heard he was something else! hahahahaha
 

fred bentivegna

Verified Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
6,690
From
chicago illinois
Cecil the Serpent

Cecil the Serpent

In LA in the 70's we used to call him Cecil the Serpent, or "Serps" for short. He and I played at Ye Olde Billiard Den in Hollywood on a regular basis. He played right-handed then. He played top speed One pocket and Banks. What was unbelievable was he eventually attained the same speed when he switched hands and became a lefty! Although I had fun playing with him, he was not a good loser. If you played him you had to be ready to fight him. He came to Bensinger's in Chicago and landed on Artie when Serps was at the top of his game. Unfortunately for him, Artie was also at the top of his game. Artie busted him and while Artie was at the counter paying the time, Artie offered to shake hands and instead Cecil sucker punched him and ran out the door. If anybody comes across him, please say hello for me. As I said, aside from his bad temper and poor sportsmanship, he was a fun guy and had pretty good heart.

the Beard
 

playboy

New Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
24
fred bentivegna said:
In LA in the 70's we used to call him Cecil the Serpent, or "Serps" for short. He and I played at Ye Olde Billiard Den in Hollywood on a regular basis. He played right-handed then. He played top speed One pocket and Banks. What was unbelievable was he eventually attained the same speed when he switched hands and became a lefty! Although I had fun playing with him, he was not a good loser. If you played him you had to be ready to fight him. He came to Bensinger's in Chicago and landed on Artie when Serps was at the top of his game. Unfortunately for him, Artie was also at the top of his game. Artie busted him and while Artie was at the counter paying the time, Artie offered to shake hands and instead Cecil sucker punched him and ran out the door. If anybody comes across him, please say hello for me. As I said, aside from his bad temper and poor sportsmanship, he was a fun guy and had pretty good heart.

the Beard

LMAO!

Talk about a hit and run! Hahahahahahahaha.Thx Freddy.
 

jrhendy

Verified Member
Joined
May 24, 2004
Messages
5,717
From
Placerville, CA
playboy said:
I met him about 10 years ago in L.A..Saw him in cheap action and was not impressed..a friend of mine swears that this guy use to play like burnin'hell about 20 years ago..can anyone verify this?..the line I got was he played about like Jeff Carter's speed.

Also is there any video/footage of Cecil?.....and stories are welcome.:cool:

If you google Cecil Tugwell, here are some results.

1989 Hard Times One-Pocket Classic Chris MacDonald Cecil Tugwell
1990 Southern CA Open One Pocket Cecil Tugwell Johnny Vasquez
1990 Hard Times One-Pocket Classic Cecil Tugwell Efren Reyes
 

jmorton

New Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
20
fred bentivegna said:
In LA in the 70's we used to call him Cecil the Serpent, or "Serps" for short... If anybody comes across him, please say hello for me. As I said, aside from his bad temper and poor sportsmanship, he was a fun guy and had pretty good heart.

the Beard

I see him almost every day at Hard Times in Belflower, CA. I'll tell him you said, "Hello."

JM
________
GinaLynn
 
Last edited:

jmorton

New Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
20
jmorton said:
I see him almost every day at Hard Times in Belflower, CA. I'll tell him you said, "Hello."

JM

I told Cecil that you said hello. He smiled and was pleased to hear from you.

Regarding Besinger's and Artie. I mentioned this tale to him. He admitted hitting Artie. He also said that he and Artie and Artie's wife became good friends. They would go out most Fridays. But he felt uncomfortable because Artie and his wife would fight alot.

Now regarding hitting Artie. Cecil said he was roading with two other guys. He had a bad flu. His partners asked if he felt good enough to play. He said he was taking lots of strong cold medicine. He said his eyes were crossing on him. He played because his partners wanted him to. The money was all three of their's.

He said that they were playing for $500 a set. And he said that he lost 2 sets but was short $50 for the last set. But Cecil wanted to continue playing. But Artie told him no. So Cecil said this is why he hit Artie: because Artie quit on him.

I know this might not make a lot of sense if Cecil was busted. It didn't make a lot of sense to me. Maybe there's more to the story but I find that pool players are cagey and it is hard getting to the truth: the whole truth. But I respect this.

JM
________
NEW CONDO PATTAYA
 
Last edited:

fred bentivegna

Verified Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
6,690
From
chicago illinois
Harold Denson

Harold Denson

jmorton said:
I told Cecil that you said hello. He smiled and was pleased to hear from you.

Regarding Besinger's and Artie. I mentioned this tale to him. He admitted hitting Artie. He also said that he and Artie and Artie's wife became good friends. They would go out most Fridays. But he felt uncomfortable because Artie and his wife would fight alot.

Now regarding hitting Artie. Cecil said he was roading with two other guys. He had a bad flu. His partners asked if he felt good enough to play. He said he was taking lots of strong cold medicine. He said his eyes were crossing on him. He played because his partners wanted him to. The money was all three of their's.

He said that they were playing for $500 a set. And he said that he lost 2 sets but was short $50 for the last set. But Cecil wanted to continue playing. But Artie told him no. So Cecil said this is why he hit Artie: because Artie quit on him.

I know this might not make a lot of sense if Cecil was busted. It didn't make a lot of sense to me. Maybe there's more to the story but I find that pool players are cagey and it is hard getting to the truth: the whole truth. But I respect this.

JM

Cecil was with Harold Denson, a terrific 3-card-monte shaker. I'll re-ask Artie the particulars of the sucker-punch, but I do know that even after The Serpent shook his medication, he never played Artie for over pastime, $10 a game, after that. Conversely, he never stopped trying to bust me.

the Beard
My pool-related short story, Gar, The Iron Man, is available for viewing and reading on Amazon.com. It has the good fortune of being the #1 bestselling/most read, short story in the Sports category for the last 2 weeks.
[ame]Http://www.amazon.com/Gar-The-Iron-Man/dp/B000WMI9PE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194849026&sr=1-1[/ame]
 

yobagua

Guest
Joined
May 24, 2004
Messages
245
I met Cecil in the mid 60's. He was just out of the service and was one of the sweetest kids. Good looking too. Kind of like a better looking Denzel. He used to play by himself on a back table at Ye Billiard Den in West Los Angeles. Over the years something happened to him. He became unruly and mean. I dont know what caused this but I really loved the young Cecil. He and Brooklyn Butch had a running battle over the years and I hated to see that. I got along well with Butch. I just believed Cecil got into some bad things and it was always a rough crowd there at the Den. Too bad. He could have been a world class player.
 

jay helfert

Verified Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2006
Messages
633
I have too many Cecil stories. Wouldn't know where to begin. He was the most talented all around black player I ever saw. He could play all games!

He was a state champion gymnast and diver in high school. A great all around athlete. His big problem was the huge chip he carried on his shoulder everywhere he went. We were close friends for a long time but he eventually wore me out too.
 

SJDinPHX

Suspended
Joined
Dec 7, 2007
Messages
9,226
Re Cecil

Re Cecil

Cecil came to the Circus billiards in San Jose looking for me. It was the late sixties. I was in Texas at the time.
He was running with two good size black guys and got down with my old
buddy Chuck Bailey. Chuck played solid nine ball, just decent one pocket
but he would gamble high. He caught Cecil off guard. Chuck was pretty good
winner when they started woofing at him. You did NOT woof at Chuck
Bailey. He would of (and could have) whipped all three of them in a fair
fight. Cooler heads prevailed, but the game broke up with Cecil and co. just about broke.
The story goes, Chuck took them next store and bought them and bought
them a drink, then gave them a few local spots and a few bucks to get back
in action. CB, as we called him, was a great guy. Cecil and I never played. The only Black
players I played in those days were Cannonball and Marvin Henderson both of whom were
nice guys and gentleman gamblers.
Dick
 
Last edited:
Top