Only old men are going to battle.In the wake of the Eighth Lawyers’ Billiards Tournament named after S. Lavitsky

The Eighth Open Lawyers' Billiards Tournament named after S. Lavitsky was held in the Crimean city of Sudak on October 3^rd/4^th of this year. The results of this tournament came as surprise to some people, though they were long hoped-for for the others ...

While the Crimean autumn inspiredly painted the rich verdure of hillsides golden and purple colours, the two-day billiards marathon that welcomed 37 lawyers from Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhia, Simferopol, Sudak, Sevastopol and Yalta started at the "evergreen" billiard tables of "Sudak" Tourist and Recreation Complex.

Traditionally, the event was held under the aegis of the Association of Lawyers of Ukraine. Rentakran Company was a General Partner of the Tournament, while Legal Alliance Law Company and the Southern Legal Group acted as Partners. The special prizes in nominations were presented by Euroyuris-Ukraine Association, YUONA Law Company, "Stary Krym" and "Flamingo" Restaurants, "Karabakh" Tourist Camp as well as Budget Ukraine Rent-a-Car Company. The Legal Newspaper acted as an official media-partner of the event.

The sprinters and stayers among the participants became apparent as early as middle of the first day of games. The strategy of some participants resembled blitzkrieg, the others starved their opponents out. Non-standard situations happened at the billiard tables again and again that attracted attention of numerous fans. Thus, according to the draw results, beginners at the Tournament, colleagues in legal business - Andriy Trotsko and Sergiy Izrailevych from Zaporizhia had to play with each other as early as at the first meeting already. A point of revanche was settled in the other pair, between Dmytro Shutko from Yalta and Sergiy Popov from Simferopol. During the previous tournament, Sergiy stopped Shutko on his road to the final, eventually taking the third place of honour. This time, Dmytro managed to retrieve a defeat and broke into the eight of leaders.

The first day of the Tournament ended in the ceremonial banquette on the beach. During the banquette, Andrey Zemskov, a famous Far Eastern author and performer, who was an honoured guest of the Tournament, represented his program "Wind from the East". Words from one of his songs: "...great passion - standing on the edge, is not given to someone for nothing..." became determinative for the participants, who went on with their struggle for top places on the second day.
The nearer the participants were to the cherished purpose, the more evident it was that the share of fortune in this success is negligibly small in comparison with the persistency, self-restraint and self-control inherent to those who played Olympic duels.

Today, only old men are going to battle. Thus, the beginning of the duels for the top places should be announced with this phrase of Leonid Bykov's hero from the same-name movie. Yea, only those, who did not miss any of the tournaments and played at the events for four years in succession, but never held a winner's cup in their hands, were going to battle.

The game for the third place was held between Vyacheslav Shchepanskyi, Head of the Security Department of the Simferopol Branch of Pivdenny Bank, and Sergiy Yazev, Judge of the Court of Appeal of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Vyacheslav Antonovych - the "honourable pensioner of the tournament", as Shchepanskyi was called by the participants behind the scenes, wined the victory in the battle for the third place with the score 4:2.

Albert Tamashchak, Judge of the Simferopol District Court, and Dmytro Aleshko, Senior Partner of Legal Alliance Law Company, became finalists of the Tournament. After ten hours of games preceding the main duel of the Tournament, the final was the real try-out for both of the participants. Dmytro Aleshko remarked that because of the tiredness and continued tension, there were some moments when it was difficult to hit the ball, not to speak of playing it into the pocket. However, smelling his oats, Aleshko made a mash on Albert Tamashchak with the score 4:1. It was a long-awaited victory, to which he came during four years.

Dmytro Aleshko was so close to the first place only once - in May 2007, when he took the second place at the third open billiards tournament, giving the first place in the final to Volodymyr Okhrymenko, one of the strongest players of the Sudak tournament. Since then, the "billiards career" of Dmytro Aleshko included a lot of achievements and medal places, which he took at various tournaments. He could not win only one temple of fame - the tournament in Sudak, which founder and ideological inspirer was none other than Aleshko.

For the years of its existence, the Open Lawyers' Billiards Tournament named after S. Lavitsky has become one of the biggest lawyers' tournaments in the territory of Ukraine. From now on, becoming first in Sudak is not only prestigiously, but also demonstratively. This is the place, where the strongest lawyers-billiard players from various regions of Ukraine meet together. Everyone comes here to work for victory.

Natalya Dokuchayeva,
Development Manager of Legal Alliance Law Company

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