GIBSONIA - Bragging rights were established in a hushed room Thursday when Bryce Billetdeaux and Lois Frank won their respective 2005 championships during the eighth annual Sidney Street Pool Tournament.

Billetdeaux, 85, in his third straight winning year, took the best of five against George Koll.

Both men, residents of The Village at St. Barnabas, are regulars in the billiards room at the retirement center.

"The men play about one to two hours a night, four evenings a week. The table is right here and it doesn't cost anything," Billetdeaux said with a smile, admitting his opponent has beat him on many other occasions.

"This is pretty lighthearted pool," Koll said of the regular non-championship games. "We often play as partners or if there's three of us, we play as individuals," taking five balls each in the game, he said.

One unusual twist during this tournament was that Billetdeaux had to put aside whatever mental preparation he would normally do before the finals.He was the official for the women's championship game that took place immediately before his own games.The women pool players of The Village take over the pool room each Saturday morning and are said to be even more laid back than the men when it comes to competition."When I first came here I wanted to get acquainted," said Lois Frank, who had never played pool in her life. "I saw that room was full of women. I said 'Can I watch?' and they said 'No.' They put a pool cue in my hand." The rest is, well, engraved on a trophy - for the third time."The women are so generous with anything they know," said Frank.

As for the idea of her becoming a pool player, and then a championship winner, her family was "rather startled" to hear it, she said.Runner-up in this year's tournament, Ruth Lenz, came to pool playing in much the same manner. "The first lady I met here, she was in her early 90s, said 'You've got to play pool,' so I did."