Orange Monkey

All gathered around the TV to watch Canada. Going into OT. Let’s pray!🙏🏼

HIGHEST DAILY SALES EVER YESTERDAY AT THE ORANGE MONKEY!!!

THANK YOU TO OUR GREAT CUSTOMERS AND AWESOME STAFF!!

We have pool, snooker, darts, pinball, a jukebox and a full bar but we also have the best staff and the best food!

What a great bunch! Thank you for coming!

If you were there, you already know. Sunglasses + good people = elite vibes. Thanks for showing up! 😎🔥 Si t’y étais, tu sais déjà. Lunettes + bonne gang = vibes élites. Merci d’être venus! 😎🔥

This can’t be true. 🙉

Sharing a fascinating piece written by JP Allard. Must read for its captivating anecdotes and historical richness.

BUDGIE AND SNOOKER: HAND IN HAND SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL

The passing away of Mordecai Richler in 2002, author extraordinaire and passionate snooker player, and Canadian snooker champion and 4-time world championship quarter-finalist Bill Werbeniuk in 2003 both left me pondering about the future state of snooker. And I can’t help but fear if this is not yet another one of life’s treasures that is facing imminent death.

As proof, most establishments that cater to the young crowd, be it a “pool room”, sports bar or night club, have fallen victim to the almighty dollar by gradually replacing their 6’ x 12’ snooker tables with the smaller 4’ x 8’ sexy pool tables. Why, you might ask? Because there is hardly anybody that even bothers playing snooker these days, or even has the patience to try and master this most trying “discipline”. Sorry, I did mean to use “sport”, but it seems the Ottawa Sport Hall Of Fame committee has somehow forgotten that snooker is a sport, having not inducted one snooker player in 40 years (that’s ages in the game’s parlance), the last one being the great Georges Chenier of Hull back in 1985.

Until now that is.

But if you’re really serious about playing snooker, or just watching matches, then you best scurry on down to Ottawa’s Orange Monkey in the City Centre complex, located just a cue ball’s throw away from Lebreton Flats. Yeah, that same industrial complex that was voted by Ottawa residents a few years ago as the worst eye-sore in the city, calling for its swift raze, akin to the atrocity done to the residents of the Flats in 1960 in the name of good, clean living. But I can only surmise that wiser heads prevailed after hipsters revitalized the area with shops, breweries and bars, because those foolish talks have been quashed. Included in this revival was new ownership of the Orange Monkey by lawyer Brian Beauchamp who infused a bit of more life into the pool hall to attract a younger crowd, but who was smart enough to leave the 6 original snooker tables as the centerpiece of the pool room.

You may even catch a little piece of history while at that snooker establishment.

I was at the “Monkey” one Saturday morning in 2003 when I recognized “Budgie.” I couldn’t believe my eyes that snooker ace Ervin Budge was still playing. Here he was, totally immersed in a game of “pool golf” with three regulars, so naturally I waited for his game to be over. I then went over and told him I used to watch him play in 1973-74 and he quickly replied with a grin: “do I still owe you money from back then?” I then replied, “Hell no, I just wanted to shake your hand”. (Like, in what world would this snooker giant would have ever lost to me?)

It only took me a few subsequent visits to realize that he still attracted a following of ardent admirers, despite being retired since 1998. His daily arrival at the Monkey, or “his office” as he calls the joint, always seems to be greeted by a hush, which is then invariably followed by a sudden increase in the number of good pool shots registered by patrons, almost as if they sense Budgie’s regal eyes are upon them. A bit like you would elevate your hockey game as a brash kid when you knew your would-be girlfriends were watching by the rink side. Heck, even when he’d left the building, his presence continued to be felt, as you would often hear his name being brandied about.

Can you spell icon?

Thirty years before, I’d first caught a glimpse of his immense talent and craft at the old Broken Cue on Wellington where, in between my matches in the inaugural City of Ottawa Snooker Tournament (Budgie’s brainstorm), I would hang around to watch the pros compete against each other in the Open Class championship. Players like Budgie, “Star” Michaud, Eddie Agha and Julien St-Denis from the area, or Robert Paquette and André Goyette from Montréal, all aces, or “heavies” as we called them. By then, I was 21 and had scored a job for the Census division of Statistics Canada at Tunney’s Pasture, soon after I’d quickly decided that I had enough of the academic life – or the paper chase so well-documented in the movie of the same name that came out in 1973. Some of us were fond of calling it Tunney’s Prison, a huge lifeless parcel of land filled with government edifices but so devoid of bars, restaurants or stores that we had to go 5 or more blocks for any kind of lunch time amusement which, in 1972, was pretty much limited to the old Carleton Tavern on Armstrong, unless you counted browsing at the Wackids’ Stereo store as fun, though its radio ads were actually hilarious.

So when I heard there was a nearby Broken Cue a few blocks west of Holland, it didn’t take me long to reckon that’s where I would spend my lunch hours from now on, even if it was a 15-minute walk to and from the joint. I remember muttering to myself in those instances, “they probably won’t notice if I take more than an hour for lunch” After serving a 2-year-sentence in at Tunney’s, I put myself out to pasture to enjoy the extremely generous benefits from the federal Unemployment Insurance.

I’d always been fascinated with billiards or pool from the time I saw a small table in a Wakefield hotel as a 10-year-old, courtesy of my friend Bonbon’s dad. Looking back now, this is very much in keeping with my long history of uncanny coincidences. I mean, consider that Ervin was born in Maniwaki, just an hour north of Wakefield on highway 105, learning snooker at age 7 in the back of Monsieur Gravelle’s barber shop, in between running errands and shining shoes for the customers.

The year was 1947.

Legend has it that on weekends, lumberjacks would roll in for their haircuts and soon, the owner, already privy to Budgie’s tremendous playing skills, would challenge them to play the young lad in a snooker match and get a free haircut in return if they beat Budgie. Naturally, the unsuspecting customers were snookered and never won, always ending up having to cough up their hard-earned money.

Should you think that afore-mentioned Wakefield-Maniwaki connection is just a trivial one, read further on. Back in the mid-80’s, I’d often see photos in the Ottawa Citizen credited to one Paul Latour, and the name instantly rang a bell, but I never found out why or where. Until 2018 that is. Thanks to the wonderful world of social media – well, at least before it became an outlet for vicious vitriolic vengeance – I first connected with Paul with a question about one of his photos, and after the customary exchange, including help from my sister Monique, I finally realized that Paul had been our next-door neighbour on Montfort in Eastview in the late 1950’s. My sister even babysat him and his brother Marc. Then, a few years later, I saw another Facebook post from Paul to the effect that his mom Theresa was the sister of this person named Ervin Budge. And then all at once, it struck me like Chain Lightning that I’d been wrong all along. It wasn’t in 1973 that I’d seen Budgie for the first time, but rather 15 years earlier in 1958 when he used to visit his sister next door to us during Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer.

Did I mention I never forget a face?

In Grade 10, I started playing snooker at Tony’s Pool Hall on Montreal Rd. in Eastview, and except for that one or two crazy night when I couldn’t make a shot if my life depended on it on account that I had experimented with that potent Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, I had become quite skilled at the game, more often than not having the luxury of “playing for the table” and winning. At times, I even played for money to supplement my weekly allowance.

One night in the summer of 1969, I beat Little Bert, an old grade school neighbour of mine who by then had graduated to dealing drugs out of the Moussepatheque disco bar on Montreal Road and its adjoining seedy Motel De Ville that was kitty corner from our backyard on Montfort. Yes, the same spot where Jimi and Joni had partied the year before. Anyways, Little Bert owed me $30 from snooker and the little scumbag never paid up. Then, again he still owes my mom her fee for playing organ at his wedding.

Later on in 1975, just a few months after my brother’s su***de, I began my second attempt at tolerating being a “gov boy”, as our gorgeous assistant Anne was fond of calling us in our Transport Canada Tower ‘C’ office – her husband was in construction and that is how he sneeringly referred to civil servants. Again, even though there were far more choices to spend a lunch hour downtown, I soon gravitated towards the old Century Club on the south-east corner of the Sparks Street Mall and Bank Street, where I resumed playing snooker. (I believe it was called the Shamrocks at some time when Budgie would hop over during his lunch break). It must have gone out of business eventually because I don’t recall going there after 1979 or thereabouts. And then some 20 years plus passed without me picking up a pool cue to play snooker, as our family life had suddenly and tragically become quite complicated.

Growing up, snooker was played by seedy individuals in dark and dodgy pool halls, often run by sketchy characters with close ties to crime, but by the time Ervin Budge won the 1978 U.S. Open Snooker Championship in Detroit, he had been largely instrumental in transforming snooker to a sport that families or couples could not only enjoy playing together on weekends but feel safe in doing so. By then, the Broken Cue franchises had sprouted up all over town and Budgie was one of its main architects, even managing the St-Laurent location around 1973. I recall that I had reached the semi-finals in the inaugural City of Ottawa Snooker Tournament and my match was all set to begin, except I was so nervous that I had a mini-anxiety attack. But then Budgie’s watchful eyes somehow noticed my discomfort and took me outside the hall for a breath of fresh air and a smoke and just told me to relax, that I’d be fine. Another side of Budgie that some often forget, his kindness.

His tireless work to promote the sport of snooker, his life-long passion, never stopped.

From getting the former Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker, to become Honourary Chairperson of the Canadian Snooker Control Council from which Budgie was a founding director in 1975, to recruiting the former speaker of the House of Commons, the Honourable James A. Jerome, to succeed “Dief”, his networking continued. He even encouraged former Ottawa Mayor James Durrell to accept Chairmanship of the Metro Snooker League, while collaborating with his office and the city’s Recreation Department in organizing a plethora of activities, namely the Canadian Snooker Championships, the Pro-Am fundraising charity events, the first Senior Snooker Olympics and the Senior Citizens Snooker League for the cities of Ottawa, Nepean, Vanier and Kanata.

In June 1990, his tremendous and tireless work was recognized by the president of the Canadian Snooker Association, Armand Barbeau, who awarded the National Capital Region an annual ranking tournament, with the winner gaining a berth in the Canadian Snooker Championships, which was appropriately called the “Ervin Budge Classic”.

When Mr. Budge wasn’t busy regularly winning tournaments – fifty tournaments won since 1958 in the NCR championships alone, not counting other national and international ones – he was lending his name to charity. In 1989, he co-founded the Elvis Sighting Society with the late Ottawa Sun columnist Earl McRae and Newport Restaurant owner Moe Atallah. This social group raises funds for the Snowsuit Fund, the Homeless Fund and the Christmas Dinner for the lonely and needy.

In partnership with Canadian Snooker Champion Cliff Thorburn, Budgie started the annual Snowsuit Fund Gala Dinner in 1989, which has raised over $200,000 since. The year before, he had inaugurated the “Send a Kid to Camp” Charity Golf Classic, an initiative under the guidance of The Newport Children’s Foundation and Westboro’s “The Children’s Village” Day-care group, from which all net proceeds go towards sending to summer camp under-privileged kids who never, ever had a chance to experience this summer outing. I had to chuckle a bit when I first heard about this tremendous cause, seeing how so many of my well-to-do friends have never bothered taking their kids anywhere for an extended period, let alone camping. And in 1991, Ervin founded the Blacktie Beanfest Gala Dinner to raise money for the Maclure Centre, which helps adults with disabilities help themselves.

It was for the 15th Annual Send a Kid to Camp” Charity Golf Classic in August 2003 that Budgie secured the Canadian boxing icon, Hall of Famer and recipient of the Order of Canada George Chuvalo to be guest speaker. For the occasion, we had the privilege of playing at one of the finest courses in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, namely the Chateau Cartier Relais-Resort in Aylmer (formerly known as the Chaudière Golf and Country Club). I’d almost forgotten how “The Chaud” is a little jewel of a golf course, since it’d been almost 20 years since my last round there, and 30 some years since we were frequent patrons of the Chaudiere’s Green Door Room which famous bouncer Gerry Barber called home.

After my round, I then made my way back to the Newport at Churchill and Richmond, which is also home of the “Elvis Sighting Society”. After spotting George Chuvalo at Ervin Budge’s table, I soon recognized a few notorious people in attendance. People like the 67’s and Hall of Famer Brian Kilrea, Mayor Bob Chiarelli, MPP Richard Patten, Master of Ceremony and Sun Columnist Earl McRae, the Citizen’s Dave Brown and his journalist wife Sheila Brady, CJOH news anchorman Michael O’Byrne, the auctioneer for the night, and his wife Suzanne, head honcho of the “Success by Six” program, former Mayor Jacqueline Holtzman, MP Marlene Catterall, CBC-TV news’s Cory O’Kelly, and the Sun’s sports editor Tim Baines. And of course, the owner of the World Famous Newport Family of Restaurants, Moe Atallah and his wife Donna, were the usual perfect host and hostess.

Then came the high point of the evening. George Chuvalo was ready to talk to us, after a passionate address by award-winning writer Earl McRae in which he recounted that he is the only heavyweight boxer to ever go 15 and 12 rounds with Mohammed Ali and not get knocked down (lore has it that it was Ali and not Chuvalo that needed to go to the hospital for minor repairs after their epic March 1966 bout ). McRae also revealed how George’s personal life had been subsequently shattered with the death by drug overdose of three of his children and su***de of his wife in the aftermath of the third and senseless death.

Make no mistake. George is no Dale Carnegie when it comes to public speaking. But who is anyway, though I’m sure some of the attendees were thinking just that when “Champ” started to address us. But it quickly became obvious, from his gestures delivered with both hands continually cradling his heart with his emotional pleas to wake up and save our children. The imploring look in his eyes showed he was speaking, not only from personal experience, but from the deepest part of his soul. What a moving and enriching moment that turned out to be.

Afterwards, Mayor Chiarelli stepped up and while he congratulated Chuvalo’s date for the evening, his granddaughter Rachel, who is a third-year philosophy student at Ottawa U, he was quick to commend the boxer for his own accomplishments, inferring that he must surely hold the equivalent of five university degrees for all of his street smarts, which combined with his graphic recollection of events and uncanny ability for reaching out to people, produces a strikingly clear and powerful message. After all his battles, on and off the ring, “Champ” is now fighting the biggest one of his life: keeping kids from alcohol and drub abuse, through his crusade “George Chuvalo’s Fight Against Drugs”

Budgie never forgets his friends. The next spring, when Chuvalo was in town to continue his addresses on addiction to the Woodroffe High School students, the snooker ace treated all his pals when he brought the former boxer to the Monkey so they could either get his autograph or their pictures taken with the legendary fighter. As for me, I briefly interviewed him for a piece for the Kitchissippi Times whose publisher at the time was future Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. Alas, my article didn’t get published. Later that night, Budgie invited my spouse and I to have dinner with him and his wife Connie and Chuvalo at Moe’s Restaurant. Oh, to have heard the buzz in the joint, or to witness all the patrons taking turns ogling at our table to see if their eyes were not mistaking them and that in fact, it was the boxing great himself dining in Westboro.

The year 2004 marked the 30th anniversary of the International Snooker League (ISL), the brainstorm of the late Connie Falkiewicz, a non-profit organization that has been graced by the presence of the world’s greatest snooker players, notably Jimmy White, John Spencer, Cliff Thorburn, Alex Higgins, Willie Thorne, Stephen Hendry and the legendary Joe Davis. The special tourney was held in Montreal at the historic McGill Faculty Club, and for the occasion, the organizers invited the former Canadian snooker champ Ervin “Budgie” Budge, long-time resident of Aylmer, QC, presenting him with a special award to recognize his immense contribution to the world of snooker.

Back home, the question is what’s it going to take for Budgie’s long-awaited election to Ottawa’s Sports Hall of Fame? Because last time I checked, snooker was considered a sport. Yet, he continues to be snubbed by the election committee and to this day, remains on the outside, looking in.

Epilogue:

The late writer Earl McRae had written a few op-eds, calling for Budgie to be elected to the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, but to no avail. After his sudden and shocking passing in October 2011, it wasn’t long before I decided to continue in the footsteps of “Earl The Purl”. By then, there was a huge part of me that was becoming highly critical of our fine city and its mind-blowing decisions or staggering inertia. Every year’s announcement of the new class of OSHOF’s inductees would make me angrier that snooker was being excluded and so I started writing cryptic comments on social media, or less than flattering emails to the committee but again, all this seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Just two years ago, Dave Best replied and asked that I nominate Budgie by sending him his story.

Finally in 2025, a few months after Ervin Budge turned 85, the Hall came calling. Budgie, at long last, received his due and was inducted into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, the first snooker player to be admitted in 40 years – Georges Chenier was the last – but the first to go in as a builder also. Quite an honour for the all-world class gentleman, especially in a year that saw a very strong class of 6 individuals, a team and a family being inducted, which included Jacques Martin.

It is such a shame that his long-time wife and supporter Corrine wasn’t there to share the joy and excitement with her man, having passed away on April 4, 2020, after being married 54 years to Mr. B.

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She would have been so proud of him but at least Budgie’s sons Larry and Jon as well as daughter Tracie were there for their dad on this special night. As much as it was quite moving to see Budgie being honoured on stage, personally seeing the entire clan getting their photo taken while radiating with beaming smiles is when it hit me that I had played a small part.

Life is cruel sometimes but a happy ending always awaits those who bide their time patiently and honourably.

Yes, I’m looking at you, Budgie. Thank you for all that you’ve done. And continue to do so, as it is common knowledge that anybody that walks into Budgie’s office, eager to learn this most trying discipline will get a free snooker lesson from 85-year-old Ervin.

It thus turns out I was dead wrong worrying about snooker’s fate. Now that our man Ervin is a Hall Of Famer, the future looks so bright that we may soon have to start wearing sunglasses.

Jean-Pierre Allard

Ottawa, June 9, 2025

Heartfelt congratulations to our Mr. Ervin Budge who was inducted into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in a sold-out ceremony last Wednesday. “Budgie” was inducted alongside NHL coach Jacques Martin, Olympic Gold medallist Erica Wiebe and other distinguished athletes.

A well deserved honour recognizing a snooker legend and a wonderful human being who is now forever immortalized as a Sporting Great.

The Orange Monkey is truly honoured to be able to consider Budgie, family. ❤️

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2025 Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame Inductee - Ervin Budge

Wishing everyone who celebrates a Happy Easter! 🐰

Full House tonight at the Orange Monkey. Hope to see you soon!🍻🎱

🙏🏻🧡

Who says the fun has to stop on Monday? We’ve got cold drinks, good vibes, and pool tables waiting for you! 🎱🍻