Monday goes back to back in North Carolina

Two weeks after going undefeated and winning a stop on the Great Southern Billiard Tour in Sanford, NC (his first), Sam Monday joined a small field of 14 entrants on the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour on the weekend of November 21-22 and chalked up his second straight undefeated weekend. The $1,000-added event was hosted by Greentop Billiards in Rocky Mount, NC.

Two opening round victories put Monday among the winners' side final four, where he faced Delton Howard for the first, but not the last time. A hill-hill win over Howard put him in the hot seat match against B.J. Ussery, who'd also survived a hill-hill struggle against Michael Fuller.  Monday gained the hot seat with a decisive 7-2 victory over Ussery and awaited the return of Howard.

Charles Patrick and Steven Page were waiting for Howard and Fuller on the one-loss side; Patrick having advanced past both Chad Pike and Chris Turner 7-2 to meet Howard, as Page was defeating Jason Rader 7-1 and Mike Cone 7-4 for the right to meet Fuller. Howard got by Patrick 7-5, as Fuller advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-3 victory over Page.  In the first ‘money match' of the evening, Howard defeated Fuller 7-4 and then made short work of Ussery in the semifinals with a commanding 7-1 win that put him into the finals against Monday.

In the true double elimination, race to 11 finals, Monday made a second set unnecessary, defeating Howard 11-4 and sealing his second straight win on two separate tours.  

Mike Cone, who finished in the tie for 7th place in the open event was the winner of the 9-entrant, Friday night Early Bird tournament, defeating Tommy Briscoe in a hill-hill battle to take home the first place, $100 prize. Briscoe picked up $55 as the runner up, with Willie Odom in third place ($25) and Steve Page in fourth. Only four entrants were on hand for Sunday's Second Chance tournament, won by Ira Jenkins, who picked up $80 in a 7-4 finals victory over Odom.  Angela Delcorpo picked up the prize for the Ladies event. Dylan Letchworth won the Juniors event. B.J. Ussery won the $504 prize that had been accumulating for two tour stops in the Break and Run Contest and Michael Fuller collected $105 in the Break Contest. The raffle for the Jacoby Custom Cue was won Leo Kearney.