Ussery needs only five to take Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour stop

It was a busy June 5-6 weekend for pool in North Carolina. The Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour ended up with the short end of the total entrants stick, though the quality of those entrants was high, with names like Earl Strickland, Keith Bennett and B.J. Ussery on what was a very short list. Ussery picked up the victory in the $1,000-added event, hosted by On The Snap Billiards in Fuquay Varina, NC, which had drawn only eight entrants.

Winners in the opening round of play became the winners' side final four. Bennett faced B.J. Ussery and sent him to the one-loss side 7-4. By the same score, Earl Strickland sent Chris Turner west and moved into the hot seat match against Bennett. Bennett prevailed 7-3 for the third of his four wins, which left him in the hot seat.

Over on the four-player one-loss side, Arnold Hamlet, who'd been defeated by Ussery in the opening round, defeated Bill Duggan 7-5 to pick up Turner. Ussery ended up in a rematch against Chris Vollmar, whom he'd sent west in the opening round. Vollmar had previously defeated Jacki Duggan, leaving a husband and wife in the tie for seventh place. Hamlet got by Turner 7-5 and moved into the quarterfinals against Ussery, who'd defeated Vollmar a second time 7-1. Ussery, on a bit of roll, defeated Turner in those quarterfinals by the same 7-1 score and then ran head-on into Earl, the Pearl, in the semifinals.

Ussery and Strickland battled back and forth to double hill, before Ussery prevailed and got himself into a rematch against Bennett in the finals. Ussery won the single race to 11 by four racks, and took home the first place prize.

With limited participation, the tour just declared winners of their Early Bird tournament (Craig Wolfe), and Second Chance tournament (Chris Turner). David Haire was declared the Juniors winner and Jacki Duggan was the Ladies winner. Eric Fair won the Limited Edition Cue in the event raffle.