Niko Konkel, Matt Harrell & Landon Hollingsworth
The Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour returned to Breaktime Bar & Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC for the 4th of July weekend and attracted a field of 54 entrants to its $500-added event there. They brought back 12 competitors to the venue on Sunday, which normally would have closed for the 4th of July holiday. Those 12 battled down to the two competitors who squared off against each other in the finals, at which point, Matt Harrell and junior competitor Landon Hollingsworth agreed to a split of the top two prizes, so that one and all could proceed to area fireworks. As the occupant of the hot seat at the time of the agreement, Matt Harrell claimed the official event title.
Nearly half of the competitors who signed on for this event were either junior players or women. One of those junior players, Landon Hollingsworth, currently #4 in the Pro Am Rankings of the Junior International Championships being held at multiple venues nationwide, lost a match to the eventual winner in the third round of play and battled back through seven matches on the loss side for the right to face Harrell in the finals, which didn’t happen.
With Hollingsworth already at work on the loss side, Matt Harrell advanced to a winners’ side semifinal match against a former junior competitor Hunter White. Yet another junior competitor, Niko Konkel (14) squared off against Josh Williams in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Konkel downed Williams 5-4 (Williams racing to 6). Harrell joined Konkel in the hot seat match, following his 7-6 win over White, who was racing to 9. Harrell, in what would prove to be his last match, claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Konkel.
On the loss side, it was White who picked up Hollingsworth, four matches into his seven-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently shut out Dakota Ash in the first money round and then eliminated Josh Shultz 7-4. Williams drew Collin Hall, who had defeated Travis Guerra 6-4 and Jeff Pruitt, double hill.
Williams downed Hall 6-2. Hollingsworth joined him in the quarterfinals, after defeating White 7-1. Hollingsworth then eliminated Williams 7-4 in those quarterfinals. Hollingsworth completed his loss side run with a 7-2 victory over Konkel in the semifinals.
Hollingsworth and Harrell negotiated the split of the top two prizes. Harrell was awarded the official event title and Independence Day celebrations resumed all around.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Sundeep “Sunny” Makhni and his Breaktime staff for their hospitality, as well title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Diamond Brat, Federal Savings Bank’s Mortgage Division and AZBilliards. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend, July 10-11, will be hosted by Sonny’s Bistro & Billiards in Princeton, WV.
