Scott Howard
Coming off of his best earnings year among 17 of them that have been recorded, it was Scott Howard’s second ‘official’ win on the TOP (The Open Player) Tour at the same location, Janet Atwell’s Brunswick Borderline Arena in Bristol, TN. On both occasions, this past weekend (Feb. 8-9; 40 entrants) and back in October, Howard faced some double-hill challenges that threatened his eventual occupation of the hot seat. This time out, of the five matches that he played, three of them went double hill, including his third-round match against room owner Janet Atwell.
Mike Skeens, who would lose his winners’ side quarterfinal match against Ricky Bingham, won five on the loss side for the opportunity to meet Howard in a final that didn’t happen. They split the top two prizes.
Howard’s campaign started out well enough with a 6-1 victory over Mike Holmes, before Daniel Shelton and then, Janet Atwell tossed him his first two, double-hill ‘curve balls.’ He prevailed to draw Joe Blackburn, who’d been one of his double-hill challenges in last October’s TOP Tour event, in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Robert Hamilton, after a bye, started out with a double-hill fight versus Chris Woodrum, then gave up just a single rack to Brandon Helton, and three to Grant Shatley to draw Bingham (who’d just sent Skeens to the loss side) in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Howard defeated Blackburn 6-3 and was joined in the hot seat match by Hamilton, who’d sent Bingham off to the loss-side’s 5th/6th matches 6-4. It was, in effect, the title match and it went double hill, with Howard claiming the hot seat.
On the loss side, Bingham picked up Mike Holmes, who’d followed his opening-round loss to Howard with six in a row, half of which went double hill, including the last two versus Anthony Keen and Janet Atwell which led to the face-off against Bingham. Blackburn drew Skeens, who’d followed his loss to Bingham with wins over Woodrum (3) and Shatley, double hill.
Skeens downed Blackburn 5-1, while Bingham put a stop to Holmes’ six-match, loss-side winning streak 5-2. Skeens joined him in the quarterfinals after eliminating Blackburn 5-1.
The quarterfinals went double hill (there were 10 of them total, in case you were wondering) with Skeens advancing over Bingham to meet and defeat Hamilton 5-3 in what proved to be the event’s final match, the semifinals. Negotiations were initiated for a split of the top two prizes with Howard claiming the ‘official’ title.
TOP Tour director Herman Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her Brunswick Borderline Billiards staff for their hospitality, along with sponsors BarPoolTables.net, Break Time (Clemmons), TKO Custom Cues, Realty Group One Results, CHC Underground, Digitalpool.com, Dirty South Grind Apparel, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and AZBilliards.
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