Fuller returns to winning ways on the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour

After a single event hiatus in June, at which Keith Bennett had ended a five-stop winning streak by Michael Fuller, Fuller returned to the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour winners' circle on the weekend of July 9-10. He did so with a remarkable comeback in the single race-to-11 finals against a familiar adversary, B.J. Ussery, who'd challenged him, as well, for the hot seat. The $1,000-added event drew a short field of seven entrants to Buck's Billiards in Raleigh, NC.

The opening round of play sent Dylan Letchworth, Peaches Fuller, and Chris Turner to the one-loss side, as Fuller, Ussery, Andy Bruce and George Crawford (who drew a bye) advanced to the winners' side final four. Fuller sent Crawford west 8-4, as Ussery was busy sending Bruce over 8-3. In what has become a familiar North Carolina battle, Fuller gained the hot seat with an 8-5 victory over Ussery, and waited for him to come back from the semifinals.

On the one-loss side, Peaches Fuller got by Letchworth to pick up Crawford. Turner advanced with a bye to meet Bruce. Crawford and Fuller battled to double hill, before Crawford prevailed. Bruce, in the meantime, downed Turner 8-2 to join Crawford in the quarterfinals.

Bruce defeated Crawford 8-5, but was advancing against history, when he ran into Ussery in the semifinals. Ussery downed him by the same 8-5 score and the by-now, very familiar finals matchup between Fuller and Ussery was on again.

Ussery took a 2-0 lead, but Fuller came right back to tie things. Ussery then ran seven straight racks, including two break and runs to take a commanding 9-2 lead. Fuller came back to close the gap to 9-4, but Ussery responded, and reached the hill, ahead by six. The 14th game proved to be Ussery's last victory, as Fuller went on to win seven straight, including three straight break and run racks to knot the proceedings at double hill. He won the last rack to complete an improbable comeback and win his sixth Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour title, since February.

There were no mini-tournaments at the event, though they did conduct a break and run contest, at which both Ussery and Chris Turner competed. Ussery failed to make a ball. Turner dropped two of them to earn $86. Jackpot for the next event stands at $584. Mike Kearns was the raffle winner of a $500 Limited Edition Jacoby Custom Cue.