Geoff Montgomery was one of only two, double-A players, on hand for the Saturday, March 31 stop on the Dishaw Custom Cues CNY Tour. He validated his rank with an undefeated, five-match run through a short field of 13 entrants who'd signed on for the event, hosted by Salt City Billiards in Syracuse, NY.
Opening round victories over Bud Moore and Adam Osborne put Montgomery among the winners' side final four, matched up against John Guffey. Wayne Harding and Darryl Osborne joined them. Montgomery defeated Guffey 8-2 and moved into the hot seat match versus Harding, who'd sent Montgomery's eventual finals opponent west 6-4. Harding put up a fight and battled Montgomery to double hill (8-5; Harding going to 6) before being sent to the semifinals.
Osborne moved over to the loss side to pick up Tim Davis, who'd defeated Brian Lipes 7-6 (Lipes going to 8), and Ron Ince 7-3. Guffey drew Joe Giancarelli, who'd shut out Moore, and eliminated the only other double-A player, J.B. Brotherton, 7-3. Guffey defeated Giancarelli 6-1 and in the quarterfinals, faced Osborne, who'd survived a straight-up, race-to-7 match, double hill against Davis.
Osborne dropped Guffey into fourth place 7-3 for a re-match against Harding in the semifinals. Harding had won a decisive match against him in the winners' side semifinal, 6-4 (Osborne, an A-player, going to 7), but fell considerably short in the re-match. Osborne gave up only a single rack against Harding to earn a shot at Montgomery, sitting in the hot seat. Montgomery completed his undefeated day, securing the event title with an 8-4 victory.
Tour director Gary Lloyd, Jr. thanked Salt City Billiards owner, Joe Speach and his staff, as well as sponsors Dishaw Custom Cues, Cue Shark, TotalPoolInfo, and Custom Logo, USA.
