Three of the 2019 American 14:1 Straight Pool Championships’ competitors made it through the event’s three-day Round Robin phase (Oct. 22-24) with undefeated (6-0) records. They were arguably not the names you might have expected from this particular field of 42 entrants, which included six former winners of the championship title – Mika Immonen (2007), Johnny Archer (2011), John Schmidt (2012), Thorsten Hohmann (2013), Darren Appleton (’14 & ’15), and Neils Feijen (2016). Two-time runner up Danny Barouty (to Ed Hodan in 2006 and Bob Maidhof in 2008) was competing, as were runner-ups Shaun Wilkie (to Danny Harriman in 2010), John Schmidt (to Archer, 2011), Archer (to Hohmann, 2013), Hohmann (to Schmidt in 2012, Darren Appleton in 2015 & Klenti Kaci in 2018), Immonen (to Feijen in 2016) and Dennis Orcollo (to Konrad Juszczyszyn in 2017).

 

Instead, Austria’s Max Lechner, Finland’s Jan Siekkinen and Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz went undefeated through the Round Robin phase of the event and were awarded a bye in the 24-entrant single elimination phase which began today (Friday) and will continue through tomorrow (Saturday) at Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA. Lechner was paired in his seven-entrant round robin flight and won his six race-to-125 matches by an average of 102 balls. He gave up, in order, one to David Alcaide, 66 to Marc Vidal, 24 to Tom Walter, seven to Blair Levandowski and 41 to Don Polo. 

 

Siekkinen competed in what was arguably the event’s toughest group of seven and went through Thorsten Hohmann (43), Johnny Archer (81), Lee Van Corteza (59), Sean Morgan (21), Neil Gold (65) and Pascal Dufresne (44); an average of 52. Ruiz got by John Schmidt (66), Petri Makkonen (25), Bob Hunter (55), Mike Badsteubner (27), Reymart Lim (72) and Michael Frank (-1); average of 40.

 

The remaining five competitors to receive opening round byes into single elimination were all 5-1 in the round robin competition. Ruslan Chinakhov lost his opening round match to Neils Feijen, one of two matches that Feijen won by shutout, 125-0 (the other was against Bob Madenjian). Chinakhov went on to down Albin Ouschan, Ralph Eckert and deliver a second shutout to Madenjian, before defeating Holden Chin and Darren Frank. Dennis Orcollo lost his opening match to Darren Appleton in one of the round robin’s closest games, 125-116. Orcollo went on to meet and defeat Maksim Dudanets, Marco Teutscher, Danny Barouty, Earl Herring and Steve Matthieu.

 

Feijen was the only member of this year’s European Mosconi Cup team who competed in this event, and while he did chalk up two shutout victories, he did lose his opening match to Albin Ouschan 125-44. In addition to the shutouts, he defeated Ralph Eckert, Holden Chin and D. Frank. The sport’s acknowledged comedian, Alex Pagulayan opened the round robin proceedings against Mika Immonen, and together, they produced the round robin’s official closest game, won by The Lion 125-119. Pagulayan went on to defeat Max Eberle before losing his one match to Shaun Wilkie in another close match 125-104. He finished with victories over Michael Yednak, Steve Lillis and Jay McWorter.

  

As noted above, Immonen’s path to his 5-1 round robin record began with a defeat by Pagulayan. The Iceman would go on to down Eberle, Wilkie, Yednak, Lillis and McWorter.

 

Friday morning competition in the single elimination phase saw eight matches scheduled. Five of the 16 competitors had also logged 5-1 records in the round robin phase; tie breakers were head-to-head results and beyond that, total ball counts. John Schmidt was scheduled to face Maksim Dudanets, who finished the round robin phase with a 3-3 record. The marquee match was likely to be Albin Ouschan (5-1) against Johnny Archer (4-2), who closed out Thursday evening’s matches with a necessary win of Sean Morgan that gave him the record he needed to advance.

 

The Darren Appleton (5-1) and Shaun Wilkie (4-2) combination was garnering interest and was selected as the Billiard Sports Network’s Friday morning choice for live broadcast. Ralf Souquet, competing in the round robin flight with the 6-0 Lechner, advanced with his 5-1 match record to face Reymart Lim (3-3). Marco Teutscher (5-1) was scheduled to face Ralph Eckert (3-3). 

 

Remaining matches pitted Lee Van Corteza against Petri Makkonen, Thorsten Hohmann versus Marc Vidal, and David Alcaide squaring off against Max Eberle. 

 

A number of competitors currently at work looking to capture the US Open 9-Ball Championship warmed up from October 22-25, about two hours north, at the $20,000-added, 11th Annual  American 14:1 Straight Pool Championships. The event's last two champions – Darren Appleton (2014) and Thorsten Hohmann (2013) – were among them, and no one was surprised when they turned out to be the 2015 finalists. Appleton completed an undefeated run through the field of 40, with a victory over Hohmann in those finals, to successfully defend the title that he'd claimed last year. Also competing in this event, and presently, at the US Open, were (among others) former 14:1 champions Johnny Archer (2011) and Mika Immonen (2007).

 

Hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA, and sponsored by Diamond Billiards and Simonis Cloth, the event featured eight 'flights' of round robin play; five players per 'flight.' Eight winners emerged from the initial round robin battles, while 16 players in either second or third place were seeded in an elimination round.

 

Going undefeated in their round robin play were Appleton, Thorsten Hohmann, Mika Immonen, and Nick Van Den Berg. Joining them among the eight round robin winners were Dennis Orcollo, Ralph Eckert, Johnny Archer and Jason Klatt. 

 

On one side of the subsequent elimination bracket, Bob Hunter, Mike Davis, Daryl Peach, and Ivo Aarts advanced past Stevie Moore, Niels Feijen, Karl Boyes, and Alan Duty, respectively. On the other side, Warren Kiamco, Kevin Clark, Rodney Morris, and Danny Barouty, eliminated Jayson Shaw, Sean Morgan, Corey Deuel, and Alex Pagulayan.

 

With victories in races to 125 by Appleton (over Hunter, 51), Orcollo (over Davis, 62), Immonen (over Peach, 96), Aarts (over Eckert, 78), Kiamco (over Van Den Berg, 71), Clark (over Archer, 76), Hohmann (over Morris, 66), and Barouty (over Klatt, 88), the field was down to eight. It went down to four following Appleton's 150-100 victory over Orcollo, Immonen's defeat of Aarts 150-89, Kiamco's win over Clark 150-26, and Hohmann's elimination of Barouty 150-58

 

Three of the four left were former champions of the event. Appleton defeated the Iceman 150-113, as Hohmann eliminated the only player who wasn't a former champion, Warren Kiamco, 150-65. In the finals, Hohmann was ahead when the scores were still in double digits, 94-83. Appleton, though, gobbled up that 11-point differential, and went on to win it 150-94.

 

The Sport 9 Ladies Tour opened its 2014 season on March 7th, 2014 at the Southaven Rec Center in Southaven, MS with two great events. The bar table mini open event started Friday night attracted 28 players competing for prize money and a premium cue case provided by Ozone Billiards. Blake Todd from Memphis, TN went undefeated, taking 1st place prize money and winner of the 2×4 grey lizard cue case. Danny Key, also from Memphis, TN, played a great game and collected 2nd place prize money. Jeff Sarbeck, from Southaven, MS, placed 3rd and Mike Jones from Mobile, AL came in 4th.

 

The Sport 9 Ladies event started Saturday morning, March 8th, with 12 ladies hailing from TN, AL, MS, MO and GA to compete for points and $525 in prize money. The ladies battled all day and night on the big tables race to 7 on the winners side and race to 5 on the losers side. Many of the matches went double hill, but coming out on top was 2013 Sport 9 Tour Champion Janeen Lee from Hattiesburg, MS taking home 1st place prize and points. Hot seat winner and newcomer, Kristan Tidwell from Decatur, AL took 2nd place. In 3rd place was local favorite Mackenzie Selby. Heather Middleton, sponsored by The Moneyball in Caruthersville, MO, proudly took home 4th place.

 

Sport 9 Tour would like to thank gracious host, Bill Rowsey, owner of Southaven Rec, and staff for their wonderful hospitality. Also, a huge thanks goes out to our supporters and sponsors including Bob Hunt, referee, Paul Frankel (Professor- Q-Ball) media relations, Josh Gilmore (Fair Game Clothing) photos, Ozone Billiards, Focus Gear, ingenPool (tournament software), GoPlayPool, and AZBilliards.

 

The next event will be held at Bumpers Billiards in Huntsville, Alabama on April 11th weekend. Sport 9 Tour is preparing for another successful event which will be its first live streamed event! Be sure to get front row seats!