Chalking up his first win on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour in a little over a year, Kelly Farrar did it this past weekend (Sat., Sept 24) the way he did it a year ago, going undefeated and defeating the same opponent twice in the hot seat and finals. Last year at Brown’s Billiards in Raleigh, NC, he defeated Scott Johnson twice. This year, it was Justin Knuckles at the $250-added event that drew a short field of 18 entrants to Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC.
Both advanced through the short field to arrive at their respective winners’ side semifinals; Farrar versus Brian Overman and Knuckles against Glen Spikes. Farrar got into the hot seat match with a 7-3 victory over Overman and was joined by Knuckles, who sent Spikes west 7-2. Farrar took his first of two against Knuckles 7-5.
On the loss side, Overman and Spikes ran right into their second straight loss. Overman drew Danny Farren, who’d defeated Ron Ford 8-1 and Jack Whitfield 8-4 to reach him. Spikes picked up Delton Howard, who’d survived a double hill match against Thomas Sansone and eliminated Thomas Cook 8-3 to reach him.
In what were battles for advancement to the first money round, the quarterfinals, Howard and Farren defeated Spikes and Overman by the same 8-2 score. Howard followed up with a strong 8-1 victory over Farren in those quarterfinals.
The Knuckles/Howard semifinal turned into a double hill struggle for a shot at the event title. With Howard racing to 8, Knuckles claimed that shot.
The final was a carbon copy of their hot seat match. Same result. Farrar won it 7-5 to chalk up his second title on the tour.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Mickey Milligan’s for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues
At 4 a.m. on the Sunday morning of a Labor Day weekend pool tournament, a reduction in pay in exchange for going home immediately can look pretty good. So it was for Daniel Adams, Mark Bolton and Billy Fowler, who arrived at such a decision-making moment on Sunday morning, Sept. 4, at what became the end of a $500-added stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour that drew 36 entrants to the Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC. Adams, in the hot seat, became the official winner. Mark Bolton, whom he’d defeated in the hot seat match, moved to the loss side and was to compete against Fowler in the semifinals that didn’t happen.
The negotiated settlement between the players is a private matter. The player who occupied the hot seat at the time becomes the event’s official winner and has officially earned the event’s top cash prize. So, too, with the runner-up and third-place finisher. How they split those three cash amounts up is their business. An even, three-way split would have given each of them a little over $515, although there’s no way of knowing if that was the ‘deal’ they worked out. In any case, the amount that went to Adams turned 2022 into his best recorded earnings year to date. Any amount over $100 would have done it. According to our records, it was Adams’ second 2022 win on the tour, his fourth overall since he chalked up his first win in what, before this past weekend, had been his best earnings year, 2017.
Adams, Bolton and Fowler were three of the four competitors who advanced through the field to compete in the event’s two winners’ side semifinals. Adams faced the fourth, Jamie Bowen, while Bolton and Fowler squared off against each other.
Adams downed Bowen 6-1, as Bolton was working on sending Fowler to the loss side 8-4. In what was, in effect, the title match, Adams defeated Bolton 6-3 to claim the hot seat.
When Bowen and Fowler arrived on the loss side, they competed in what was the first money round and two of the event’s last three matches. Bowen picked up Matt Lucas, who’d eliminated Stevie McLinton and the room owner’s junior-competitor son, Jas Makhani, both 6-1. Fowler drew Josh Heeter, who’d survived two straight double-hill matches to reach him; the first, against Brian Overman (10-5) and the second, against Jayce Little (10-4).
Bowen sent Lucas home 6-3. Heeter followed him out the door (so to speak) at the conclusion of Fowler’s 9-2 victory over him. Fowler won the event’s final match, the quarterfinals, 9-2 over Bowen. The three-way split was negotiated and the combatants retreated to neutral corners to enjoy the remaining two days of their Labor Day weekend.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Ridge Back Rails, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Sept. 10-11), will be a $500-added event, hosted by The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
Until the weekend of September 7-8, Kelly Farrar had cashed in only three events on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, finishing 4th twice (both times in May, 2018 and 2019) and 5th once (this past April). In a relatively small field on hand for the tour stop at Brown’s Billiards in Raleigh (18 entrants) this past weekend, he went undefeated to claim his first tour title.
He defeated Scott Johnson, also looking for his first tour win, twice to do it. Johnson had only cashed twice previously on the tour, finishing 3rd a little over a month ago (July) and was runner-up to JT Ringgold at a stop in April, 2016.
They advanced through the short field to a winners’ side semifinal match. Farrar faced Travis Guerra, as Johnson met up with Gary South. Johnson sent South west 7-3. He was joined in the hot seat match by Farrar, who’d given up only a single rack to Geurra in a 6-1 victory. With Johnson racing to 7, Farrar defeated him double hill (6-6) and sat in the hot seat, awaiting his return.
On the loss side, Guerra drew Josh Shultz, who’d defeated Brian Overman 6-4 and Steve Jenkins 6-2 to reach him. South picked up Tanya Parsley, who’d been defeated in the opening round of play by Ricky Dickson and was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take her as far as the semifinals. She’d recently shut out Billie Spadafora and defeated David Strum 4-3 (Strum racing to 6).
Both matches for advancement to the quarterfinals went double hill, with Guerra downing Shultz 6-5 and Parsley knocking off South 4-6 (South racing to 7). With Guerra racing to 6, Parsley won the quarterfinal match 4-4.
Johnson was able to put an end to Parsley’s winning streak in the semifinals, but not before she’d brought him to the brink and forced a 10th and deciding game. Johnson’s 7-3 win gave him a second shot at Farrar in the hot seat. Farrar, though, improved on his hot seat performance with a 6-4 win over Johnson in the finals.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Brown’s Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (September 14-15), will be the $500-added North Carolina State 8-Ball Championships ($1,000-added with field of 64), hosted by Randolph’s Billiards in Hickory, NC.
“Nothing in the world,” said McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc, “can take the place of perseverance.”
“Not,” he went on to say, “talent. . . genius. . . or education. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Take the case of one Travis Worden, a relative newcomer to the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, who, on the weekend of August 18-19, found himself in a hot seat match against tour veteran Hank Powell. It didn’t go well. Worden failed to chalk up a single rack against Powell. He did, however, apply some of the referenced perseverance, came back from the semifinals and downed Powell twice, both times double hill, to claim his first Q City 9-Ball title. The event, originally scheduled to be held at Shotmaker’s in Garner, NC, ran into some conflicting schedule issues and shifted location to Buck’s Billiards, where it drew 19 entrants.
Their first meeting followed a 6-2 victory for Worden over Christy Norris in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Powell, in the meantime, was locked up in a double hill fight against Barry Mashburn in the other winners’ side semifinal. Powell prevailed 7-8 (Mashburn racing to 9) and then promptly shut Worden out to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Norris picked up Billie Spadafora, who’d defeated Richard Lynch 5-3 and youngster Joey Tate 5-4 (Tate racing to 7). Mashburn drew Brian Overman, who’d eliminated Josh Shultz 6-3 and Donald Williams 6-4.
Spadafora and Overman handed Norris and Mashburn their second straight loss; Spadafora, 5-3 over Norris and Overman, double hill over Mashburn (6-8 with Mashburn racing to 9). Spadafora and Overman locked up in a double hill quarterfinal match, eventually won by Spadafora who advanced to face the about-to-persevere Travis Worden.
Worden defeated Spadafora 6-3 and turned to face Powell in the hot seat. With Powell racing to 7, Worden battled to double hill in the opening set and won it 6-6. This is about the time that a hot seat occupant generally realizes that it’s time to get serious and put his/her challenger away.
Didn’t happen. Worden fought Powell to a second double hill juncture and won the second set 6-6, as well. Worden claimed his first Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Buck’s Billiards for their ongoing and on this particular weekend, last-minute hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (August 24-25), will be a $500-added event ($1,000 with 64 or more entrants) hosted by Break & Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.
Though Tickle and Potts may sound like characters in a Disney movie, they are, in fact, two veterans of the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. David Tickle, who was runner-up to Jason Evans at a stop in February, has been away from the tables for a while; his best recorded earnings year being 2015, when he won two stops on the tour and finished 4th and 5th in two others. While still looking for his first win on the tour, Jason Potts did finish 4th in the 2018 Tour Championships and was runner-up to Taz Holliday in the tour’s 2017 Bar Box Championships.
Though scheduled to meet twice, they met only once during the May 4-5 stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, which drew 40 entrants to Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC. They both advanced to the winners’ side semifinals, where Tickle met and defeated Michael Wyatt 9-2, and Potts sent Alex Valencia to the loss side 7-3. In what proved to be the one and only match between the two, Tickle claimed the hot seat 9-4.
On the loss side, Wyatt and Valencia landed in the first money round of the event. Valencia picked up Brian Overman, who’d defeated Daniel Jones 7-3 and Brian Francis 7-5 to reach him. Of particular interest to Tickle watching from the hot seat was Wyatt’s first opponent on the loss side, Jeff Abernathy, who’d been sent to the loss side by Tickle in the third round and was in the midst of a six-match, loss-side winning streak. He’d most recently defeated Tim Nelson 9-2 and Jason Evans 9-7.
Abernathy leap-frogged into the quarterfinals when Wyatt was unable to show up for his Sunday match. He was joined by Valencia, who’d eliminated Overman 6-3.
Abernathy gave up only a single rack to Valencia in those quarterfinals and was a single match away from a re-match against Tickle in the hot seat. With Abernathy racing to 9, though, Potts put up a fight and won the semifinal match 7-7. Potts and Tickle opted out of the final, leaving Tickle, as hot seat occupant, the official winner.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Gate City Billiards Club, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (May 11-12), will be a $1,000-added event, hosted by Steakhorse Restaurant & Billiards in Spartanburg, SC.
In six appearances on the 2019 Q City 9-Ball Tour (in which he has cashed), BJ Ussery has only been outside of the top three finishers once. On Saturday, April 20, he added a second victory to that list, going undefeated through a field of 21 entrants, on hand to compete at Randolph’s Billiards in Hickory, NC. It was a wild-weather Easter weekend in the foothills of the mountains on the western border of North Carolina, with a combination of cold rain and snow. That, combined with an APA event in Charlotte, about an hour south of Hickory, had an impact on entrant numbers, but it didn’t dampen Ussery’s march to the finish line, in which, over six matches, he gave up a total of only nine racks and recorded three shutouts.
Ussery advanced to a winners’ side semifinal versus Kirk Overcash, as Terry Easter (appropriately enough) squared off against Tim Gill. Ussery gave up one of his nine racks in that match, downing Overcash 11-1. Easter, in the meantime, sent Gill to the loss side, double hill (5-5). Ussery went on to record one of his shutouts, against Easter, to claim the hot seat.
Overcash downed Abernathy 5-6 (Abernathy racing to 9), and in the quarterfinals, faced Gill, who’d defeated Powell 6-3. Overcash then sent Gill home, double hill (5-5).
Overcash earned himself a re-match against Ussery in the finals with a 5-3 victory over Easter in the semifinals. Unfortunately, for Overcash, second verse was the same as the first. Ussery shut him out a second time to claim the event title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Randolph’s Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (April 27-28), will be hosted by The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
3rd Annual Carolina Cup on tap for this weekend
