With his first recorded regional tour win this past weekend (Feb. 4-5), Kirk Hixon launched what is already his best recorded earnings year, surpassing his previous-best (2021), when he got as close as runner-up (to Josh Heeter in April) on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour and finished 9th at the 2020 Tour Championships. Hixon went undefeated to the hot seat and lost the opening set of a true double elimination final versus Cameron Hollingsworth, but won the second set to claim the title at a $500-added event that drew 54 entrants to Action Billiards in Inman, SC.
Hixon and Hollingsworth advanced through the field to arrive at their winners’ side semifinal matches. Hixon faced Casey Looper, while Hollingsworth battled Josh Miller.
Hixon got into the hot seat match following a shutout over Looper. Hollingsworth joined him after downing Miller 6-3. In their first of three, Hixon claimed the hot seat over Hollingsworth 6-2.
On the loss side, Miller picked up Sammy Epps, who’d defeated Daniel Adams, double hill and Joe Bryant 5-2 to reach him. Looper drew Chad Dill, who’d leapfrogged over a Chris Cody forfeit and eliminated Dustin Brown 5-3. Miller advanced to the quarterfinals, double hill over Epps and was joined by Dill, who’d sent Looper home 5-3.
Miller and Dill locked up in a double hill fight in those quarterfinals. It was Miller who advanced to take on Hollingsworth in the semifinals. Hollingsworth gave up only a single rack to Miller and advanced to his double elimination rematch against Hixon.
In what tour director Herman Parker described as a pair of “great matches, the result determined by a few rolls, here and there,” Hollingsworth took the opening set 6-4. In the second set, Hixon came back, by the same score, to win the set and in effect, the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Action Billiards, as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and TKO Custom Cues. The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 11-12), will be a $250-added event, hosted by Bernie’s Billiards in Cary, NC.
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.
Heeter’s loss-side run evokes memories of the late Larry “The Truth” Nevel
Back in November of 2021, Buzzy Gonzalez chalked up his first recorded cash finish anywhere at a stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour at the Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC.He finished 5th that weekend, and with no evidence of competition since, this past weekend (Feb. 12-13), he returned to the Gate City Billiards Club, where he recorded his first regional tour victory on the same tour. He was challenged in the finals by Josh Heeter, who lost his opening round match and won 12 on the loss side for the right to meet him in the finals. The event drew 68 entrants to the Gate City Billiards Club.
Heeter’s run through the loss side of the bracket brought eerily relevant memories to tour director Herman Parker (among others), who recalled that the only player to ever win that many matches on the loss side of a Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball event before was the late Larry “The Truth” Nevel, who passed away on February 11, one day before this past weekend’s tournament began.
With Heeter already at work on the loss side, Gonzalez advanced to a winners’ side semifinal versus Jerry Stone. Hank Powell and Daniel Adams squared off in the other one.
Powell and Adams fought to double hill, before Powell advanced to the hot seat match 8-5 (Adams racing to 6). Gonzalez joined him after shutting Stone out. Gonzalez claimed the hot seat over Powell 7-6.
Heeter had already chalked up nine of his eventual 12 loss-side wins, including recent victories over Justin Ward 9-3 and Gene Parker 9-4. when he ran into Stone, fresh from his defeat at the hands of Gonzalez. Adams picked up Kelly Farrar, who’d eliminated Joe Woo 7-4 and Dakota Ash, double hill (7-4), to reach him.
Heeter chalked up loss-side win #10, 9-2 over Stone. Adams joined him in the quarterfinals following his 6-6, double hill win over Farrar. Heeter then downed Adams 9-4 and in a tense, semifinal, double hill fight, defeated Powell 9-7.
Minus their respective handicaps, the event finals were a tie. Heeter, though, had to chalk up two more racks than Gonzalez, and when it reached the tie at 7-7, Gonzalez had won.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Gate City Billiards Club for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 19-20), will be hosted by Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Daniel Adams, known far and wide as Papa John, came to Princeton, WV last weekend (Sat., Jan. 29, six hours of Sun., Jan. 30) and in a pair of battles versus junior competitor (until July) Cole Lewis, claimed the title to a stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. The $500-added event drew 43 entrants to Sonny’s Billiards in Princeton.
Adams and Lewis advanced through the field, headed for the hot seat and arrived at the winners’ side semifinals. Papa John faced Scott Largen while Lewis squared off against Sean McGrady.
Adams sent Largen to the loss side 6-3, as Lewis was busy doing likewise to McGrady 8-3. Adams claimed the hot seat 6-6 (Lewis racing to 8) and waited on his return.
On the loss side, Largen picked up Corey Morphew, who’d just completed two, wildly divergent matches to reach him. After surviving a double hill battle versus Ricky Bingham (9-5), Morphew shut Derek Bonds out 9-0. McGrady drew Mike Clevinger, who’d eliminated Hank Powell 7-6 (Powell racing to 8) and Robert McCoy, double hill.
Morphew and Clevinger kept Largen and McGrady’s visit to the loss side short, very short. Morphew downed Largen 9-2, as Clevinger eliminated McGrady 7-4. Both competitors in the quarterfinals that followed had been sent to the loss side by the same man, Keith Young, who’d defeated Clevinger in the 2nd round (first match for Clevinger) and Morphew in the third round. Young eliminated the possibility of a rematch against either of them by losing to Robert McCoy in the 9/12 matches.
Clevinger was ahead in the loss-side match wins (7-5) when the quarterfinals began. Morphew ended Clevinger’s loss-side winning streak 9-5 and then had his own streak of six loss-side wins stopped by Lewis 8-5 in the semifinals.
As dawn was working its way toward the eastern horizon, Papa John and junior competitor Cole Lewis locked up in a double hill fight that concluded, according to tour director Herman Parker, at around 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. Adams won his six racks in the only set of the true double elimination final necessary before Lewis had chalked up his eight. Adams claimed his first Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour title since he’d come from deep on the loss side to win an event at The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA almost five years ago (April, 2017).
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Sonny’s Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division.
The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 5-6) will be the $1,500-added, 1st Annual Winter Classic, to be hosted by Break Time Billiards and Sports Bar in Winston-Salem. In addition to a $1,000-added Open event, there will be a $500-added Ladies event.
It is the first in a series of seasonal Open events that Parker is adding to the tour’s 2022 schedule. Parker will duplicate the seasonal Open events at dates (to be determined) in the spring, summer and fall.
“We’ve been doing only three or four Open events per year,” said Parker, “but we’re looking to expand that to between 12-15 per year.”
“In addition to the seasonal classics,” he added, “they’ll include events like the Ron Park Memorial, the West Virginia state and North Carolina State championships.”
Stay tuned for further information as it becomes available regarding the upcoming Open events on the tour.
It’s been a while since JR Poste chalked up a win on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour; five years, to be precise. And at that event in Wilmington, NC in August, 2016, he claimed the event title by virtue of being the undefeated hot seat occupant when he and BJ Hucks negotiated their way out of playing a final match. This past weekend (Sat., April 24), Poste chalked up another victory on the tour and once again, claimed the title by negotiating a split with his potential opponent in the finals. This time, it was Hank Powell. The event drew 32 entrants to Buck’s Billiards in Raleigh, NC.
Poste and Powell met twice at this event. Powell advanced through the field to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal versus 14-year-old Bethany Tate, a Billiards Education Foundation National Champion; Girls, 11 and under, 2018. Poste, in the meantime, faced Bruce Campbell in the other winners’ side semifinal.
With Tate racing to four, she fought the veteran Powell to double hill before Powell sent her to the loss side 8-3. Poste downed Campbell 7-1 to join Powell in the hot seat match. Poste claimed the hot seat 7-5 over Powell, in what would prove to be the deciding match of the event.
Tate moved over to face Daniel Adams, who’d defeated Chris Petoletti 6-5 (Petoletti racing to 7) and Robbie Crosby 6-3. Campbell picked up Shane Hardie, who’d eliminated Krystle Schmidt 7-2 and Bethany Tate’s older brother Joey 7-6 (Joey racing to 8). The way the draw turned out, had Joey defeated Hardie, he would have drawn Campbell next. If he’d then defeated Campbell, he might have drawn his sister in a sibling quarterfinal, but she, of course, would have had to defeat Adams, which she did not do, losing to him 6-1. Campbell downed Hardie 6-5 (Hardie racing to 7).
Adams took the quarterfinal match versus Campbell 6-4 and in what proved to be the last match of the night, was then defeated by Powell 8-4 in the semifinals. Powell and Poste negotiated their settlement, leaving Poste as the official negotiated winner of his second Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball event.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Buck’s Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., AZBilliards, Federal Savings Bank mortgage division and Diamond Brat. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this coming weekend, May 1-2, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Break & Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.
Six of the last 14 matches played on the September 12-13 stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour went double hill, attesting to a high level of competition among the 51 entrants who signed on to play at the Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC. The field featured a mixture of tour veterans and relative newcomers and one of the newcomers, Hunter Apple, went undefeated to chalk up his first tour victory.
Apple faced two tour veterans in the hot seat and finals. One of them, Scott Howard, was Apple’s opponent in a winners’ side semifinal. The other, Daniel Adams, squared off against another tour veteran, Landon Hollingsworth, in the other winners’ side semifinal. Hollingsworth won two of the tour’s events last month.
Apple got into the hot seat match with a 5-1 victory over Howard. Adams joined him after surviving a double hill fight against Hollingsworth. With Adams racing to 6, Apple claimed his first hot seat 5-4 and waited on what turned out to be the return of Howard.
On the loss side, Howard opened his three-match, loss-side campaign that would put him into the finals, against Anthony Mabe, who’d recently chalked up two straight double hill wins, over Joe Woo (7-5) and Joey Tate (7-7). Hollingsworth drew Cameron Lawhorne, who’d survived a double hill match versus Jerry Wyatt and eliminated Don Lilly 6-2.
The final six players renewed competition on Sunday with Lawhorne downing Hollingsworth 6-4 and Howard defeating Mabe 7-5. Howard won the quarterfinal match that followed, defeating Lawhorne 7-5.
Howard then defeated Adams 7-3 in the semifinals. It was fitting that the final match between the veteran and the newcomer went double hill. With Howard racing to 7, Apple won the five games he needed to chalk up his first major tour victory.
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, AZBilliards, Tickler Pool Ball Washing Machine, Skyline Construction, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and Dirty South Grind Apparel Co. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this coming weekend, Sept. 19-20, will be a $250-added event, hosted by a new venue for the tour, West End Billiards in Gastonia, NC.
When the most predominant hobby of one’s life happens to be what you do for a living, life can be pretty sweet, although it can make looking around for something to do in your spare time a bit of a challenge. Pinar Toprak, originally from Istanbul, and currently residing in Los Angeles, is doing the thing she’s known from an early age that she wanted to do – compose music. In her spare time, she has adopted two other passions; one, sailing, keeps her outdoors, while the other, shooting pool, keeps her indoors and makes her the appropriate subject of this particular profile.
“I started (shooting pool) as a teenager in Istanbul,” she said. “I was never a team sport person, because I couldn’t really play any sports that had the potential of injuring my fingers (for violin, piano and guitar); it limited what I could do.
“I knew from an early age that I needed other outlets,” she added, “and I loved the self-competition (of pool). My brother was a player, too, and I just loved the whole geometry of it; the angles. As a kid, I just loved that.”
In the meantime, her aspirations continued to inform her choices in life and she came to the United States in 1997, when she was 17 years old. Originally settling in with a brother in Wisconsin, she spent a good deal of her time in Chicago, where she studied jazz. The scene shifted to Boston, where in addition to pursuing a degree in film scoring from Berklee College of Music, she spent a good deal of time at something of a legendary pool hall in the city, in the shadow of Fenway Park, called Jillian’s.
She then moved to Los Angeles, where, by the age of 22, she had earned a master’s degree in composition from California State University at Northridge. Within two years, she was earning credits on films, beginning with some short films, Hold the Rice, Headbreaker (2004) and When All Else Fails (2005). In 2009, she picked up her first International Film Music Critics Association Award (IFMCA) for her music in The Lightkeepers, written and directed by Daniel Adams, with Richard Dreyfuss, Bruce Dern and Blythe Danner. Four years later (2013), she’d earn another IFMCA award for her work on the documentary film by Fritz Mitchell, called The Wind Gods, which is her personal favorite score.
Her work expanded to include music for video games, beginning with Ninety-Nine Nights (2006) and more recently, added music for the popular Fortnite (2017). A year later, she picked up another IFMCA award for “Best Original Score for a Documentary Film” for her score to The Tides of Fate. Last year, in addition to her work on the short, animated film, Purl, written and directed by Kristin Lester, she became the first woman to score a Marvel super hero movie when she wrote the music for Captain Marvel, which Variety magazine called “the most high-profile accomplishment yet for a female in a notoriously male-dominated profession.”
“No man was ever asked ‘Do you think you got this action film because of your gender?’” she told the Variety reporter, Jon Burlingame. “I hope it’s a question that’s not going to be asked in the near future or ever again. This is going to be the norm. I never had a day in my life when I wasn’t a composer or a woman. Those were who I am from the start.”
She’s also become a force on the small screen, as well, having scored 10 episodes of the SyFy channel’s Krypton, and HBO’s McMillions. And in the midst of all this, she crafted the main theme for Walt Disney World’s EPCOT theme park and wrote music for Christina Aguilera’s 2019 Xperience show in Las Vegas.
So, of course, she was looking around for something to do in her spare time and decided to resurrect her passion for pool. As a template for pursuit of this resurrected passion, she had the example of her mother, who started learning to be a musician in her mid-40s and now, in her mid-60s, is giving concerts.
[photo id=51664|align=right]“So I figured,” said Pinar, “that it’s not too late, but at that point, I also figured that if I was going to do this right, I’d get a teacher.”
“I had no idea who she was,” said the teacher she found – Rahmin Bakhtiari, co-founder and CEO of GoPlayPool.com, who says he has no idea how Ms. Toprak located him. “It wasn’t until we had spoken at some length before I realized who she was.”
It was evident to Bakhtiari that Toprak wasn’t just exploring an idle interest in the sport. He noted the way she held the cue stick and how she addressed the cue ball, and saw a degree of raw talent, with some Mid-Eastern three-cushion and carom billiards in her background.
“It’s been her passion since childhood,” he said. “She’s very observant, very attentive and she wants to learn.”
“She’s also got a feisty, aggressive attitude,” he added, noting that attitude’s rightful place in competition.
So just as all of this was coming to pass and Ms. Toprak was beginning to think she might be on the verge of competition at a tournament level, the pandemic stops by for a visit. The forward progress comes to a modified halt, with closures and the necessity for social distancing. Without enough room, or at least the architectural configuration to accommodate a regulation-size pool table, Toprak found a 6 ft. portable table and brought it into her home, which she shares with her two children.
There is something of a balancing operation going on in Toprak’s life, what with her interests in music composition, sailing and now, increasingly, pool. Pool, she says, is slightly apart from the other two, because it has the ability to completely focus her attention on the task(s) at hand.
“I live in a sonically busy world,” she said, “always thinking about characters, themes and stories. I love things that allow me to completely clear my head and it’s funny, but when I’m sailing, I actually think more.”
“Pool is the only activity (at which) I’m totally present,” she added, “so I really concentrate on how to improve and just learn, learn, learn. I become like a kid again. When I have that kind of mental relaxation, it shows, and I’m able to re-set.”
In other words, pool players on the West Coast, watch out!! As the pandemic restrictions begin to loosen up, Pinar Toprak gets back to lessons and then, tournaments start to make their appearance on calendars. You could have a handful of serious female competition on your hands, and she might even be whistling the tune to a film’s music that you might recognize as she chalks up a victory against you. It might even be from her most recent compositions on the soundtrack to the CW Network’s Stargirl, which will premiere next week (May 18).
“I have a stubborn personality,” she said. “If I’m not going to be great, I’m not going to do it.”
Doubles events are increasing in popularity on a lot of regional tours and the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour is no exception. The tour opened its 2020 season with a $500-added Doubles event that drew 11 teams to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA on the weekend of January 4-5. There will, noted tour directors Herman and Angela Parker, be more team events throughout the coming year. The team of Scott Roberts and Andy Bowden took home the event title* in this one, although they opted to split the last two cash prizes with the team of Trey Frank and Jonathan Ailstock, who’d battled through the loss side for the right to meet Roberts/Bowden in the finals.
Roberts/Bowden advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Bob Sloper and Tony Draper. Collin Hall and Daniel Adams squared off against the father and son team of Paul (father) and Ted Highley. Roberts/Bowden got into the hot seat match with a 6-3 win over Sloper/Draper. They were joined by Hall/Adams, who’d sent the Highley family to the loss side 6-4. In what proved to be the last match for Roberts/Bowden, they claimed the hot seat in a double hill battle versus Hall/Adams.
On the loss side, Sloper/Draper picked up the Frank/Ailstock team, which had won two contrasting matches – a double hill fight and a shutout – against Doug Carter and Rick Sinclair (the double hill fight) and the team of Angela Parker and Josh Carter. The Highley family drew Chris Brannon and Robbie Ward, who’d gotten by Mike Haygood and Chance Kent 6-3, and Hamza Ramadonavich and Chris Roades 6-4.
Frank/Ailstock advanced to the quarterfinals on the heels of a 6-3 win over Draper/Sloper, as Brannon/Ward eliminated the Highleys 6-4. Frank/Ailstock maintained their forward progress with a 6-3 quarterfinal win over Brannon/Ward.
In what proved to be the final match of the night, Frank and Ailstock battled Hall and Adams to double hill, before prevailing in the semifinals for a shot at Roberts and Bowden, sitting in the hot seat waiting for them. The final match, of course, didn’t happen.
The Parkers thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the tour, scheduled for January 11-12, will be hosted by Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
2019 Tour Championships to end tour season this weekend in Chesnee, SC
On the weekend of December 14-15, BJ Ussery chalked up his seventh win* on the 2019 Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. It was also the 9th time that he had finished as either the winner or runner-up this year, and also the 11th time that he’d finished among the top five. He competed in 13 of the tour’s events, as well as the Star City 10-Ball Shootout in Roanoke, VA, where he was runner-up to James Aranas and one Atlanta stop on the J. Pechauer Southeast Open 9-Ball Tour, which he won, downing Bernardo Esteban in the finals. In fact, 2019 was Ussery’s best recorded earnings year, dating back to AZBilliards’ first notations of his winnings, nearly 20 years ago, when he finished 65th at the US Open 9-Ball Championships in 2000.
Ussery and Earl Kent were to have met in the finals of the $1,000-added event that drew 42 entrants to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA. By mutual agreement, they split the top two prizes and opted out of a final match.
Kent came through the loss side to earn the right to face Ussery in the finals. It was Ussery and James Blackburn who met in the hot seat match. Ussery had faced and defeated Billy Walker 11-4 in one of the winners’ side semifinals, as Blackburn downed Jason Holmes 9-3 in the other one. In what proved to be Ussery’s final match, he claimed the hot seat 11-5 over Blackburn.
On the loss side, Kent defeated Jason Evans 5-3 and then, Scott Roberts 5-2 to advance into the event’s first money round against Jason Holmes. Walker picked up Joshua Shultz, who’d defeated Daniel Adams, double hill, and Dylan Carr 6-2 to reach him.
Walker moved into the quarterfinals on the heels of a 6-4 win over Shultz. Kent joined him after eliminating Holmes 5-2. Kent took the quarterfinal match 5-3 over Walker.
Kent and Blackburn squared off in the event’s final match, the semifinals. Kent downed Blackburn 5-2 and earned himself a split with Ussery.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse for their 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 will be its annual Tour Championships, this year scheduled for December 21-22. The $1,000-added event will be hosted by Break & Run Billiards in Chesnee, 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.
Six of the last 14 matches played on the September 12-13 stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour went double hill, attesting to a high level of competition among the 51 entrants who signed on to play at the Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC. The field featured a mixture of tour veterans and relative newcomers and one of the newcomers, Hunter Apple, went undefeated to chalk up his first tour victory.
