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.
Scott Roberts is having a year. . . well, call it two, calendar years, since last October. Now, as of this past weekend (August 12), he's got three wins on the Viking Cues' Q City 9-Ball Tour, and a couple of runner-up showings on his 2016/2017 resume. On Saturday, August 12, the tour went to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA, where Roberts joined 27 other entrants and defeated four of them (one of them, Lee O'Neal, twice) to record his third 2017 tour win.
Roberts advanced to a winners' side semifinal against up-and-coming teenager Peter Abatangelo, while Roberts' hot seat and finals opponent, O'Neal, faced Doug Carter. Roberts sent Abatangelo to the loss side 9-3, while O'Neal dispatched Carter 6-4. Roberts claimed the hot seat (9-4 over O'Neal) for the third time since April.
On the loss side, Abatangelo and Carter walked into two double hill fights for advancement to the quarterfinals and won both of them; Carter downing Jonathan Ailstock, who'd defeated Robbie Johnson 7-4, and Wes Enoch 7-5 to reach him, while Abatangelo erased George Crawford, who'd gotten by Colin Hall 9-5, and Robert Cuneo 9-2 to reach him.
Abatangelo grabbed the quarterfinal match 6-2 over Carter, but fell to O'Neal in the semifinal match 3-6. Roberts put the hammer down in the rematch finals that followed, allowing O'Neal only half of the racks he'd chalked up battling for the hot seat match, winning it 9-2 to claim his third Viking Cues' Q City 9-Ball title this year.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues' Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for Saturday, August 19, will be hosted by Buck's Billiards in Raleigh, NC.
David Airfield may have chalked up his victory on the Q City 9-Ball Tour by taking advantage of a short, handicapped field (15), but he had to get by a wily veteran, Larry Kressel, twice, to do it. The August 8th event was hosted by Diamonds Billiards in Midlothian, VA.
They met first in a winners' side semifinal, while James Hicks and Doug Carter met in the other one. Kressel, who's been chalking up victories and cashing on tours for over a decade now, was racing to 11, while Airfield needed six games. He got his six, as Kressel's five moved him to the loss side. Battling for the hot seat, Airfield faced Hicks, who'd defeated Carter 8-4. Airfield claimed the hot seat with a shutout and waited on Kressel's return.
On the loss side, Kressel picked up Collin Hall, winner of the previous week's stop on the tour. Hall had defeated Joey Mastermaker 6-4 and Lauren Kauffman 6-2 to reach Kressel. Carter faced Mat Lemire, who'd eliminated Wayne Richards and Ricky Dickson, both 7-3.
Over the next three games, propelling him back to the finals, Kressel gave up only a single rack more (7) than he'd given up to Airfield in the winners' side semifinal (6). He gave up two of them to Hall, as Lemire defeated Carter 7-5. He gave up two more to Lemire in the quarterfinals, and three to Hicks in the semifinals.
Kressel chalked up one more rack in the finals (6) than he had against Airfield in the hot seat match (5). Airfield, though, completed his undefeated day 6-6 to claim the event title.
The next stop on the Q-City 9-Ball Tour, to be hosted by Grady's in Lexington, SC, is scheduled for Saturday, August 15.
Shaun Wilkie picked up his second straight 2014 win on the Action Pool Tour, with a come-from-the-loss side performance on the weekend of March 8-9. Sent to the losers' bracket in the second round of play by Mike Hagood, Wilkie won seven on the loss side and came back to defeat Hagood in the finals. The Bar Box Bash at Clubhouse Billiards in Lynchburg, VA drew 32 entrants.
With Wilkie out of the way, at least temporarily, Hagood moved on to survive a double hill match versus Doug Carter, and then, in a winners' side semifinal, shut out James Bilderback. In the hot seat match, Hagood faced Jeremy Perkins, who'd just sent Steve Fleming west 6-4. Hagood and Perkins battled to double hill, before Hagood prevailed to sit in the hot seat, waiting on the fateful return of Wilkie.
Through seven, race-to-5 matches and 43 games on the loss side, Wilkie gave up a total of only eight racks. He gave up one each to his first and second loss-side opponents (Neel Samanta and Jason Trigo) before allowing Collin Hall to chalk up three against him. He then shut out two in a row; Jason Clay and then, coming over from the winners' side semifinal, James Bilderback.
Steve Fleming, in the meantime, drew Matthew Siple, who'd gotten by Doug Carter 5-2 and Raymond Walters 5-4. Like Wilkie had done with Bilderback, Fleming shut out Siple. Wilkie then eliminated Fleming 5-2 in the quarterfinals, and gave up only one rack defeating Perkins in the semifinals. Wilkie had earned his re-match against Hagood in the finals.
When they'd met in the second round, Hagood had prevailed 6-4, thus chalking up more racks against Wilkie than any other single opponent all weekend and more than Wilkie's first five loss-side opponents combined. He wasn't as fortunate the second time around. Wilkie came out fast in the finals, chalking up the last of six matches in which he'd given up a rack or less, and claiming the event title 8-1.
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.
