They drove to the event together, so Corey Morphew and Adam Pendley didn’t spend a lot of time negotiating their split of the top two prizes at the end of this past weekend’s (Sat., July 16) stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. As occupant of the hot seat at the time, Morphew claimed title to the Open event that drew a “slow summer” field of 17 entrants to Sonny’s Billiards in Princeton, WV.
“It was actually a pretty strong field for its size,” noted tour director Herman Parker, “with about a half dozen competitors that have combined for about 25 or so wins on the tour over the years.”
Morphew and Pendley allowed their winners’ side semifinal match to stand as the definitive, though not actual title match. Morphew had advanced to face Pendley, as Jonathan Ailstock met with Keith Young in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Morphew won the first, and as it turned out, only meeting between he and Pendley, downing him double hill. Ailstock, in the meantime, sent Young to the loss side 7-3. Morphew and Ailstock locked up in a double hill match, too. Morphew claimed the hot seat in what proved to be his last match of the event.
On the loss side, Pendley picked up Jason Potts, who’d defeated Allie Tilley (the only woman to play in the Open event) 6-3 and Ron Frank 6-2 to reach him. Young drew Sonny’s Billiards owner John Brockman, who’d recently survived two straight, double hill matches against Josh Ball and Dwain Barberie.
Brockman got involved in his third straight double hill match, but it was his last, as Young advanced to the quarterfinals. Pendley joined him after defeating Potts 6-4.
In the first money round, Pendley downed Young 6-4 and then, earned a second shot against Morphew by defeating Ailstock in the semifinals 6-3. Pendley didn’t take that second shot as he and Morphew agreed to the ‘two prize’ split and packed up to head home, leaving Morphew, occupant of the hot seat, as the event’s official winner.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Brockman and his Sonny’s Billiards staff 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, 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, July 23-24, will be a $250-added (with 24 entrants) event, hosted by Still Cluckin’ in Providence, NC.
Dustin Coe missed being the 2020 Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour champion last year, by two games. At the Jan. 12, 2021 event in Chesnee, SC, Coe advanced to the hot seat match, and lost, double hill, to Benny Walters. In the semifinal that followed, against the eventual tour champion, Derek Formby, Coe was eliminated in what was a second straight double hill match for both of them. In his first recorded cash-payout finish since that event, this past weekend (April 30-May 1), Coe repeated half of the pattern; advancing to the hot seat and being sent to the semifinals, by Brandon Helton. Coe came back from this one, though, winning three straight double hill matches, double-dipping Helton in the two-set double elimination final to claim the title. The $250-added event drew a short field of 21 entrants to Sonny’s Billiards in Princeton, WV.
It was an event replete with double hill battles. Just under half (7) of the event’s final 15 matches went that route, including five straight from the 5th/6th matches to the two-set final. The first of the seven was fought between Helton and Robert Hamilton in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Helton sent Hamilton to the loss side with that double hill win and in the hot seat match, faced Coe, who’d defeated Joe Swim 7-3 in the other winners’ side semifinal. In a straight-up race to 6, Helton downed Coe 6-4 to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, two competitors – Derek Bonds and Chris Woodrum – were in the midst of six-match, loss-side winning streaks that would take them as far as the quarterfinals (Bonds) and semifinals (Woodrum). Coming over from the winners’ side semifinal, Hamilton drew Bonds, who’d chalked up loss-side wins #4 and #5 against Mike Robertson 5-3 and Ron Frank 5-5 (Frank racing to 8). Swim picked up Woodrum, who’d chalked up his loss-side wins #3 and #4 versus Thomas Sansone and Dwain Barberie, both 6-2. For those keeping track, Barberie came into the 7/8 match, having chalked up one of the seven, final-15 double hill matches, downing Andrew Farley.
Bonds defeated Hamilton 5-4 (Hamilton racing to 7), as Woodrum eliminated Swim, double hill. Woodrum then stopped Bonds’ loss-side winning streak, double hill, in the quarterfinals.
The final three matches yielded the same double hill scores. Coe eliminated Woodrum in the semifinals (7-5; Woodrum racing to 6) and then double-dipped Helton in the finals (same score; Helton racing to 6).
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Sonny’s Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, 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 Ron Park Memorial will return for its second year to West End Billiards in Gastonia, NC this coming weekend (May 7-8). The 2nd Annual Ron Park Memorial will be a $250-added, Scotch Doubles tournament.
The first time the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour paid a visit to Sonny’s Billiards in Princeton, WV, back in October, 2020, one of the venue’s local players, Wayne Hubbard, broke through to win his first (recorded) cash payout and event title, anywhere. And defeated tour veteran Hank Powell, twice, in the finals, to do it. Hubbard returned to the ‘scene of the crime’ last weekend (March 13-14) in search of his second win. For the second time, he made it to the winners’ side semifinals before being sent to the loss side, but this time, he didn’t return. The man who sent him over, Dustin Lackey, advanced to claim the hot seat, which became his last win when he and BJ Ussery later opted out of a final match and split the top two prizes. The $1,000-added event drew 34 entrants to Sonny’s Billiards.
Lackey’s advance to the hot seat match, 7-3 over Hubbard, led to a battle between him (Lackey) and Dwain Barberie, who’d survived a double hill match versus Scott Largen. Lackey claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Barberie and waited on negotiations for the split with BJ Ussery.
Ussery, in the meantime, was at work on an 88% winning-average in the seven matches he’d end up playing on the loss side. He’d been awarded an opening round bye and defeated Joey Supphin 12-1, before running into Mark Williams, who sent him to the loss side 5-4. From that point on, Ussery gave up only 14 racks in the next 98 games. He gave up one of those to Tim Crigler and another to Ricky Bingham just before drawing Hubbard, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Largen picked up Reid Vance, who’d recently eliminated Mark Williams 7-3 and Mike Clevinger, double hill.
Ussery gave up another rack eliminating Hubbard 12-1, as (with deliberate alliteration) Vance advanced to the quarterfinals over Largen 7-4. Vance put up what, under the circumstances, would have to be considered a ‘fight’ in the quarterfinals, but fell to Ussery 12-4.
Ussery repeated that score in the semifinals. He’d given up 11 racks total through his first seven matches, and gave up eight in his last two. The last one, in his 7-4 semifinal victory over Dwain Barberie, sent them both home. His top-prizes-split negotiations with Lackey, waiting for him in the hot seat, sent everybody home.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Jason Paitsel, Jonathan Brockman and their Sonny’s Billiards’ staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, AZBilliards, 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 weekend, March 20-21, will be a $500-added ($1,000 with 48+) event, hosted by Randolph’s Billiards in Hickory, NC.
Dustin Coe, sitting in the hot seat during the June 4-5 event on the Q City 9-Ball Tour, might well have assumed that to win the title, he'd have to beat his hot seat opponent, Jonathan Ailstock, a second time. As it turned out, he faced a friend of Ailstock's, Mike Hancock, who'd won seven on the loss side, and won the opening set of the true double elimination final. Coe took the second set and won the event that had drawn 56 entrants to Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Coe and Ailstock squared off in the hot seat match, once Coe had sent Darren Musser to the loss side 5-5 (Musser racing to 7), and Ailstock had shut out Cole Parsons. Coe chalked up a second 5-5 win (Ailstock, as well, racing to 7), and sat in the hot seat, waiting on Hancock.
Hancock survived a double hill match against Musser, and in the quarterfinals, faced Parsons, who'd defeated Roberts 5-4 (Roberts racing to 7). Over the next three matches, Hancock gave up a total of four racks; two in winning the quarterfinal match against Parsons, none in the semifinal matchup against his friend, Jonathan Ailstock, and two, in the opening set of the true double elimination final versus Coe.
Coe reversed his fortunes in the second set. He allowEd Hancock only a single rack and claimed the event title with a 5-1 win.
Although Borderline Billiards' owner, Janet Atwell, was in Virginia, competing in the National Pool Tour's 10-Ball Women's Invitational Tour, director Herman Parker thanked her and her staff, as well as sponsors Viking Cues and Delta-13 Racks. The next stop on the Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for June 11-12, will be hosted by Brass Tap Billiards in Raleigh, NC.
