Donnie Stewart made his first official appearance on the AZBilliards Money Leaderboard in 2018, when he recorded cash payout finishes in four stops on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour; finishing 9th, 7th, 5th, and (his best, to that point) 3rd at a stop in Cary, NC. On Saturday, November 2, at a $500-added stop, hosted by Shore Thing Billiards in North Myrtle Beach, SC, Stewart went undefeated into the hot seat, gave up the opening set of a true double elimination final to Matt Collins, but came back to take the second set and claim his first ever event title.

 

Stewart had to get by Collins twice, actually. They met first in a winners’ side semifinal, as Mitchell Floyd and Deon Rheuark squared off in the other one. Stewart sent Collins to the loss side 6-3. Floyd joined him in the battle for the hot seat, after shutting Rheuark out. Stewart claimed the hot seat 6-2 and waited for Collins to finish his three-match, loss-side trip back to the finals.

 

On the loss side, Collins drew Travis Guerra, who’d defeated Alex Stone 6-4 and Keno Patel 6-2 to reach him. Rheuark drew Wendell Thompkins, who’d gotten by Sugar Small 7-3 and survived a double hill (7-6) battle versus Greg Dix.

 

Collins got into the quarterfinal match with a 6-4 win over Guerra. Thompkins joined him, after eliminating Rheuark 7-1. The last recorded time that Collins and Thompkins had faced each other in a pool match, it was in the same location, in the finals of a stop on the Great Southern Billiard Tour in 2015. Thompkins had defeated Collins in the hot seat match of that event, but Collins came back from a double hill win in the semifinals, chalked up a second double hill win in the opening set of the finals, and then took the second set to claim his first event title. Back at Shore Thing Billiards, just over four years later, Collins bested Thompkins again; this time, 6-4 to win the quarterfinal match.

 

Collins shut Mitchell Floyd out in the semifinals and strode into the double elimination finals with some momentum. He used it to chalk up a 6-2 win in the opening set. Stewart, though, came back in the second set to win it 6-2 and claim his first event title.

 

Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Shore Thing 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 (Nov. 9-10), will be a $500-added event ($1,000-added with 64 or more entrants) hosted by Break ‘N Run Billiards in Chesnee, SC.