Diamond thanks all the attendees for the unprecedented surge to 1469 entries.
Some say that there is no sportsperson better equipped to pull an all-nighter than the Pool Player.
Once in action, they can’t quit. They have to hang with it until their opposition collapses or is “broken” so to speak. That’s how they evolve to become Champions.
Muscovite, Fedor Gorst proved his commanding pro-pool omnipotence by retaining his Master of the Table title after competing, not just all day through the wee small hours but, past dawn until 10 o’clock in the morning.
The players were not alone in this adventure, the videos had to be captured not only for the Accu-Stats’ historic library but for posterity. Fans are going to reminisce about this one for decades. andwith Pat Fleming at the helm to keep an accurate score and press that all-important record button, it can be seen and believed.
Gorst, earlier in the week, repeated his 2022 Bank Pool title and this year’s 9-Ball Championship.
Asked at his acceptance speech how he was feeling, one word said it all, “Tired.” He was halfjoking. He had been awake for 28 hours.And, still had time for a smile.
Read on to the Final day’s activities in pool’s most punishing, and rewarding, arena.
Diamond Billiard Products would also like to honor the memory of Mark Griffin.
Mark was an important part of Diamond’s evolution. He was there from the beginning, developing with owner Greg Sullivan, the table that has made pocket billiard history.
Diamond Derby City Classic One-PocketChampionship
Semis 5:30 pm, Finals 8:30pm
The above times were when the 9-Ball Finals were planned…that was until the record number of entries threw the schedule into total chaos.
One-Pocket is a fickle game. It can take 5-minutes when a player runs all the balls into his pocket in one inning. Or, it can take hours when both players adopt safety strategy and start pushing balls up-table away from their pockets.
Regular readers may remember the recent comment: “Did someone say shot clock?”
As the Derby redraws after every round, if that round hasn’t been completed, the whole tournament stalls.
That’s the short version of how the One-Pocket event couldn’t be finished until Saturday evening – 2 days later than scheduled.
429 started, three remained: Efren Reyes, the 68-year-old living legend, 6-time DCC One-Pocket Champion, and 5-time Master of the Table.
Tony “T Rex” Chohan. Both respected and feared for his unbounded One-Pocket creativity, dominance, cool craftiness, and for often tossing caution to the wind when the win is big enough.
Fellow finalist, Johnathan “Hennessee” Pinegar. In 14 rounds of races to 3, he had lost only eight games. That tells how well he was competing. “I’ve been practicing a lot in the last months. I’ve been giving strong competition big handicaps, like 12-3, 12-4.”
The 44-year-old Tennesseean’s newfound enthusiasm has been rewarded.
He also got the luck of the latest draw by being unlucky earlier. He had never drawn the bye. As Tony, Johnathan, and Efren Reyes were the last three standing, the computer would, normally, randomly draw the “short straw,” who would go directly to roost in the hot seat.
The remaining two would compete in the semis for the right to fight for the trophy.
Tony and Efren had drawn byes in earlier rounds. DCC rules forbade the same player receiving a bye twice resulted in Johnathan automatically being in the finals.
The Semis #2: Reyes vs Chohan
The Accu-Stats Arena was crammed to the rafters. The crowd was intrigued to see if Tony, desperately seeking his first DCC title, could overcome pool’s most revered player in search of his 7th…at 68 years young!
The 41 year-old Chohan had garnered many accolades including two major One-Pocket wins: The US Open One Pocket Championship and The International Open One-Pocket division but the Derby, everyone agreed, was the toughest one to win.
He had gotten close in recent years. It had been 9 since Efren’s 6th.
Reyes quickly found his smooth, silky stroke, and aided by Tony’s missed opportunities, took the opening game.
Tony doesn’t miss for long, in the second rack Efren left a shot that was safe for aplayer. For Tony, the short rail bank was a hanger. 1-1
Game 3: Reyes, aggressive as ever, made one of his shots that earned him the moniker “Magician.”
The rack spread far and wide only, out of nowhere, the white was kicked into Tony’s hole: 2-1 Chohan…and breaking!
Within two innings, Efren had reversed the position and ran 5. Safety ensued. Reyes cue ball ran short leaving Tony an opening. He ran 3 only to miss a dogleg combo that left two, off-angle balls within inches of his hole.
Reyes, gotten by the 4 1/8” opening, as the ball wobbled and hung to ensure Tony’s ticket to the final.
On shaking hands, Tony respectfully raised Efren’s to the air in honor of his unparalleled performance.
Efren then left the Arena to a rousing standing ovation.
Tony Chohan (David Thomson – Medium Pool)
The Finals: Hennessee vs T Rex
Johnathan “Hennessee” Pinegar’s 15-round trip to the finals was the buzz of the arena. Such honor was the result of slaughtering many opponents at naught.
It took ’til round 12 before Tony “T Rex” Chohan sent the US Open All-Around Bar Box Champion to the buy-back booth, but how about out-shooting Shane Van Boening, Tyler Styer, Anton Raga, Billy Thorpe, just to mention a few? And let’s not forget, he gave Efren his first loss.
T Rex is another animal. At 3-1, he cold-bloodedly devoured crowd sentimental favorite Efren Reyes. He was so close to the title he could taste it.
Tony won the all-important lag. All important because, with alternate break a 2-2 tie means first crack at the last rack.
Expert commentary from US Mosconi Cup captain Jeremy Jones and 2010 DCC One-Pocket Champion Scott Frost.
Rack 1: Pinegar, back from overnight hibernation, attempted a touch shot: Tony ran 8-and-out: 1-0
Rack 2: Tony, attempted a touch shot: Johnathan, still cold, ran 8-and-out: 1-1.
Rack 3: An up-table battle, until Tony with 7 balls, on a makeable cross corner bank for the win, fouled. Pinegar pilfered the rack: 2-1.
Rack 4; Pinegar exercised discipline, determination, great defense, and the “Wedge.”
Tony grappled, one ball at a time until in need of one, undercut it. It hung in his hole as the cue ball bounced two rails to land diagonally near the side pocket. Luckily there were two balls blinding Pinegar from following it in and fouling.
He raised the butt of his cue to about 45 degrees, jumped over them, and bounced the dangling orb and the cue ball off the table. “FOUL,” cried emcee/referee Ed Liddawi.
Great shot in the poolroom where that would result in both balls being respotted.
The clearly written DCC rules dictated that the game be awarded to the non-offending player: 2-2.
Time-out. Time to reset. And for Pinegar to recover from the blunder.
The Decider: Chohan in control, He had won the lag, remember?
After Chohan snuck 3 ahead, the strategy quickly developed into another quasi-wedge affair.
Oh, no, thought the tournament registration crew, not another wedge; Chohan was an integral part of the 9-Ball event and his match was holding up the draw.
Tony had another agenda. He had Pool’s most important One-Pocket title in his grasp. And, as he had come from 1-2 behind, he knew he had the momentum!
Pinegar, disciplined dedicated, continued to contribute orbs to the wedge.
Like a sniper, Tony picked off the unsuspecting marks. Within minutes, one by one they.dropped until one remained.
Pinegar didn’t linger. He attacked the table, pocketed two, and jawed a third.
It offered Chohan the shot that had cost him the 3rd game.
Not this time. Calmly, he approached the ball and spun it across the table into the opposite pocket.
He followed that with something you don’t usually get from the normally stoic Chohan, he yelled with delight!
“How does that feel? he was asked
With a deep sigh of relief, he responded, “The monkey has dropped from my shoulders.”
Time for a very quick $16,000 check presentation, fist pumps with fans around the arena, and…
Now, who’s next in 9-Ball?
Tony “TREX” Chohan: $16,000 Johnathan “Hennessee” Pinegar: $8.200 Efren “The Magician” Reyes: $6,300
Diamond Derby City Classic 9-BALL Championship:
Race to 9, Accu-Rack, 9 on the spot, winner breaks.
Since Matchroom deemed the Derby’s 9-Ball Championship a Mosconi Cup point garnering tournament, 9-Ball has become DCC’s most populated event.
527 entries crushed the previous attendance statistic!
That number above, compounded by the 423 in One Pocket and 529 in Banks, made for the strangest Finals in DCC history.
Add a 3-hour One-Pocket final that helped stall the draw, and we have experienced the Derby Syndrome in spades.
THE DERBY SYNDROME
2023 took our sport’s nine most grueling days–and nights–of limited sleep; catching naps while standing; snacking on nutrition-less junk, and jousting non-stop from one discipline to the next to a whole new level, it’s a wonder some of these guys are alive.
Combating 15 rounds with these heavyweights can seriously damage your health, especially when there are 527 of them and “on call” as they had limited idea of when they were going to play.
Tony Chohan, down 4-8 against Mika Immonen must have been truly motivated by his stellar performance before in his One Pocket semis with Efren. Then, after the 3-hour Finals, Roland Garcia, understandably, ended him.
Fedor Gorst, at around 9 am on Sunday, having been up competing, and waiting, competing and waiting, on-and-off for 28 hours, at 9-2, ended Shane.
Both Cuetec-sponsored players were visibly physically spent. It seemed that both had made more accumulated errors than they had in the entire tournament; When have you seen SVB miss two simple shots…in the same rack!
FYI: Fedor’s route had doused Alex, twice; Skyler Woodward and Roland Garcia both were allowed one game each. (Accu-Stats TPA statistician was sleeping soundly to prepare for the early morning finals but, guesstimates suggest that Gorst shot near, if not, a back-to-back 1.000 TPA’s)
Earlier,Chohan, Tyler Styer, and John Morra were also left in Fedor’s wake–pun intended.
Shane was undefeated all the way to the 13th round when Alex sent him to buy-back. (Alex had just eliminated Joshua Filler in the 12th).
In the 11th, Shane had Skyler Woodward back at the buy-Back booth
Shane, in the 10th, had Hong Kong’s Robbie Capito capitulate. Beware: The 21-year-old Robbie won his first men’s national event when he was 12!
All in all, an incredible journey through the night and well past dawn.
As the cameras didn’t pause much, most of the above action is available as part of the Accu-Stats PPV+ until February 28th.
See it to believe it.
Fedor Gorst: $16,000 Shane Van Boening: $7,500 Alex Pagulayan: $5,500
ENDGAME.
DCC 2024 dates: Jan 19-27, 2024: Book your entries/seats now! You know that they’re going quickly.
Accu-Stats thanks its Arena Sponsors: Diamond Billiard Products, Simonis Cloth, Aramith Belgian Billiard Balls, Cuetec Cues, Lucasi Cues, Master Chalk, MEZZ Cues, McDermott Cues, National Billiard Academy, and Outsville Accu-Rack.
The 4-camera HD match-ups are available at accu-stats.com via Accu-Stats Pay-Per-View OnDemand;Approximately, 60 action-packed hours of pro-pool are projected, PLUS reruns.
With PPV OnDemand, , you choose when you watch, no matter what you’re timezone, until February 28, 2023.
accu-stats.com will have matches available on Vimeo On Demand, Subscription Service and, of course, HD DVDs of all the TV table productions.
Thanks to all who contributed to the daily DCC reports. You know who you are: The sultry voice of the event, Bonnie Jones, hubby Ric, Koby Pilgrim, Delana, and Diamond Paul.
badboysbp.com will have alternate Diamond Arena matches available in the coming weeks.
Diamond Derby City Classic XXIV, January 20-28, 2023
Caesars Southern Indiana, Elizabeth, IN
Master of the Table points are accredited to the Banks, One Pocket, and 9-Ball divisions.
The player who accrues the most points from their highest finishes in the 3 disciplines is deemed All-Around-Champion.
Diamond generously delivers an additional $20,000 for first, plus, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively for 2nd and 3rd.
More on that later after the One Pocket final.
The Accu-Stats PPV OnDemand service has all of the above entertainment available for your viewing pleasure until Feb.28, 2023.
Diamond Derby City Classic ONE-POCKETChampionship: Semis and Finals
Due to Diamond’s dedication to accommodating the incredible surge in entries –1569 in all – the ONE POCKET Semis and Finals will be completed, and streamedfrom the Accu-Stats TV Arena,
TODAY Saturday, Jan 28.
Let’s catch up: Highlights from Thursday
Pagulayan vs Schmidt
Alex ran 8-and-out to open his encounter with John Schmidt. It was do-or-die as each contender was down to one bullet.
After the second rack Alex was leading 2-0. Schmidt mustered his gumption to take it to 2-1
Alex, after leaving his 5th ball hanging near his pocket, allowed John an opening.
John, masterfully, manufactured a six ball run until the nudge to open a three ball cluster didn’t cooperate.
He made his 7th ball anyway knowing full well that shape on his game-ball wasn’t very possible.
Needing only one ball to tie the match, necessitated that John went full blooded, He sliced the paint off of it. And, lost the cue ball.
Johnathon Pinegar is no stranger to Derby City, yet it might be this year’s superb performance by administering losses to Shane Van Boening, Tyler Styer, Anton Raga, Billy Thorpe, and the first loss to Tony Chohan that will be remembered best.
Thanks to the luck of the algorithm, Johnathon and Tony were chosen to meet again immediately, only this time, in the Accu-Stats Arena.
Here, Tony had home court advantage: He had a few matches “in the can.” He had experienced that the table played slower and banked a little shorter. Plus, he was familiar with the intensity of the 60-second shot clock.
Johnathon found this out the hard way; Mainly as his cue ball didn’t travel as far and interrupted the kind of run-outs he had completed earlier in the outer Diamond Arena.
Tony retuned the compliment and, in under hour, FedExed Pinegar to the buy-back booth.
Pinegar vs Reyes
No rest for Pinegar: He was immediately redrawn to face Efren…in the Accu-Stats arena.
The good news is that as we’re down to four players, he had opportunity to become acclimatized to it. It’s Semis and Finals time: There is nowhere to play but the Accu-Stats TV table.
After Efren defeated Alex, Skyler finished off Filler only to lose to Reyes who’s relentless will to win is truly inspiring.
He still has two lives and he’s been competing for six hours in Pool’s most cerebral discipline. Where is this stamina, both mental and physical, coming from?
Pinegar, too. He’d just succumbed to Chohan, the 2022 One-Pocket runner-up. Now he has to face the man the with more DCC wins than anyone.
And, his confidence is lagging as is the speed of his cue ball. It’s time to adjust.
His relaxed, yet focused, demeanor and superb defensive skills didn’t allow Reyes much of a look at anything, makeable, anyway.
Efren was definitely tiring. Then, he erred. John stole a ball. A few innings later Efren erred again. John ran 7-and-out.
At 1-0, it’s Reyes’ ball that isn’t reaching the pocket. John in two innings, by running four balls in each, surged ahead, 2-0.
Not to worry. How many times, this week, has Efren been down 0-2 and won the match?
In game 3, Pinegar erred. Reyes ran five, didn’t get the desired spread from the stack and, frustrated now, attempted a very low percentage combo.
Luckily, he left little.
Yet, it was enough. Pinegar fired in a short rail bank and drew his cue ball to land perfectly on the next indicated sphere. He then ran out the necessary 8-balls to ensure his seat at tomorrow’s table.
Efren visited the buy-back booth.
And then there were three: Chohan, Pinegar and Reyes – who was soon snoring like a baby.
At around noon on Saturday, he’ll be fresh as a daisy, ready for the redraw.
Someone is going to get a bye – straight into the hot seat.
Would you want it to be you, or would you prefer to win the opening match and be all warmed up for the finals?
Diamond Derby City Classic 9-BALL Championship: LAST DAY – Sat. 28.
Accu-Rack, 9 on the spot, winner breaks.
Since Matchroom deemed the Derby’s 9-Ball Championship a Mosconi Cup point garnering tournament, 9-Ball has become most populated DCC event.
527 entries smashed the previous attendance statistic!
Another record broken is the number of ladies competing this year: Margarita Fefilova, Sakura Muramatsu, Melissa “Sure Shot” Smith sponsored by Brutal Gear, Emily Sumrall, the up-and-coming Catherine Cool, and the ubiquitous Angela Mears, just to name a few of the approximately 20. Diamond thanks you all!
Mezz-sponsored Mika Immonen opened the proceedings in the Accu-Stats Arena first thing Friday facing Derby City Classic stalwart Dee Adkins.
Mika was on fire. His early .980+ TPA seemed to intimidate Adkins who wasn’t getting out when he had the opportunity. The more he faltered, the more Mika gained confidence, and the more Dee’s TPA dropped.
The Mezz player-rep of 21 years closed it out 9-0 with a stellar .958.
Thanks to fan demand, Pat Fleming was asked to explain how the Accu-Stats’ Total Performance Average(TPA) is calculated. During the Mieszko Fortunski vs. Brendan Shuff match, he tells all.
Culminating at $1,200 a ball, Shannon Murphy robbed them all banking $5,000. Billy fought gallantly to secure 2nd and $3000. Skyler Woodward claimed a distant 3rd. Shane Wolford began well. Justin Hall fell fast as did Jonathan Demet.
The captured match-ups are available via the Accu-Stats Pay-Per-View OnDemand, 4-camera HD production. Approximately, 60 action-packed hours of pro-pool are projected, PLUS reruns. After each match concludes, it is uploaded and available for your viewing pleasure. With PPV OnDemand, you choose when you watch, no matter what you’re timezone, until February 28, 2023.
The 24th Derby City Classic is right around the corner, and once again, Pat Fleming and Accu-Stats Video Productions will be providing fans with online video coverage of the best players in the sport today.
The coverage kicks off on January 20th, with the Diamond Big Foot 10-Ball Challenge, where sixteen top players will compete on the 5’ by 10’ Diamond Big Foot table for $32,000 in prize money. Joshua Filler will be attempting to defend his title from last year, but he will have his hands full with a field of top challengers. The field of players signed up this year is:
After three days of 10-Ball on the 10’ table, play on January 23rd will see the conclusion of the 10-ball event, as well as action from the 9-ball banks event.
The 9-ball banks event will conclude on January 24th and the coverage will then move to the one pocket division, with one pocket action on 24th – 26th.
The one pocket event is scheduled to finish on January 26th, leave the open 9-ball event and the fight for the Master of the Table title as the event finishes on January 27th and 28th.
While the video coverage will focus on the 9-ball in the last days, the crowd favorite Banks Ring Game is scheduled for the evening of January 27th. This event will see a field of six players playing for $8000 in prize money. The tentative field for this years Banks Ring Game is Justin Hall, Billy Thorpe, Skyler Woodward, Shane Wolford, Shannon Murphy and Jonathan Demet.
Fans can watch all of the PPV coverage with either daily passes or an event pass. Daily passes are available for $12.95 a day, or an entire event pass is available for $59.95 if paid for before the event kicks off on the 20th. The cost for the event pass will go up to $79.95 after January 20th. Purchase of the event pass also gives fans the ability to watch any matches from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 Derby City events.
As this appears on the page, Junior competitor Landon Hollingsworth is either on his way or at Pat Fleming’s International Open in Norfolk, VA to compete in the 18 & Under Boys’ championship event of the 2022 Junior International Championship (JIC) series. As a warm-up to the event this past weekend (Sat., Oct. 29), he travelled to Columbia, SC to compete in a stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour at Overtime Billiards. He went undefeated through the $500-added event that drew 33 entrants and marked his sixth victory on the tour since 2020. It’s his second tour victory of this year (he won the last stop on the tour a month ago), to go along with finishing first in the JIC’s ProAm Division (which earned him a paid entry to Puerto Rico’s 10-Ball Open later this month), the Dynaspheres Cup’s Junior 9-Ball event (20 & Under) and a third place finish in Shane Van Boening’s Junior Open, held in conjunction with Matchroom Sport’s US Open last month.
The clearest sign of his progress since he first came on the scene is not just the visible improvement of his skills. On the Q City 9-Ball Tour (and elsewhere), his ranking, based on the number of games he has to win to complete a match has steadily increased.
“Four years ago,” noted Q City 9-Ball Tour director Herman Parker, “he came into our events as a ‘5.’ He’s a ‘10’ now.”
Hollingsworth and Hunter White (himself, a recently-former junior competitor, also a ‘10’ now) battled twice for this event title; hot seat and finals. Hollingsworth won them both.
They advanced through the field from opposite ends of the bracket with Hollingsworth facing Jason Blackwell in one winners’ side semifinal and White squaring off against Jesse Draper in the other. Hollingsworth fought a double hill battle before advancing to the hot seat match against Jason Blackwell. Hunter gave up only a single rack to Draper. Hollingsworth then gave White a taste of his own ‘winners’ side semifinal’ medicine, allowing him only a single rack to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, in the first money round, Blackwell picked up Calvin Lee, who’d recently defeated Will Hammer and Josh Miller, both 6-4, which, versus Miller, was double hill. Draper drew Phil Stalls, who’d eliminated Stevie McClinton and Matt Lucas, both 6-3.
Draper advanced with a double hill win over Stalls. Blackwell did not, falling to Lee 6-3. Lee then defeated Draper 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
Lee almost made the semifinals ‘double hill’ interesting, but fell a game short, as Hunter White won 10-4 (Lee racing to 6). The likelihood of White falling to Hollingsworth a second time with only a single rack to show for it was slim. As had happened in the semifinals, the final match came within a game of double hill. Hollingsworth, though, completing what could only be described as good practice for this coming week on his schedule, completed his undefeated run through the field with a 10-8 victory for his sixth Q City 9-Ball Tour win.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Overtime Billiards 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 (Nov. 5-6) will be hosted by Janet Atwell’s Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Jungo wins roller coast final vs. Zielinski/Tkach defeats Corr in Women’s event.
You had to be there.
As it’s been for a number of years, the annual American Straight Pool Championships, held this past week (Oct. 24-29) at Q-Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA were not just about who beat who, by how much. Or the specifics of about how the male and female fields whittled down from 56 men and 15 women to Switzerland’s Dimitri Jungo, who won the Men’s event and Russia’s Kristina Tkach, who won the Women’s event; each, right after it was over, holding their 17th annual traditional clock and collecting their envelopes with $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.
It was, too, about the gathering of world-class competitors, kicking back in the highly-congenial atmosphere of this country’s largest pool room, regaling each other with stories of past exploits, current battles in their individual matches and where they’re headed next. It’s a pool player knocked out of the competition early, preparing for this week’s International Open, about 20 miles away, by practicing one type of shot (a corner-to-corner, stop shot) for hours. Or a female competitor describing the dancing skills of two female friends in a long-ago moment after an event that had an entire table of people in stitches. It’s about the photos of all the US Open Champions crowned in the room, the commendations from 50+ years of pool players, and of course, scores aside, the quality of play.
“The quality of play this year was just unbelievable,” founder and Chairman of the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championships, Peter Burrows told a packed arena at the conclusion of the Men’s event. “It’s why we come here every year.”
“(Jungo and Zeilinski) had a number of exquisite safety battles tonight that were really remarkable,” he added of the final match.
In his first time competing in these straight pool championships, Jungo revealed that it was only the second time that he had played the game competitively all year. He recalled being here in the US in 2001; a year he referenced as ‘9-11.’
“And now,” he said, shortly after claiming the Men’s title, “here I am, 18 years later.”
Though hesitant to single out one particular discipline as his ‘favorite,’ he admitted to an affection for straight pool that has lasted for a long time. He admits to playing it a lot more by himself than in competition.
“I like it,” he said. “When I play it alone, I can challenge myself.”
In the more-than-just-winning-or-losing department, he was impressed with the milieu associated with Q Master Billiards. He admitted to being enchanted by it and used a somewhat dated expression to describe it.
“I like the ‘groove’ here,” he said. “It’s like. . . pool, where it’s born. I feel like it’s home. The way they treat the people here is very special.”
“I was very comfortable here,” he added of the week he’d spent at the tables, moments after that week was over, “and I’m feeling good.”
As well he might have, having just won a tournament that at its start a week ago, had other competitors ‘pegged’ for the win; among the others – Jayson Shaw, Fedor Gorst, the surging-in-Europe Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, final European member of the 2022 Mosconi Cup Team, David Alcaide, Josh Filler and Filipino Lee Van Corteza, who would finish the Round Robin Phase of the event with the highest point differential (504) of the eight groups of seven players each. Jungo would finish third overall in that department at 460, behind Van Corteza and Josh Filler (498).
Poland’s Wictor Zielinski, in the meantime, was #1 in his group, as well, downing his own list of top-ranked pros – Thorsten Hohmann, Ralf Souquet, Denis Grabe, Bart Czapla and the USA’s Pascal Dufresne, who, when he done competing, became a statistician for the event, seated behind a computer, using a 14:Straight Pool program he had written to input analytic data about each match he was able to witness. Zielinski’s loss in the Round Robin phase was to Finland’s Jani Uski.
All four of the event’s semifinalists – Jungo, Zielinski, Mario He and Mieszko Fortunski – were #1 in their Round Robin groups. They, along with the other four top competitors to come out of the Round Robin phase – Josh Filler, John Morra, Francisco Candela and Lee Van Corteza were awarded opening round byes as second- and third-place competitors (16 of them) squared off in the opening round of the single elimination phase of the event, racing to 150. Gone at the conclusion of that opening round were (among others) Jayson Shaw, Darren Appleton and Albin Ouschan. In the final 16 round, Lee Van Corteza, Ralf Souquet, Sanchez-Ruiz (downed by Zielinski), The Lion (Alex Pagulayan) and Carlo Biado (defeated by Jungo) were gone as well.
The quarterfinal matches saw Jungo eliminate Morra, Mario He defeat Lebanon’s Bader Alawadhi, Mieszko Fortunski get by David Alcaide in the closest match of the tournament 150-148, and Zielinski wave goodbye to Joshua Filler (not literally) in the most lopsided match of the single elimination phase, 150-38.
The racing-to-175 semifinals, which guaranteed that one of the finalists would be from Poland, saw Zielinski down Fortunski 175-55. Jungo joined him after defeating Austria’s Mario He 175-85.
As noted by Burrows earlier, the final match was a bit of a roller coaster ride. If you weren’t aware that fouls can send scores moving in the opposite direction, you might have been surprised if you stepped away when the score was tied at 55-55 and returned to find out it had backed up to 54-53 in favor of Jungo.
“(Zielinski) got out to a lead early,” noted Jungo. “but I made it to 67 (ahead by 14), and then, we had those safety battles in the middle; four or five of them.”
Zielinski kept fighting back and took the lead back at the 131-130 stage of the game, at which point, the scores went backwards again, to 129-128. Jungo re-established the lead and expanded it to 147-136. With 28 balls to go, he got them all. At 162-136, right after his break had left 14 on the table, with only 13 to go, Jungo ran the table to claim the title.
Kristina Tkach
After protracted absence since 2019, Ireland’s Karen Corr makes it to Women’s final
Ireland’s Karen Corr has been making her presence known on the women’s circuit since her somewhat unofficial return from an unofficial absence since 2019. She’d appeared on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour this year, finished 3rd at the WPBA’s Michigan Open (tied with Allison Fisher) and made an appearance at last week’s Sledgehammer Open, the 1st memorial tournament for Helena Thornfeldt. She ‘chose’ to record her highest return-finish in Virginia Beach at an event not without its favored competitors. Some were looking ahead almost from the start to a rematch between Tkach and the event’s defending champion, Kelly Fisher, who had matched up twice against each other at the Sledgehammer Open; Tkach taking the first in a winners’ side semifinal and Kelly, the second in the final.
Not so fast. There were three round robin ‘flights’ with five players each, from which Corr, Tkach and Fisher emerged undefeated. Joining them in an opening, single-elimination round were Bethany Sykes (vs. Tkach), Dawn Hopkins (vs. Corr), Billie Billing (vs. Fisher) and Bean Hung, squaring off against Pia Filler. Racing to 80, Tkach allowed Sykes one ball, Hung gave up 23 to Filler, Fisher gave Billing 42, while Corr and Hopkins played the closest match; won by Corr 80-50.
The potential Fisher/Tkach final was still on, but not for long. In the semifinals, Tkach downed Hung 100-49, as Corr was likely surprising Kelly Fisher with a 100-36 win that put her in her first (recorded) final in two years.
Tkach has won the European straight pool championships twice, though like many others, it’s not a discipline that she gets to play that often.
“When I was very young, about 16 or 17, I played a full-year of straight pool every day,” she said, noting that her coach at the time was trying to get her to that oft-elusive first run of 100 balls, “but I was at a different level back then, too.”
“It is a game that you play maybe once a year,” she added, “but once you learn how to play it, it’s like riding a bicycle. Once you understand it, it’s really just about making balls.”
She got on the bike, made the balls and claimed the second American Women’s 14.1 Straight Pool Championship Title.
Many of the competitors who were in Virginia Beach over the past week have already moved on to Norfolk, VA, about 20 miles west of Q Master Billiards, to compete in Pat Fleming’s International Open, which began on Friday, Oct. 28 with a $10,000-added One Pocket tournament (to which many knocked out of the straight pool at Q Master Billiards migrated). The One Pocket will conclude today (Sunday, Oct. 30) and give way to the $50,000-added 9-Ball Tournament set to begin tomorrow (Monday, Oct. 31), which should make for an interesting Halloween night. Later in the week, the Junior International Championships will conclude their 2022 season with championship tournaments for the 18 & Under Boys and Girls divisions of the series.
And a final unofficial and unquoted word from Peter Burrows about the 18th Annual American 14.1 Straight Pool Tournament next year, which he has promised (with a little help from his friends) will be bigger and better with more players and more money.
It’s shaping up as a pretty busy month for junior competitor Landon Hollingsworth. As October moves on and rolls into November, he’ll compete in the Shane Van Boening Junior Open in Atlantic City (Oct.13-15), in the Junior International Championships (JIC) 18 & Under Boys Championship (Nov. 3-5) as part of Pat Fleming’s International Open in Norfolk, VA and a little later in the month, he’ll be competing in Puerto Rico’s 10-Ball Open, the entry to which he earned by being one of the top two competitors in the final rankings of the Junior International Championships’ ProAm division. On his way, sort of, to the first of these events, Landon Hollingsworth stopped off to get a little practice on the regional tour circuit. This past weekend (Oct. 8-9), he went undefeated on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, whose $1,000-added event drew 41 entrants to Action Billiards in Inman, SC.
It’s been kind of an up and down year for Hollingsworth, who finished among the top five in 10 events, including victories in the season-opening ProAm division of the JIC, and the Dynaspheres Cup Junior 9-Ball (20 & Under). Though he’s cashed now in four events on the Q City 9-Ball Tour this year, this past weekend marked his first 2022 win.
Hollingsworth and Matt Lucas battled twice for this most recent title. They advanced on their different ends of the bracket to arrive at the winners’ side semifinals, in which Hollingsworth faced Mike Parkins and Lucas squared off against Marc Rochester.
Hollingworth defeated Parkins 9-3, while Lucas was busy sending Rochester west 6-4. Hollingsworth made his intent clear with a shutout over Lucas in the hot seat match.
On the loss side, Parkins picked up Mani Suri, who’d recently survived a double hill battle against Steven Ellis and eliminated Brandon Brock 7-2. Rochester drew Steve Loftis, who, in his previous 11 games, racing to 5, had given up only a single rack; one to Chris Cody and none at all to Junior Gabriel.
In the first money round, in what must have seemed like a sudden deluge of ‘racks against,’ Loftis downed Marc Rochester, allowing him three racks. Parkins, in the meantime, gave up that many as well, downing Suri 6-3.
Loftis took the quarterfinals that followed, chalking up his five, while allowing Parkins (racing to 6) to chalk up five, as well. The ‘racks against’ caught up to him in the semifinals. Matt Lucas, looking for a rematch against Hollingsworth, earned it with a 6-2 victory over Loftis.
Hollingsworth, perhaps thinking about some of the expenses ahead of him in this very busy month, closed the door. He wasn’t able to shut Lucas out this time around, but Hollingsworth gave up only three racks in the final match and claimed his first 2022 Q City 9-Ball Title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Action Billiards, 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 Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour will take off this week and be back in action the following weekend. It will return to Action Billiards, in Inman, SC on the weekend of Oct. 22-23 for a $750-added Scotch Doubles event.
It’s that time of year. When the leaves start to turn in northern parts of the USA, you can bet pool players from all over the world are starting to gather at a series of pool tournaments leading up to Matchroom Sports US Open, now underway (Oct. 10) at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, or Pat Fleming’s International Open later in the month. It’s a combination of things, really. It’s not just that savvy promoters and independent event folk position themselves to take advantage of the incoming players, it’s also about these players positioning themselves to compete in the US Open and/or International Open and in some cases, to elevate their Matchroom Sports 9-Ball ranking for a shot to be on either the European or USA Mosconi Cup Teams.
Latest in the line of events that could impact the choices made by the Mosconi Cup captains Jeremy Jones (US) and Alex Ley (Europe), was this past (early) weekend’s (Oct. 6-8) Sandcastle 9-Ball Open in Edison, NJ, where the aforementioned players from all over the world, 64 of them, came together to compete. With Shane Van Boening and Joshua Filler having secured the first spots on Team USA and Europe, respectively, the most likely candidates for the two remaining automatic picks for team Europe were Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz and Austria’s Albin Ouschan. With Ouschan not in attendance in New Jersey, Francisco, who did compete, moved ahead of him (for the moment) to secure the second spot on the list. There is a possibility that dependent on how Ouschan and Sanchez-Ruiz finish in the US Open that they could switch positions (3rd/4th), but they’d still be in the last two spots for the automatic Team Europe pick.
One of the two potential picks for Team USA (aside from Van Boening) did compete in the Sandcastle Open (Sky Woodward), while the other (Oscar Dominguez) did not. Given their relative positions on the WPBA ranking list, they are both poised to be the last two automatic picks for the team. All of the above players are currently in Atlantic City and though the threeautomatic picks are fairly secure for both teams, the two remaining spots (to be made by the team captains) are still up for grabs and many of the potential candidates are hoping to impress one or the other captains with their performance(s) at the US Open.
One of the names not in contention for either Mosconi Cup team went undefeated at the Sandcastle Open; Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp. In the finals, Yapp defeated Chinese Tapei’s Chang Jung-Lin, who had eliminated the Philippines’ Lee Van Corteza in the semifinals. They, too, have joined the 128-entrant field in Atlantic City this week.
Yapp’s path to the winners’ circle began with a double hill battle against Chinese Tapei’s Ko Ping-Han. Once he successfully navigated that potential ‘side track,’ Yapp downed two straight Americans, Billy Thorpe (7-2) and Mhet Vergara (7-3), to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Austria’s Mario He, who, just below Ouschan and Sanchez-Ruiz on the WPA ranking list, was (and is) looking to make an impression on Team Europe’s captain and perhaps earn himself a pick for the team.
Lee Van Corteza, in the meantime, had something of an opposite problem on his trip to the hot seat match. He got by Aidan Wagner 7-4, Naoyuki Oi 7-5, shut out Liu Ri Teng and defeated Carlo Biado 7-1 to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Moritz Neuhausen, who put up a double hill fight that did eventually advance Corteza to the hot seat match. Yapp joined him after defeating Jung-Lin 7-5, and then claimed the hot seat over Van Corteza by the same score.
Jung-Lin moved over and picked up countryman Wu Kun Lin, who’d eliminated Sanchez-Ruiz 7-3 and in a double hill match, Biado, to reach him. Newhausen drew Konrad Juszczyszyn, who was working on a seven-match, loss-side run that was about to end. He’d recently defeated Ronald Regli 7-5 and in another double hill match, Sky Woodward.
Jung-Lin downed Kun Lin 7-4 and was joined in the quarterfinals by Neuhausen, who’d stopped Juszczyszyn’s streak 7-5. Jung-Lin ended Neuhausen’s single-match loss-side streak 7-4 in those quarterfinals and completed his single-loss work with a 7-3 victory over Van Corteza in the semifinals.
The rematch of the winners’ side semifinal – Yapp versus Jung-Lin– lived up to expectations. The final went double hill before Yapp prevailed, adding to his already-best (recorded) earnings year to date. The two could meet again at the ongoing US Open, as could any number of possible combinations between those who signed on to both events. The Open is the last of Matchroom Sports’ ranking events, so the two automatic picks for the Mosconi Cup will be determined in the days ahead.
Hollingsworth adds ProAm title, Mast adds 13U final event and 13U Championship
It was quite a weekend for two of the top names in the pool world of junior competition. There were seven total events at the last regular season stop (#8) on the Junior International Championship (JIC) series, held last weekend (Sept. 23-25) at Wolf’s Den in Roanoke, VA. Between them, Landon Hollingsworth and Sofia Mast won five of them; Hollingsworth, chalking up the win in the 18U Boys and ProAm divisions, as Mast (just a little busier) won both the 18U & 13U Girls titles and then went on to win the 13U Championship event, which was run concurrently with that division’s final regular season competition. Mast did not compete in the other division (ProAm) for which she was eligible, but given the strength of her performance in the three for which she was eligible, there was idle speculation that she might have taken that title as well.
Along the way, in the finals of her three events, Mast faced and defeated two members of the Tate family (Bethany in the 18U Girls division and her sister, Noelle in the 13U Girls division) and her perennial rival in both female divisions, Skylar Hess, in the 13U Girls championship. Bethany Tate (17th) and Hess (13th) were among the seven young women who competed in the ProAm event, along with Savanna Wolford, Courtney Hairfield (13th), Kennedy Meyman (17th), Skylynn Elliot (17th) and Precilia Kinsley (17th).
The ProAm event, the last of the 2022 JIC season, drew the weekend’s largest field (27) and seemed destined to feature a battle or two between the top two competitors in the division’s standings; Joey Tate and Landon Hollingsworth, who, between them, had won six of the division’s eight events, including the last one, won by Hollingsworth. But a funny thing happened on the way to the event finals. Tate was sent to the loss side in a winners’ side quarterfinal battle versus Brent Worth (7-5) and lost his first match on that side of the bracket to Grayson Vaughan 7-5.
Hollingsworth’s undefeated path to the hot seat and finals was not an easy one. It started out well, with 7-1 victories over two of the seven females in the field, Bethany Tate and Skylynn Elliott. It moved on from there to successive double-hill battles versus Jayce Little in a winners’ side quarterfinal and Nathan Childress in a winners’ side semifinal, which put Hollingsworth into the hot seat match. Jas Makhani in the meantime, who’d sent Brent Worth to the loss side immediately after Worth had sent Joey Tate over, joined Hollingsworth in the hot seat match. Hollingsworth, apparently tired of having to play two successive double hill matches, gave up only a single rack to Makhani and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Logan Whitaker, who’d lost his opening round match to Payne McBride, embarked on an eight-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him to the finals against Hollingsworth. He’d recently defeated Cameron Hollingsworth (Landon’s brother), double hill and Grayson Vaughan 7-3 to draw Nathan Childress. Worth drew Hayden Ernst (eventual winner of the 13U Boys division tournament), who’d defeated McBride, double hill, and Cole Lewis 7-5 to reach him.
Worth and Whitaker advanced to the quarterfinals, won by Whitaker 7-1, who advanced to down Makhani in the semifinals 7-5.
Whitaker, appearing in only his third ProAm event of the JIC series (previously 5th and 7th) gave Hollingsworth a run for his money in the finals. He came within a game of forcing a deciding 17th game. Hollingsworth claimed the ProAm’s last 2022 JIC title 9-7. He and Joey Tate, who finished 2nd and 1st, respectively, in the final ProAm standings were awarded entry fees to a Pro event of their choice. Tate will attend next month’s International Open in Norfolk, VA, while Hollingsworth opted to attend the Puerto Rico Open 10-Ball event in mid-November.
The expected matchup of the two top competitors in the 18U Boys division – Hollingsworth and Tate – happened in that division’s 23-entrant regular season finale, twice. Hollingsworth’s path to the finals took an unexpected turn when he lost his opening match in a double hill fight against Niko Konkel, who’d entered the tournament outside of the division’s top ten in the standings and finished in 5th place. It took Tate five matches to get into the hot seat. It took Hollingsworth eight loss-side matches to reach him in the finals.
Joey Tate got by Cole Lewis, Jas Makhani and Payne McBride to get into the hot seat match against Logan Whitaker. Runner-up in the ProAm event, which finished some three hours after the 18U tournament, Whitaker would figure prominently in this event, as well. Right after Konkel had sent Hollingsworth to the loss side, Whitaker sent him over and advanced through D’Angelo Spain and Brent Worth to reach the hot seat match against Tate. Tate claimed the hot seat 7-2, sending Whitaker to a semifinal matchup against Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth’s loss-side run faced its most serious challenge when Payne McBride, in his first loss-side match, forced a double-hill deciding match. Hollingsworth advanced to successfully navigate his rematch against Konkel in the quarterfinals 7-2 and then dropped Whitaker into third place 7-3 in the semifinals.
Anticipation of the final was probably stronger than the match itself. Hollingsworth downed Tate 9-4 to claim the last regular season event for the 18U Boys division. They’ll both be moving onto the 18U Boys Championship in Norfolk, VA at the end of the month.
Sofia Mast
Mast played in all three of the events she won, simultaneously
The “Pink Dagger,” Sofia Mast, struck three times on the weekend, winning the 13U Girls Championship at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, the 13U Girls regular season finale at 1 p.m. on Sunday and the 18U Girls title at 4 p.m. on Sunday. She went undefeated in all three, downing Skylar Hess in the finals of the first, Noelle Tate in the finals of the second and Noelle’s sister Bethany in the finals of the third.
In what proved to be her final title-claiming event, Mast faced and successfully navigated two double hill challenges, from Precilia Kinsley in the second round and Bethany Tate in the battle for the hot seat. Until she reached the hot seat match, Tate hadn’t faced an opponent who’d chalked up more than two racks against her, including her sister, Noelle, who chalked up that many in their winners’ side semifinal matchup.
Mast’s victory in the hot seat match sent Tate to the semifinals, where she ran into Courtney Hairfield, who chalked up two against her, as well. In the finals, when Mast chalked up her second rack, on her way to a title-claiming 9-5 victory, she had already won more games against Tate than all of Tate’s opponents combined.
As it happened, while Mast drew a lot of the weekend’s spotlight, it was Bethany Tate who ended up at the top of the 18U Girls division standings, significantly ahead of Mast in 2nd place. Tate won four of the division’s eight events, to Mast’s three; all in a row, including one in which she defeated Mast in the finals and two in which Mast finished in the tie for 5th place. Precilia Kinsley, Skylar Hess and Kennedy Meyman rounded out the division’s top five. Meyman won the only event that Tate and Mast, both of them competing, did not; the first, in January. They’ll all move on to Norfolk, where they’ll compete in the 18U Girls Championship, in the latter days of Pat Fleming’s 9-day International Open between October 28- November 5.
Ernst and Vondereau complete winners list on final regular season weekend
It was, for all five divisions of the Junior International Championships (JIC), sponsored by Viking Cues, the last stop of the 2022 regular season, which had begun in January and will conclude in early November for two of the five divisions. The 18U girls and boys divisions will compete in respective championship events as part of Pat Fleming’s International Open, the two tournaments scheduled towards the end (Nov. 3-5) of the week-long Open in Norfolk, VA.
This past weekend (Sept. 23-25), the ProAm division played its final event. The 13U boys and girls division did as well, but as had been done in the inaugural season, this entailed two separate events during the single weekend; the final event of the season and the division championships.
Competitors in the ProAm division were competing for the top two spots in the division standings at the end of the season, occupied at the end of the weekend by Joey Tate and Landon Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth won the final ProAm event of the season and Tate finished in the tie for 9th place. Tate, though, had won three of the division’s eight stops and been runner-up three times to finish at the top of the standings. Hollingsworth had won three, as well, but had only two runner-up finishes and three events at which he’d finished third or lower. The prize for the top two spots in the standings was an entry fee to a Pro event of the players’ choice. Tate will compete in the International Open at the end of the month and Hollingsworth opted for entry into the Puerto Rico 10-Ball Open in mid-November.
We’ll be reporting separately on the JIC’s last regular season events in the two 18U divisions and the final event of the ProAm division (look for that report elsewhere in our News section). For now, though, we will focus our attention on the four events that comprised the official end of the 13U girls and boys divisions. The two events in each division ran concurrently and in fact, the championship was over before the regular season came to an official end on Sunday afternoon.
The two younger divisions may be comprised of small human beings, but they sport some of the biggest hearts and are among the JIC’s most fierce competitors. Many of them compete in JIC (and regional) events outside of their age range and compete against the opposite sex in the JIC’s ProAm division.
Three of the younger division’s fiercest female competitors – Sofia Mast, Skylar Hess and Noelle Tate – would bring the last event of the 13U girls division to a three-way, three-match conclusion that would see them finish 1, 2 & 3 in both the final event and the standings. Though Mast won five of the eight regular events, including the final one this past weekend, she had not competed in one of them. Hess won three, including the one in which Mast did not compete, chalked up four runner-up finishes to Mast’s one and just did stay atop of the division standings with a third-place finish ahead of Mast and Noelle Tate in the last regular season event.
That last event, which drew 10 entrants got underway just after noon on Friday, Sept. 23 and by 5:30, the hot seat opponents had been determined. Mast had met and defeated Hess in a winners’ side semifinal, while Noelle Tate had sent Franki Spain to the loss side to join Mast in the hot seat match, scheduled for Saturday morning. Hess moved to the loss side and moving from Friday night to Saturday morning, shut out both Gia Fiore and in the quarterfinals, Franki Spain. On Saturday morning, as Hess was shutting out Franki Spain, Mast was battling and eventually defeating Tate to claim the hot seat. Hess and Tate each wanted a shot at Mast in the hot seat and a predictable double-hill, semifinal fight got underway to see which of them it would be. Tate prevailed. Mast claimed the event title with a second victory over Tate, 9-5.
The 13U Girls Championship, with its eight entrants, got underway on Saturday morning, while the division’s top three were still battling in the season’s last stop. Mast and Hess, from opposite ends of the bracket, came together in the only two places possible, hot seat and finals. Noelle Tate had the misfortune of drawing Mast in the opening round of play and was sent to the loss side immediately 7-3. Mast and Hess advanced, sending Taylor Perkins and Arianna Houston to the loss side, respectively, by the same 7-2 score and squared off for their first meeting, battling for the hot seat. Mast gave up a single rack to claim it.
On the loss side, Tate had survived a double hill match versus Houston, only to be stopped by Perkins in the quarterfinals 7-4. Perkins battled Hess in the semifinals to a game away from double hill before Hess edged ahead to earn yet another shot at Mast. Mast claimed the division’s championship with a 9-6 victory over Hess in the finals.
Ernst wins second 13U title, as Vonderau, thanks to Makhani, loses his first
Like the girls event, the 13U Boys division’s final regular season event and the division Championships happened more or less simultaneously. Entering the regular season final with its 13 entrants, Eddie Vondereau had yet to lose any of the four events in which he had competed. Jas Makhani had not won any of the events in which he had competed, but having competed in all but two of the eight, and emerging as the runner-up in this latest one, he amassed enough standings points to finish second in the standings. It was Hayden Ernst, however, who’d won the event once before, in March, who emerged from the field to send Vondereau to the loss side in a winners’ side semifinal and then down Makhani in the finals to claim his second title. Ernst finished fourth in the division standings.
Vondereau and Makhani met first in the opening round, with Vondereau sending Makhani to the loss side 7-3. Vondereau advanced to the winners’ side semifinal, where Ernst, in a double hill fight, sent him to the loss side for a rematch against Makhani. Ernst won a second double hill battle, against Jayce Little, to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Makhani was working on a six-match, loss-side streak that would take him all the way to the finals. Along the way, he was offered a chance at redemption when he became the first competitor Vonderau faced on the loss side. He earned that redemption with a 7-4 rematch win, downed D’Angelo Spain 7-4 in the quarterfinals and survived a double hill match against Little in the semifinals. His quest for a first 13U Boys title was derailed by Ernst 9-3 in the finals.
In the 10-entrant division Championship, Vondereau went undefeated. He downed Makhani 7-3 in a winners’ side semifinal and claimed the hot seat over Timmy Cossey, appearing in his 6th event, 7-3.
On the loss side, Makhani lost his first match 7-5 to Landen Dunlap, as Grayson Vaughan was busy downing D’Angelo “Jawz” Spain by the same score. Vaughan shut Dunlap out in the quarterfinals and Cossey in the semifinals. He came within a game of forcing a 17th deciding match in the finals against Vondereau, who edged out in front to win 9-7 and claim the 13U Boys Championship title.
