After the 1st NC State 9-Ball Championships were won by Larry Nevel in 2013, Mike Davis, Jr. won the next three between 2014 and 2016 He skipped three years in which Shannon Fitch (’17), Reymart Lim (’18) and Keith Bennett (’19) won, before returning to the annual event in 2020, downing Justin Martin in the finals. BJ Ussery claimed the title in 2021 and Jesus Atencio won it last year. Mike Davis, Jr. chalked up his fifth NC State 9-Ball Championship title this past weekend (Feb. 25-26), going undefeated and downing Brian White twice; hot seat and finals. The $1,000-added event, held under the auspices of the PremierBilliards.com TOP (The Open Players) Tour, drew 38 entrants to Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
A previously-scheduled Ladies event did not occur when it drew only 5 women, including a pair of junior competitors, Hayleigh Marion and Skylar Hess. The women were offered the opportunity at a reduced entry to compete in the Open event and did so, comporting themselves quite well actually.
“Even when they lost,” said tour director, Herman Parker, “the fact that they’d won a few, collectively, against some strong (male) competition was pretty significant.”
Skylar Hess, a regular on the Junior International Championship circuit (JIC), defeated Jason Blackwell before losing to Barry Mashburn and Kirk Overcash. Hayleigh Marion won two on the winners’ side and one on the loss side before being knocked out by Q City 9-Ball veteran and multiple event winner, Reid Vance. Christy Norris, who plays on the tour regularly in mixed-gender events, came within of match of advancing to the first money round, before she forfeited a match against her significant other, Barry Mashburn (who promptly loss in the subsequent round, which led to some gentle ‘ribbing’ after the fact).
“I was super-impressed with the womens’ play this past weekend,” said Parker.
Davis and Brian White met first in the hot seat match after Davis had defeated Clint Clark 7-3 in one of the winners’ side semifinals and White had downed Don Lilly 7-1 in the other one. Davis claimed the hot seat 7-4 and waited on White’s return.
On the loss side, Davis actually had two “White”s to watch, because Hunter White was working his way through the bracket on the loss side as well. Hunter had eliminated Mark Bolton 7-3 and in the first money round, Barry Mashburn 7-4 to draw Lilly. Clark picked up Josh Padron, who’d recently defeated Kelly Farrar 7-3 and to enter that first money round too, survived a double hill battle versus Scott Howard to reach him.
Hunter White defeated Lily 7-3 and in the quarterfinals, met up with Clint Clark, who’d eliminated Padron 7-4. Hunter White then downed Clark 7-2 in those quarterfinals, leaving Davis (waiting in the hot seat) in the position of wondering which “White” to watch as the two of them squared off in the semifinals.
One “White” won as the other went down. Brian defeated Hunter 7-3 for a second crack at Davis in the finals. Davis and Brian White mirrored their hot seat match score, which gave Davis his fifth NC State 9-Ball Championship title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Breaktime Billiards for their hospitality (and sponsorship of the tour), as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, 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 TOP Tour, scheduled for the weekend of March 18-19 will be the 2023 West Virginia State 9-Ball Open, to be hosted by The League Room in Parkersburg, WV. The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this coming weekend (March 4-5), will be hosted by West End Billiards in Gastonia, NC.
To the best of our knowledge, Matt Lumston’s undefeated victory on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour this past weekend (Aug. 27-28) was his first tour victory anywhere. It will, as he enters the AZBilliards database, be the last time that will be said of his ongoing career at the tables. Runner-up Josh Miller entered the database for the first time two and half years ago, when he finished 9th at Q City 9-Ball stop in Spartansburg, SC and later that year (July), finished 4th at a tour stop in Bristol, TN at Janet Atwell’s Borderline Billiards. Borderline Billiards hosted this most recent, $250-added stop, which drew 27 entrants.
This was not some one-off ‘luck of the day kind of thing,’ where an unknown works his way through a mediocre field or, by bracket draw, manages to bypass competition against much stronger opponents. Lumston and Miller both had to contend with Cory Morphew, who’s in the middle of his best earnings year to date, in a career that dates back (as far as we know) to 2011. He finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the Q City 9-Ball Tour, this year alone. Lumston took him down 7-3 in the first round and Miller fought him to double hill before leaving him in the 3rd place dust. Lumston also defeated one of the country’s top-ranked junior competitors, Landon Hollingsworth (#2 in the 2022 season rankings of the Junior International Championships’ 18U and ProAm divisions). Were it not for Cory Morphew’s work in the event quarterfinals, Miller would have had to face him in the semifinals.
Lumston met up with Hollingsworth in one of this event’s winners’ side semifinals, while Miller squared off against Reid Vance (yet another Q City 9-Ball veteran with a win on this tour in 2020). Lumston sent Hollingsworth to the loss side 7-5 and was joined in the hot seat match Miller, who’d battled to double hill before sending Vance over to the loss-side 5th/6th matches. Lumston took command and claimed his first hot seat 7-2 over Miller.
In a pair of loss-side, tour-veteran battles, Hollingsworth drew room owner, Janet Atwell, while Vance picked up Morphew. Atwell had recently eliminated Donnie Lester 7-1 and Scott Howard 7-4 to reach Hollingsworth. Morphew, working on a seven-match, loss side winning streak, had chalked up wins #4 and #5 against Ricky Bingham 9-4 and James Brown 9-3.
Morphew and Hollingsworth advanced to the first money round, the quarterfinals; Morphew 9-4 over Vance and Hollingsworth 9-1 over Atwell. Morphew and Hollingsworth battled to double hill in those quarterfinals before Morphew finished his seventh and what proved to be his last match win of the day (as the Saturday was becoming an early Sunday).
A second double-hill battle was waged for a ticket to the finals. Josh Miller began the semifinals with four ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 9. He chalked up the five he needed before Morphew was able to record the nine he needed and advanced for a second shot against Lumston, waiting for him in the hot seat.
The final match was threatening to beat dawn on Sunday morning. Lumston, though, got out in front and claimed his first event title, 7-3 over Miller and beat dawn to the finish line at around 4 a.m.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her Borderline Billiards staff for their hospitality, along with 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 bring a $500-added event to Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC on this Labor Day weekend (Sept. 3-4).
Scott Roberts and Cory Morphew haven’t exactly been dormant since the pandemic landed two years ago, though Roberts, in particular, saw his climb up the earnings ladder in the last decade drop a few steps right after he’d chalked up his best recorded earnings year in 2019. For his part, Morphew’s climb up the same ladder has been something of an up-and-down affair, in something of a reverse order. Prior to this past weekend, his best recorded earnings year was his first in 2011. His finish at this past weekend’s stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour (Feb. 19-20) put him $15 over his 2011 figure, and it’s only February.
They split the top two prizes. Roberts went undefeated, downing Morphew in the hot seat match and when Morphew returned from the semifinals, they opted out of a final match at the event that drew 33 entrants to Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Roberts faced Scott Howard in one of the winners’ side semifinal matches, as Morphew squared off against Chris Cowan. Morphew got into the hot seat match without giving up a rack. Roberts joined him after an 8-4 win over Howard. The hot seat match went double hill before Roberts prevailed to essentially claim the title.
On the loss side, Eric Roberts (no relation to Scott) and Adam Pendley were both on a seven-match winning streak that would bring them together in the quarterfinals. Cowan drew Roberts, who, at the time, was five matches into his loss-side run that had recently included the elimination of Reid Vance 9-3 and Gary South 9-4. It was Howard who picked up Pendley, six matches into his loss-side run, with recent wins over 14-year-old Niko Konkel 9-1 and in a rematch from the winners’ side, double hill over 12-year-old Jas Makhani.
Roberts and Pendley advanced to the quarterfinals; Pendley, with his seventh loss-side win, 9-6 over Howard and Roberts with his sixth, 9-3 over Cowan. Roberts then chalked up his seventh loss-side win, downing Pendley 9-6 in those quarterfinals.
The semifinals were a rematch. Morphew had downed Roberts on the winners’ side of the bracket 9-4 and chalked up a second one against him 9-1 for the right to face Scott Roberts a second time. It didn’t happen. They opted out and split the top two prizes, with Roberts, as the undefeated occupant of the hot seat laid claim to the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her Borderline 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, and Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 26-27), will be a $500-added event, hosted by the Rock House Grill & Billiards in Gastonia, NC.
Scott Howard has pocketed more cash and climbed higher on the AZBilliards Money Leaderboard this year than at any other time since we first began recording his payouts back in 2011. He held spot #2,627 on our leaderboard that year and five years later, had managed to get as high as #952. This year, going into last weekend’s (Dec. 5) stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, Howard had already jumped to #329 on the leaderboard with only two cash finishes, both on the Q City 9-Ball Tour; 5th at a stop on the last weekend in October, spilling over into November, at Borderline Billiards, and runner-up to Hunter Apple at a Gate City Billiards Club stop in September.
Howard added cash, climbed a few steps on the Money Leaderboard and added his first recorded victory to that just-about-decade-long resume by going undefeated this past weekend. It was, however, a victory with an asterisk (*). The one-day event drew 24 entrants to Randolph’s Billiards in Hickory, NC.
Howard faced separate opponents in the hot seat and finals of this one; Clint Clark in the former and Hank Powell in the latter. He and Powell opted out of a final match, which gave Howard, occupying the hot seat at the time, the official event title.
Howard advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Gary South, while Clark squared off against Powell in the other one. Howard bested South 7-4 and in the hot seat match, drew Clark, who’d sent Powell to the left bracket 8-4. According to our records, Howard was playing in his first hot seat match. He’d been sent to the loss side and won three matches to be in the finals back in September, and in October, 2016, he’d been sent to the loss side in a winners’ side quarterfinal, winning five loss-side matches to make it to the finals. This time, after downing Clark 7-4, Howard would come into the finals in possession of the hot seat.
On the loss side, Gary South picked up Andrew Haas, who’d recently chalked up two straight double hill wins to reach him; against Casey Looper (6-4) and Randolph Billiards owner, Randy Canipe (6-7).Powell drew Stevie McClinton, who’d eliminated Lauren Kauffman, double hill (7-3) and Jonathan Ailstock 7-2.
Powell and South advanced to the quarterfinals after eliminating McClinton (7-2) and Haas (7-3), respectively. Powell then sent South home 7-4 in those quarterfinals.
Powell then spoiled Clint Clark’s bid for a second shot against Howard with a 7-2 victory in the semifinals. At that point, Howard and Powell decided against playing a final match and agreed to a split of the top two prizes.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Randy Canipe and his Randolph Billiards staff as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, JB Magic Templates, AZBilliards, Tickler Pool Ball Washing Machine, Skyline Construction, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and Dirty South Grind Apparel Co.
There are only two stops left in the 2020 Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour season. The first is scheduled for this weekend, Dec. 12-13, when a new venue for the tour – Overtime Bar & Grill in Columbia, SC – will host a $500-added event. The following weekend, Dec. 19-20, Break and Run Billiards will host the tour’s 2020 Bar Table 9-Ball Championships.
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.
Scheduling tournaments can be tricky at times, because while most tour directors (TDs) look into whether there are going to be conflicting tournaments near a potential venue at a given point in time and attempt to schedule accordingly, they can’t predict what they don’t see at the time they solidify their own schedule. What can and often does happen is that after a schedule has been set and confirmed, sometimes months later, someone organizes a nearby conflicting tournament, or the TD who made the initial schedule realizes that there’s a tournament nearby that he/she didn’t know about when preparing their own schedule.
So it was that tour directors Herman and Angela Parker reckoned without an American Poolplayers Association regional league tournament that did, on the weekend of May 18-19, conflict with their made-months-ago-plans for a Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour stop at Janet Atwell’s room, Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN. The event drew a relatively small field of 25, who completed their competition at the conclusion of the first day when the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, Trey Frank, and his potential opponent in the finals, Sean McGrady, agreed to a split of the top two prizes.
They met first in the hot seat match after Frank had shut out Robert Ingold in one of the winners’ side semifinals and McGrady had sent Brian James to the loss side 5-5 (James racing to 7) in the other one. In what proved to be the deciding match, Frank claimed the hot seat 6-2.
On the loss side, James and Ingold were able to get right back on track. James drew Jackson Hurst, a junior player, who’d defeated 15-year Pro competitor and room owner, Janet Atwell 4-1 and Scott Howard 4-4 (Howard racing to 7). Ingold picked up Brady Brazell, who’d eliminated Dalton Messer 7-3 and Brian Francis 7-4.
James and Ingold advanced to the quarterfinals; James, 7-3 over Hurst and Ingold 5-5 over Brazell, who was racing to 7. James then ended up handing Ingold his second defeat by shutout in those quarterfinals.
The last match of the day went double hill, as James and McGrady battled to see who’d be splitting the top two prizes with Frank in the hot seat. McGrady prevailed 5-6, he and Frank opted out of the final, and everybody went home.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her Borderline Billiards staff, 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 Memorial Day weekend (May 25-26) will be the $1,000-added, 5th Annual North Carolina State 9-Ball Open at Brown’s Billiards in Raleigh, NC, where defending champion Reymart Lim is expected to compete.
Eighteen months ago, Dustin Coe split a two-set final with Mike Hancock, winning the second set to capture his first Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour title at Janet Atwell’s Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN. On the weekend of January 20-21, he was having none of that. At an event that drew 53 entrants to Borderline Billiards, he took the opening set of a true double elimination final against Dalton Messer to chalk up his second Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball title.
Coe faced separate opponents in the hot seat and finals of this one. He got into the hot seat match with a 6-3 win over Mike Chapman, while Messer was being defeated by 15-year-old Cameron Lawhorne 5-3. Coe claimed the hot seat with a 6-1 victory over Lawhorne and waited on Messer’s return.
On the loss side, Messer picked up Scott Howard, who’d defeated Bear Mullins 7-4 and Brandon Kidwell 7-5 to reach him. Chapman drew Brandon Stiltner, who’d eliminated his older brother, Junior Stiltner, and Matt Shaw, both 6-2.
Messer advanced to the quarterfinals 5-4 over Howard (Howard racing to 7). Chapman did not. He was downed by Stiltner 6-3. Messer took completely different paths to win his next two matches and a shot at Coe in the hot seat. He shut out Stiltner 5-0 in the quarterfinals and then, survived a double hill match against Lawhorne in the semifinals.
Coe was taking no chances. He came out gunning in the opening set, allowing Messer only a single rack to claim his second Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her staff at Borderline Billiards, 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 the weekend of January 27-28, will be hosted by Corner Pockets in Fayetteville, NC.
The volume of loss-side footsteps heard from the hot seat in a pool tournament is in direct proportion to the length of time those footsteps have been on the move. Everybody in the hot seat of a double elimination tournament has to face someone who’s been on the loss side, and a sizeable percentage of the time it’s the player defeated in the hot seat match, who’s taken a single step. A second sizeable percentage of the time, it’s someone defeated in a winners’ side semifinal, who’s taken three steps. When the loss-side victories get up above five, the footsteps get louder and louder with every step taken.
On the weekend of December 9-10, Ikey Maynard, looking for his first-ever victory on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour made it to the hot seat, and waited for Eric Chumbley to complete a nine-match, loss-side winning streak that would put him into the finals. Chumbley took the loudest footstep of them all, winning the opening set of a true double elimination final, before Maynard rallied to win the second set and event title. The event drew 44 entrants to Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
With Chumbley already at work on the loss side, having won his first-round match, and lost his second (to Josh Williams), Maynard advanced to a winners’ side semifinal versus Scott Howard. Jason Potts, in the meantime, squared off against Dustin Coe in the other one. Maynard downed Howard, double hill, and, in the hot seat match, faced Potts who’d sent Coe to the loss side 7-2. Maynard claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Potts and sat listening for the footsteps.
On the loss side, Chumbley wasn’t the only one making noisy footsteps. As the event edged toward its first money round (determining the tie for 7th place), Chumbley and Bobby Jack Connor (who’d lost his opening match and was working on a seven-match, loss-side streak) were competing against opponents, and each other, as they advanced to a meeting in the quarterfinals. Chumbley chalked up loss-side wins #5 & #6 against Jose Irizarry (5-2) and shut out Alex Boles to draw Howard. Connor won his 5th and 6th matches against Mike Kirby (9-1) and Sam Patel (9-4) to pick up Coe.
Chumbley downed Howard 8-5, and heard the loud thud of a single footstep by Connor, who shut Coe out to advance to the quarterfinals. Not surprisingly, Chumbley and Connor fought tooth and nail (aka double hill) for a slot in the semifinals, and it was Chumbley who advanced.
Chumbley spoiled Potts’ bid for a second shot at Maynard in the hot seat with an 8-3 semifinal win. He then fought Maynard to double hill in the first set of the true double elimination final, and sunk the final ball to square the losses at one apiece. With Chumbley racing to 8, Maynard took the second set 7-6 to secure the event title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her Borderline Billiards staff for their hospitality, 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 will be the season finale Tour Championships, a $1,500-added event open to the top 100 ranked players who’ve played on the tour this year. Scheduled for this weekend (December 16-17), the event will be hosted by Randolph’s Billiards in Hickory, NC.
As is always true with point-ranking systems, players are rewarded not only for their performance at individual tour stops, but for the number of stops in which they’ve competed. A player, for example, who’s competed in all of the tour’s events, but not won any, would, at the end of the year, be likely to rank higher than a player who’s won the only three events in which he/she participated. The top five players on this year’s tour were Travis Guerra, Angela Parker, Scott Roberts, Daniel Adams and Steve Ellis.
Blade Best and Taz Holliday split the top two prizes on the Viking Cues' Q City 9-Ball Tour stop on the weekend of July 29-30. As the undefeated player, Best chalked up the official title win of the event that drew 39 entrants to Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Best advanced through the 64-player bracket to face Scott Howard in one of the winners' side semifinals, as Bill Eisenhard faced Brandon Kidwell in the other one. Kidwell had just sent Holliday to the loss side. Best sent Howard over 6-6 (Howard racing to 8), as Eisenhard was at work defeating Kidwell 7-3. Best claimed the hot seat over Eisenhard 6-5 (Eisenhard racing to 7) in what proved to be his last match.
On the loss side, Holliday opened his trip to the finals with a double hill win over renowned trick shot artist Chris Woodrum, and followed it with a shutout over Terry Lawson. This set Holliday up against Howard, coming over from his defeat in the winners' side semifinal. Kidwell picked up Jerry Varnado, who'd defeated Jerry Hilton 8-6 and Matt Shaw, double hill, to reach him.
Holliday won a double hill battle against Howard to advance to the quarterfinals. Varnado spoiled a Holliday/Kidwell re-match with an 8-1 victory over Kidwell to join Holliday.
Holliday eliminated Varnado 6-3 and then fought his third loss-side double hill match against Eisenhard in the semifinals, winning it for a shot against Best in the hot seat. They opted out of that final match, granting Best the official title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her staff at Borderline Billiards, 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 Aug. 5-6, will be hosted by Legends Billiards in Inman, SC.
There were a number of factors which contributed to Alex Boles and Jonathan (Hennessee from Tennessee) Pinegar's decision to split the top two prizes on the Viking Cues' Q City 9-Ball Tour stop on Memorial Day weekend (May 27-28). One of them was dawn on Sunday, May 28. Another was a striking difference in skill levels, related to their ages (Boles is 15, Pinegar is. . . much older). Among the most significant, however, was the fact that they'd driven to the event together and when it came down to the finals, with the youngster Boles in the hot seat, and the veteran Pinegar having just completed a seven-match, loss-side run, well. . .there was, so to speak, no contest. The undefeated Boles became the event winner and Pinegar gladly settled for runner-up. The event drew 28 entrants to Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
With Pinegar already at work on the loss side, the teenager (Boles) advanced to a winners' side semifinal against Scott Howard. Randall Bowman, in the meantime, faced Josh Williams. Boles downed Howard 5-5 (Howard racing to 7), and in the hot seat match, faced Bowman, who'd sent Williams west 6-4. Boles claimed the hot seat 5-3 over Bowman.
Two matches in to his loss-side run, Pinegar defeated Brandon Kidwell 12-4 and Buffie Jolie 12-1, to pick up Williams. Howard drew Scott Roberts, who'd defeated Brandon Helton 7-2 (thus, denying Pinegar the pleasure of a re-match) and Jerry Ray 7-4 to reach him. Pinegar downed Williams 12-2, as one 'Scott' (Howard) downed the other 'Scott' (Roberts) 7-4.
Howard put up a bit of a fight against Pinegar in the quarterfinals, battling to double hill (11-6), before Pinegar finished it at 12-6. Pinegar then gave up only a single rack to Bowman in the semifinals, completing his loss-side run. The decision was made at dawn (more or less) to split the top two prizes, leaving the undefeated Boles in possession of the event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her staff at Borderline Billiards, 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 June 3-4, will be hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, 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.
