Raffled cues, online funding, organized by Christy Norris, raises $4,600 for Mabe family
Anthony Mabe, 28, a regular on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, died in a car accident on Saturday, May 29. Long-time friend and tour director Herman Parker began immediate arrangements for a benefit tournament, re-purposing an already-scheduled tour stop for this past weekend (June 5-6) at Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC. Mabe had begun appearing on the payout lists for the tour in 2015 and over the past six years, had cashed in 18 of the tour’s stops, including a default win (as occupant of the hot seat) that he shared with Graham Swinson and Corey Sykes in 2019 (his best earnings year). In his most recent effort, he finished in the tie for 5th place on the last weekend in February at Gate City Billiards Club.
With raffled cues and an online funding campaign, organized by Christy Norris, the Anthony Mabe benefit was able to raise $4,600 to help the Mabe family with the cost for services, which included a graveside service before the tournament began on Friday, June 4 at the West End Cemetery in West End, NC. The tournament drew 90 entrants to Gate City Billiards Club and was won by Zac Leonard, who, as occupant of the hot seat, split the top two prizes with Jimmy Bird.
In effect, Leonard and Bird settled the issue in the battle for the hot seat. They both defeated their winners’ side semifinal opponents 7-1; Leonard, over Brandon Butts and Bird, over Jesse Cortner. Leonard claimed the hot seat 7-2 in what proved to be his final match.
On the loss side, Butts and Cortner ran immediately into their second loss. Josh Shulz had defeated Reid Vance 7-1 and Jamie Bruce, double hill, before eliminating Cortner 7-2. Donnie Stewart had defeated Mike McPherson 6-3 and Robert Ash 6-2, before he shut out Butts.
Shultz then eliminated Stewart 7-2 in the quarterfinals, before he was eliminated by Bird 7-1 in the semifinals. Leonard and Bird agreed to the split, with Leonard as the official winner of the event.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Gate City Billiards Club for their hospitality, as well as all those who attended and either in-person or online, contributed to the benefit of Anthony Mabe’s family. He also thanked title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., AZBilliards, Federal Savings Bank mortgage division and Diamond Brat.
The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend, June 12-13, will be hosted Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Normalcy is bound to mean different things to different people, but for pool players, the participation of 63 entrants at a new venue for the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour is a step in the right direction. Owned by the Newman family, which includes well-known competitor Josh Newman, West End Billiards in Gastonia, NC played host to the tour’s stop last weekend (Sept. 19-20) and added $300 to the event. Long-time competitor on the tour, Stevie McClinton, went undefeated through the field, and downed another regular tour competitor, Zac Leonard, twice to claim the event title.
They met first in the hot seat match, once McClinton had survived a double hill fight against Jacob Brooks (7-5) and Leonard had sent Dan Zemper to the loss side 7-3 in the two winners’ side semifinals, which, given the size of the field, occurred on the second day of competition, Sunday. McClinton took the first of his two versus Leonard 7-5 and sat in the hot seat, waiting for his return.
On the loss side, Zemper and Brooks got right back to work. Zemper met up with Clay Davis, who’d defeated Jonathan Ailstock 7-5 and Chris Branigan 7-3 to reach him. Brooks drew Landon Hollingsworth, who was looking for his third tour victory since the tour came back from its extended pandemic break. Hollingsworth had defeated Dan Sherrill 7-3 and shut Travis Shelton out to meet Brooks.
It was Zemper and Brooks who advanced to the quarterfinals; Zemper, 6-3 over Davis and with Hollingsworth racing to 7, Brooks, 6-5 over Hollingsworth. Brooks then eliminated Zemper 6-2 in those quarterfinals.
Leonard put a stop to Brooks’ short, two-match loss-side trip with a 7-4 victory in the semifinals. McClinton completed his undefeated run with a second 7-5 victory over Leonard to claim the event title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the Newman family and their staff at West End Billiards, 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 Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour will add another new venue to its growing list as it visits Tara Billiards in Jonesboro, GA this coming weekend (Sept. 26-27) for a $500-added event ($1,000-added with 64-plus).
The numbers came as a bit of surprise to tour directors Herman and Angela Parker, who were expecting a modest but respectable 30-or-so players to show up for the June 6-7 stop on their Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. Instead, the event, hosted by Randolph Billiards in Hickory, NC played host to 53 entrants. Mike Bumgarner, who, according to our records, entered the tournament looking for his first win on the tour, found it. He went undefeated through the field, downing separate opponents in the hot seat match (Dalton Messer) and final (Hunter White).
Bumgarner and Zac Leonard met in one of the winners’ side semifinals, as Messer and Hunter White met in the other one. Bumgarner sent Leonard to the loss side 7-4, and was joined in the hot seat by Messer, who’d defeated White, double hill (6-8 with White racing to 9). Bumgarner sent Messer to a second meeting against White in the semifinals, claiming the hot set 7-2.
On the loss side, Hunter White began his trip back to the finals against Jose Irizarry, who’d defeated Jeff Abernathy (racing to 9) 6-2 and picked up a forfeit victory over Hunter Zayas to reach him. Zac Leonard drew Matt Harrell, who’d recently eliminated Travis Guerra 7-3 and Bobby McGrath 7-6 (McGrath racing to 10).
White defeated Irizarry 9-2, as Harrell and Leonard duked it out in a double hill fight that did eventually send Harrell 7-6 to the quarterfinals against White. White then promptly shut Harrell out to earn a second shot against Messer in the semifinals.
White gave up only a single rack to Messer in those semifinals, finishing his three-match, loss-side trip with a 27-3 game record. He gave up a little over twice as many racks to Bumgarner in the final than he’d given up in his three matches on the loss side. With White racing to 9, Bumgarner prevailed 7-7 to claim his first tour title.
The Parkers thanked the ownership and staff at Randolph’s Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards, and Tickler Pool Ball Washing Machine. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (June 13-14), will be hosted by Janet Atwell at her room in Bristol, TN, Borderline Billiards.
When they met in the finals of the Feb. 1-2 stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, they were both looking to capture their second-ever title on the tour. Josh Heeter captured his first title anywhere with a win on the tour, just over a year ago, when he lost his opening match and won 11 on the loss side to meet and double dip Brian White. Heeter was also runner-up to BJ Ussery in a tour event in October, and 4th in an event, also won by Ussery, in June. Norris Brady was making his first appearance on the tour since June of 2018, a year in which he won a stop on the tour and finished in the money two other times; 9th in the earlier NC State 9-Ball Championships (March) and 13th at a stop in June. Brady was also the tour’s first tour champion in 2013. They met twice in this most recent event in both sets of a double elimination final with Brady in the hot seat and Heeter having won three on the loss side to meet him. Heeter took the opening set of that final to force a second set, won by Brady. The event drew 68 entrants to Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC.
They’d both advanced to a winners’ side semifinal. Heeter, facing Clay Davis and Brady, squaring off against Stevie McClinton. Davis sent Heeter to the loss side, as Brady was busy defeating McClinton 9-5. Brady gave up only a single rack, claiming the hot seat 9-1.
Butts prevailed in a double hill fight versus McClinton (5-6) and was joined in the quarterfinals by Heeter, who’d eliminated Ritchie 8-4. Heeter then eliminated Butts 8-2 in those quarterfinals to earn himself a rematch against Davis in the semifinals.
Heeter wreaked his vengeance on Davis 8-4, loading himself up on momentum that carried over into the first set of the double elimination final against Brady. Heeter took that opening set 8-1, so they loaded up for a second meet. This one stretched out a bit, as they both looked to claim the title. They battled to double hill before Brady prevailed to claim the event title.
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, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the tour, scheduled for Feb. 7-8, will be a $1,000-added event, hosted by The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
They played the hot seat match, but when it came down to playing a second time, in the finals of the April 27 stop on the Viking Cues Q City 9-Ball Tour, road companions Collin Hall and Scott Roberts opted out and split the top two prizes. The event drew 25 entrants to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
Hall and Roberts advanced, of course, to the winners’ side semifinals, where Hall faced and defeated Rob Ward 7-4 and Roberts met and defeated Tim Meadow 9-2. In what proved to be the title match, battling for the hot seat, Hall downed Roberts 7-2.
Lawhorne and Ailstock handed Meadow and Ward their second straight loss; Lawhorne downing Meadow 7-2 and Ailstock defeating Ward 6-2. Lawhorne and Ailstock then battled in what was the first money round, the quarterfinals.
Lawhorne took the quarterfinal match over Ailstock 7-4. Roberts then ended Lawhorne’s loss-side trip 7-2, before agreeing with Hall to split the top two prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, Hall claimed the official event title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (May 4-5), will be hosted by Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC.
When things got underway, early on Saturday afternoon, April 6, at Speakeazy Billiards in Sanford, NC, Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker had every expectation that it would be over, no later than the bar was scheduled to close officially at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning. It didn’t turn out that way.
As Saturday night was turning into Sunday morning, with about 10 matches left to play, it was clear that some of the 29 entrants who’d signed on to compete in the $500-added tournament would be coming back later in the day on Sunday to finish it. And they did. When it came down to the finals on Sunday afternoon, Barry Mashburn and Anthony Mabe were set to square off for their second match against each other; the first having played out in the battle for the hot seat on Saturday night. The two are close friends and initially decided that rather than just agreeing to split the top two prizes, they’d play a final match. Before it was over, though, they’d both invited their respective girlfriends in to play and it devolved into a Scotch Doubles match that no one seemed to remember, or care, who won. Mashburn and Mabe did split the final two prizes, and with Mashburn occupying the hot seat at the time, he became the event’s official winner.
Speakeazy Billiards is a seven-table room, built in what looks to be, originally, a warehouse; just one part of a yellow, metal wall facility that stretches for a city block and embraces a separate-building dance studio on one end, a private storage space for Speakeazy’s owner, Jimmy Bullis, the room itself, and just beyond the far end, a cell phone tower which tends to make cell phone reception extraordinarily clear in the room. The whole arrangement sits behind a Burger King off North Horner Boulevard in Sanford.
At present, Speakeazy Billiards consists of the single room, though in a tour of the facility, Bullis showed the ongoing development of an adjacent second room, which will house two additional tables that he’d like to put to use for One Pocket events. Beyond that planned second room, currently with unfinished walls and floors and two under-construction tables, is a set of glass wall segments, with a door at one end, housing and showcasing Bullis’ 1960 black Cadillac that looks long enough to land an airplane on, with a new engine that looks as though it came off a manufacturing line about two months ago. The original vehicle came off its assembly line the year that Bullis was born.
The current playing area features pool memorabilia on every available wall, including, but not limited to a framed poster from 1991, advertising a Legends of One Pocket tournament. Another announcing a Seminole Senior Open tournament in Naples, FL, a variety of early 20th century prints, featuring elegant women in formal clothes in the vicinity of a classic pool table, holding cues. There are also the ‘required’ film posters for both The Hustler and The Color of Money, as well as one advertising a film called Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin; from 1979, with, among others, Robert Conrad, Louise Fletcher and Christopher Lloyd, about the 1930s and “an idealistic farm girl becoming the moll of infamous gangster, John Dillinger.” Somewhat incongruous in the mix of wall hangings is a black-and-white charcoal sketch of Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface. The charcoal portrait was drawn by Bullis’ son, Jimmy, when he was a senior in high school.
It’s clear, early on in this tournament, that many of the 29 entrants knew each other, have known each other, in fact, for years. And as they scoot around the state of North Carolina (and other states), showing up at stops on the tour, they’ve developed both a sense of respect for each other, and an equally healthy sense of no-holds-barred rivalry. There’s good-humored trash talk and the occasional gripe about an opponent’s ‘clearly’ under-rated handicap, but overall, the atmosphere was relaxed, congenial and almost deadly serious when action moved to the tables. The event occurred as the NCAA Final Four was playing out on the room’s only flat screen, hung above the bottles in the bar, and virtually no one paid any attention to either of the games.
Full disclosure: I attended this event and entered it, just more or less to see what would happen. What happened at the outset was that I drew BJ Ussery as my first opponent; the competitor that players in the room and spectators chose as the most likely player to win. I’d ‘known’ Ussery for over a decade, covering him through tour reports over the years, but we’d never met. When the meeting part was over, I was granted six ‘beads on the wire’ at the start of a race to 11. I didn’t win a single rack, even though, at one point, Ussery scratched, giving me ball in hand, with three balls left in a simple enough pattern at one end of the table (“I tried,” he said to Herman Parker. “Gave him ball in hand with only three on the table.”). Not my finest hour. Later, on the loss side, I would compete against Hank Powell, who won a stop on the tour a month ago at The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA. Powell gave me two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7, and though this time, I’d manage to win two racks, one of them was with a 1-9 combination that Stevie Wonder could have managed, and the other resulted from Powell scratching, after sinking the 9-ball. Just saying. . .
I was done by the time Mashburn and Mabe had advanced to the hot seat. Mashburn had sent Kelly Farrar to the loss side 9-3 in one of the winners’ side semifinals (Farrar had just sent Ussery to the loss side). Mabe had defeated Shaun Apple 7-3. Mashburn grabbed the hot seat with a 9-3 win over Mabe.
On the loss side, Apple picked up Stevie McClinton, who’d defeated Jeff Abernathy 7-5 and Billie Spadafora 7-3. Spadafora had previously eliminated Zac Leonard with whom, earlier in the day, he’d exchanged a few trash talk ‘pleasantries,’ to which Leonard had responded (to me) “You have to kill ‘em with silence.” For all the good it did him. Farrar showed up on the loss side for a second match against Ussery, who’d defeated Dale Lloyd 11-3 and survived a double hill, 11-9 battle against Justin Martin.
Apple and Ussery advanced to the quarterfinals; Apple 5-4 over McClinton (racing to 7) and Ussery, giving up just a single rack in his rematch against Farrar. Already into Sunday afternoon, Ussery gave up only two racks to Apple in the quarterfinals, but then, in a double hill fight (7-10), lost to Mabe. The final match was begun and played until it became the aforementioned Scotch Doubles, just-for-fun match. Mashburn and Mabe split the top two cash prizes and Mashburn went home with the event title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Jimmy Bullis and his Speakeazy staff for their hospitality, 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 (April 13-14), will be hosted by Steakhorse Restaurant & Billiards in Spartanburg, SC.
While the annual Super Billiards Expo (SBE) appeared to have drawn a large majority of the pool playing public to the Philadelphia area on the last weekend in March (nearly 3,000 attended), it didn’t draw everybody. It did, though, have a way of dampening attendance at relatively nearby tournaments scheduled on the same weekend, like the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. On Saturday, March 30, Buck’s Billiards in Raleigh played host to a tournament that drew 21 entrants, and saw Daniel Mobley go undefeated through that field to win his first stop on the tour.
According to our records, Mobley had cashed in an event only once before and it was on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour four years ago at a stop hosted by Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN. Mobley finished fifth in the event that was won by Jonathan Pinegar, who, while Mobley was working on his first major victory this past Saturday, was in the midst of the SBE’s Pro Am Bar Box Championship that he would go on to win.
In the meantime, Mobley and Zac Leonard were working their way through the field at Buck’s Billiards where they’d meet twice to determine the event winner. They met first in the hot seat match, once Mobley had sent Matt Clifton to the loss side 5-2 in one of the winners’ side semifinals, and Leonard had downed Matt Raden 7-2 in the other one. Mobley claimed the hot seat over Leonard 5-4 (Leonard racing to 7).
On the loss side, Clifton and Raden ran right into their second straight loss. Clifton drew Ricky Dickson, who’d defeated Dave Brown 5-4 (Brown racing to 8) and Greg Speight 5-3. Raden drew a re-match against JT Ringgold, the tour’s most prolific winner, who, after his defeat at Raden’s hands, launched a six-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the semifinals. Ringgold had most recently survived a double hill fight against Robbie House (11-6) and eliminated Elton Howard by the same score.
Ringgold won the re-match against Raden 11-3 and moved into the first-money-round quarterfinals against Dickson, who’d survived a straight-up race to 5, double hill match against Clifton. Ringgold won his last match in those quarterfinals, 11-3 over Dickson.
The Ringgold-Leonard matchup in the semifinals was predictably tight. Leonard, with the lower handicap started the match with four on the wire in a race to 11. Ringgold made it to 9, one game away from a double hill, deciding match, but Leonard chalked up his seventh rack to end it.
In the finals, it was Leonard playing with the higher handicap, looking to unseat Mobley, who started the match with two on the wire in a race to 7. To his credit, Mobley improved on his 5-4 victory in the hot seat match by giving up only a single rack to Leonard and claiming the event title 5-1.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Buck’s 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 (April 6-7), will be a $500-added event, hosted by Speakeazy Billiards in Sanford, NC.
Fresh off his best earnings year, to date (2018), Zac Leonard, who was the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour’s Points Champion last year, opened his 2019 campaign with an undefeated tour victory. Leonard won two stops on the 2018 tour, was runner-up twice, and cashed in eight events. At this most recent $250-added event, held on Saturday, January 19, he advanced, undefeated, to the hot seat and just as dawn was starting to creep up onto the Sunday, January 20th horizon (4 a.m.), he agreed to a split of the top two cash prizes with runner-up Raymond McGinn. The event drew 31 entrants to Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC.
Leonard and McGinn met twice in this one; the first time in a winners’ side semifinal and again, when they opted out of playing, in the finals. While Leonard and McGinn were playing their match, Billie Spatafora and Jack Whitfield squared off in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Leonard got into the hot seat match with a 7-3 win over McGinn. He was met by Spatafora, who’d defeated Whitfield 5-5 (Whitfield racing to 7). Leonard gave up only a single rack to Spatafora, sending him to the loss side 7-1 in what would prove to be his (Leonard’s) final match.
On the loss side, McGinn picked up Jorge Ramos, who’d defeated John McColl 7-4 and Chad Weachter, double hill (7-5) to reach him. Whitfield drew Chris McSorley, who’d eliminated Chris Rhoades 6-4 and Sydney Champion 6-5 (Champion racing to 8). Raymond McGinn got into the quarterfinals with a 6-2 win over Ramos. He was joined by Whitfield, who benefited from a forfeit by McSorley.
McGinn downed Whitfield in those quarterfinals and advanced to defeat Spatafora in the semifinals, both by the same 6-2 score. The decision was made to not play a final match, the top two prizes were split and everybody went home.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Mickey Milligan’s, 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 (Jan. 26-27), will be hosted Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Three months shy of two years ago, at the age of 13, Cameron Lawhorne made his first of nine successful (meaning, money-earning) appearances on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. He finished 9th in that first March, 2017 stop at Cue Time in Spartanburg, SC, and a month later, finished 5th in a stop at The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA. Throughout 2018, he competed seven more times on the tour, finishing among the top 10 in all of them, including his first tour victory in a come-from-the-loss-side, double dip win in the finals, over one of the tour’s more prolific winners, Don Lilly at the Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, NC.
Lawhorne, now 15, returned to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg on Saturday, December 9, and coming from the loss side again, he chalked up his second 2018 win. Before he got into the finals of the event, after winning seven on the loss side, he defeated the tour’s 2018 points leader, Zac Leonard, before double dipping Wes Enoch in the finals. The event, which coincided with a serious snow storm in the area and rendered everyone’s ride home somewhat treacherous, drew 20 entrants to the Clubhouse.
The youngster made it as far as the winners’ side quarterfinals before running into Steve Harrington and being sent to the loss side. Harrington moved on to a winners’ side semifinal against Enoch, while Leonard drew Greg Tibbs. Enoch got into the hot seat match with a 5-3 win over Harrington, as Leonard shut out Tibbs to join him. Enoch claimed the hot seat 5-5 over Leonard (racing to 7) and waited for Lawhorne to complete his loss-side trip.
Lawhorne began that trip with a double hill win over Robert Cuneo, and defeated Brian Bryant 6-5 (Bryant racing to 9) to draw Tibbs. Harrington picked up Chuck Cuneo (brother to Robert), who’d eliminated Michael Moore 7-5 and Jordan Shifflet 7-2.
Lawhorne defeated Tibbs 6-4 and in the quarterfinals, faced Cuneo, who’d defeated Harrington 7-4. Lawhorne then sent the second Cuneo to the figurative showers 6-3 and turned to face the tour’s points leader, Leonard, in the semifinals.
A 6-2 win over Leonard in those semifinals sent Lawhorne to the double elimination finals. He and Enoch would play 14 games. Lawhorne won 12 of them, giving up two in the opening set and none at all in the second set.
Going into this event, one week ahead of the invitation-only Tour Championships, the competition for the tour’s point-standings leader was still on the line and could have been won by any of four competitors. Two of the four (Don Lilly and JT Ringgold) did not compete in Lynchburg, leaving the field and ultimately the point-standings title to Zac Leonard, who, like Travis Guerra in 2017, will receive paid entry to all of the tour’s stops in 2019. The fourth possible winner of the title, Angela Parker, was ineligible by virtue of her position as co-tour director.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at The Clubhouse, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The invitational Tour Championships, scheduled for this weekend, December 15-16, will be hosted by Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN. According to Parker, there are presently 82 confirmed entrants for the event. It is the tour’s second Tour Championship of the year, the first of which drew 94 entrants and played out on bar box tables back in September. This weekend’s $1,000-added event will play out on Borderline Billiards’ 9-ft. tables.
The Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour will be getting a jump on the New Year. They will hold the first tour stop of their 2019 season, three days ahead of the actual New Year, on Saturday, December 29, at Randolph Billiards in Hickory, NC.
The quarterfinals of the Dec. 1-2 stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour proved to be of particular significance, because it happened to be the last match of the event. There were, at the time, as there always are in the quarterfinals of any double elimination bracket, four competitors left; the two competing in those quarterfinals and the two who either had or were about to compete for the hot seat. Because, as it turned out, the last three players opted out of further competition, the two who squared off in the quarterfinals were battling for the right to share in a split of the event’s top three cash prizes.
Split evenly (and there’s no way to know if it was split evenly; the competitors’ negotiations are generally private), each of the event’s final three competitors was in line to collect $491.66. The prize for 4th place was $125. The difference between 3rd and 4th place was to have been $150 ($275 for 3rd, $125 for 4th), but with the final three splitting the top three prizes, the cash difference at stake in the quarterfinals more than doubled, from the original $150 to $366 (and change).
The two competitors who squared off in that quarterfinal match were BJ Ussery and Cameron Lawhorne. Sitting in the hot seat was Keith Bennett, while Ms. Jordyn Worley was waiting to compete in the semifinals against whoever won the quarterfinal match. It was Ussery who joined Bennett and Worley in the split disposition of the event’s top three prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, Bennett claimed the official event title. The $500-added event drew 34 entrants to Speakeazy Billiards in Sanford, NC.
The four had met in the winners’ side semifinals; Bennett vs. Ussery and Worley vs. Lawhorne. Bennett defeated Ussery 11-6, while Worley was sending Lawhorne to the loss side 4-4 (Lawhorne racing to 6). Bennett and Worley locked up in a double hill fight for possession of the hot seat, with Bennett prevailing (11-3; Worley racing to 4) in what was the last match for both of them.
On the loss side, Ussery picked up Anthony Mabe, who’d defeated Brent Kyles 7-5 and Solomon Pope 7-3 to reach him. Lawhorne drew Robert Ash, who’d eliminated Billy Ethridge and Zac Leonard, both 5-3.
Ussery earned his slot in the last-match-of-the-night quarterfinals with an 11-4 victory over Mabe. Lawhorne earned the right to join him with a 6-0 shutout over Ash. Lawhorne then battled to within a game of double hill before Ussery edged out in front to win those quarterfinals 11-4. Lawhorne claimed his $125, as Ussery joined the negotiations with Bennett and Worley to split $1475.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Speakeazy 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 (Dec. 8-9), will be hosted by The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA.
