Greg Taylor
Between them, the winner and runner-up at this past weekend’s (Sat., July 1) stop on the Strokers Pool Tour, Greg Taylor and Scott Roberts, played a total of 14 matches of 8-ball. Eight of them, four each, went double hill. Two of them were against each other, in a winners’ side semifinal and in the single set of the double-elimination final. Taylor came out on top, going undefeated at the $250-added event which drew 26 entrants to Wolf’s Den Billiards in Roanoke, VA.
Taylor went on a roller coaster ‘score’ ride that saw him win alternate 5-1 and double-hill matches. When he reached the winners’ side semifinal, he switched to all-double-hill (three matches) until he collected his cash for winning the event. He sandwiched his first double-hill win against Larry Hughes between two 5-1 victories over Matt Keasler and Mark Hurst to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Roberts. Roberts had given up none to Shannon Johnson and one to Tim Bryant before he ran into his first double-hill win, against Steve Conner, setting him up to face Taylor.
David Booth, in the meantime, got an opening round bye before running into his first double-hill win, against Joe Scruggs. He downed Collin Hall 5-2 to draw Robert Hamilton II in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Booth got into the hot seat match 5-3 over Hamilton and was joined by Taylor, who’d won the first of three straight double-hill matches, against Roberts. Taylor chalked up the double-hill win to claim the hot seat.
Roberts moved west where he picked up Mark Giles, who’d lost one of the event’s 16 total double-hill matches in his opening round against Mark Hurst and was working on a four-match winning streak during which he’d given up only a single rack through his first three (in his first, against Dylan Carr), shut out his next two (Larry Hughes and Collin Hall) and survived a double-hill match against Sam Hale to draw Roberts. Hamilton II drew Timothy Meadow, who’d lost his first match to Brian Scruggs and after becoming the beneficiary of a forfeit in his opening loss-side round, went on a four-match streak in which, after a shutout over Eric Griffith, he gave up only a single rack, each, to Shannon Johnson, Mark Hurst and Dylan Pannell to meet up with Hamilton.
Roberts and Hamilton stopped both loss-side winning streaks by shutting out Giles and Meadow. Roberts restricted Hamilton’s loss-side streak to a single game 3-1 in the quarterfinals and then, chalked up his third double-hill win, over Booth, in the semifinals.
A good bet for the ‘over-under’ in the final match between Taylor and Roberts would have been the ‘over’ with 8. That’s how it turned out. In the fourth and last double-hill match for both of them, Taylor prevailed to chalk up his first (recorded) event win in six years.
Tour director Tim Bryant thanked the ownership and staff at Wolf’s Den for their hospitality.
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