Currently held under the auspices of the Action Pool Tour (APT), the Bob Stocks Memorial was originally an independent event, run by Sterling, VA's First Break Cafe. In the years since it began in 2006, it's crowned Adam Smith, Dennis Hatch, Ryan McCreesh, Mike Sigel, Mike Davis and Brian Deska as champions (the event was not held in 2013). On the weekend of October 4-5, the event crowned its first-ever, two-time champion, Shaun Wilkie, who won it in its independent days in 2008, three years before the APT took over in 2011. This year's event drew 65 entrants to First Break Cafe.
Wilkie's victory moved him to the top of APT's current rankings, ahead of Brian Deska, who finished in the two-way tie for fifth place. They're separated by a mere 127 points, with two events to go in the APT season.
Wilkie had to win five on the loss side to chalk this one up. He was defeated by Dan Madden 7-3 in a winners' side quarterfinal. Madden moved on to face Danny Mastermaker in one winners' side semifinal, as Deska and Brandon Shuff met up in the other (of note at this juncture was Deska's just-completed, 7-2 victory over Karen Corr). Shuff sent Deska to the loss side 7-4, and in the hot seat match, met up with Mastermaker, who'd given up only a single rack to Madden. Shuff just did get by Mastermaker 7-6 to claim the hot seat, and, unbeknowst to him, chalk up his last victory.
Deska moved over and picked up Wilkie, who'd started his march back to the finals with a double hill win over Jimmy Varias and a subsequent victory over Steve Fleming 7-4. Madden drew Karen Corr, who'd gotten by Jason Kochenour 6-2 and Will Moon 6-1. Madden dropped Corr into the tie for fifth place 6-2. No one could have predicted that the battle between the tour's top two ranked players would end up in a shutout, but it did; Wilkie advanced, leaving Deska in the tie for fifth with Corr.
Wilkie now had his second shot against Madden, and took advantage of the opportunity, defeating him 6-2 to draw Mastermaker in the semifinals. Another double hill match ensued, which eventually advanced Wilkie to a finals showdown against Shuff. With the final match extended to nine games, Wilkie and Shuff battled it back and forth to within a game of double hill. Wilkie, though, surged ahead by two at the end to take it 9-7.
