Josh Roberts
Perry goes undefeated in short-field, concurrently-run Ladies event
Getting off to something of a slow start after having his best recorded earnings year in 2022, South Carolina’s Josh Roberts chalked up his second (recorded) win of this year, going undefeated at an Open event on the Players Madness Tour. The $1,500-added event, held this past weekend (June 10-11), drew 21 entrants to Break Time Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC. A concurrently-run, $500-added Ladies event drew a short field of seven entrants and was won by Pamela Perry, going undefeated through the three matches that it took to claim her first regional tour title.
As any competitive pool player will tell you, runner-up finishes can get old, fast. Having chalked up his first 2023 win in February at the inaugural event of the Rack Race in Aiken, SC, Roberts went on to record three successive runner-up finishes in two events of April’s Scotty Townsend Memorial in Louisiana (One Pocket and 10-Ball Mini) and the second event of the Rack Race last month. Landon Hollingsworth, in his last year as a designated ‘junior’ competitor, has finished as runner-up in both of Roberts’ 2023 wins, so we might expect him to chalk up his next win any day now.
By the time Roberts had advanced to a winners’ side semifinal match against the man who’d made him the runner-up at the Rack Race event in May, Mike Davis, Jr., he’d given up only three racks; none at all to Manik Suri, one to Jarvis Miller and two to Josh Heeter. Hunter White in the meantime, who’d assured that Landon Hollingsworth would play the most matches of the tournament (9) by defeating him in the opening round 7-4, advanced to down Katie Bischoff 7-4. Bischoff would finish as the event’s highest female finisher in the tie for 7th/8th and runner-up in the Ladies event. Roberts then defeated Kelly Farrar 7-1 to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Cameron Hollingsworth, Landon’s brother.
Hunter White gave up only a single rack to Cameron Hollingsworth and advanced to the hot seat match. As might have been expected, Roberts and Davis, renewing their long-standing acquaintance with each other, locked up in a double-hill fight that eventually sent Roberts to face White in the winners’ side final. White came within a game of making it a double-hill match, but Roberts got out in front by a pair to claim the hot seat 7-5.
Landon Hollingsworth’s seven-match march back to the finals had recently eliminated the eventual winner of the Ladies event, Pamela Perry, and Kelly Farrar, both 7-3, to draw his fifth loss-side opponent, Davis. Landon’s brother, Cameron, faced his first loss-side opponent, Mark Bolton, who’d followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Davis with victories over Jeff Abernathy 7-3 and Katie Bischoff 7-5.
At this stage of the game, in order to claim the event title, Landon Hollingsworth, with a 703 Fargo Rate, was looking at the need to eliminate the three highest Fargo-ranked competitors in the tournament (Roberts at 780, Davis at 751 and White at 714). And, to top it off, his own brother, Cameron, with a 519 Fargo Rate.
He took care of the first, Davis, defeating him 7-4, while his brother was busy giving up just a single rack to the 702 Fargo-rated Bolton. Landon defeated brother Cameron 7-2 in the subsequent quarterfinals.
Then, in the semifinals, he faced the guy who’d made him play three more matches than anyone else in the tournament, Hunter White. The rematch was a somewhat predictable double-hill battle to see who’d face Roberts in the final. It was Hollingsworth.
Roberts had defeated White in the hot seat match at approximately 10:30 on Saturday night. He didn’t face Hollingsworth until the very early hours of Sunday morning. The rest worked better for Roberts than the non-stop momentum Hollingsworth had gathered during his seven-match, loss-side trip to face him. Roberts claimed the event title with a 7-2 victory in the finals.
On a short journey to a satisfying conclusion, Perry goes undefeated to claim Ladies title
It was a short trip. Three matches. There were some time gaps as she waited for other matches to finish, but after being awarded the only opening-round bye in the seven-entrant field, Pamela Perry got down to the business of collecting her first cash payout and winning her first (recorded) regional tour event.
She downed Heather Decamp in a winners’ side semifinal 5-2, advancing to the hot seat match against WPBA veteran Lisa Cossette, who chalked up her first recorded regional title 10 years ago on the SMART Tour and more recently, won the Q City 9-Ball Tour’s Ladies Winter Classic (2022). She was also the 2019 NC Carolina Ladies 10-Ball Champion. Cossette had defeated Katie Bischoff in an opening round, double-hill match and Christine Snody 5-1 in their winners’ side semifinal matchup.
Perry claimed the hot seat 5-3 over Cossette, who moved on to the semifinals and a rematch against Bischoff. Bischoff had won an opening-round, loss-side match by forfeit, shut out Heather Decamp and eliminated Christine Snody 5-3 to draw the rematch against Cossette. Bischoff went a step further, winning that semifinal rematch 5-3.
Perry and Bischoff locked up in a double-hill match in the finals. Perry dropped the last 9-ball and claimed her first (recorded) payout and regional tour title.
Tour director Xzavia Boykin thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Break Time Billiards staff for their hospitality. The next stop on the Players Madness Tour, scheduled for the weekend of July 8-9, will be a $1,000-added, handicapped event, hosted by Break Time Billiards in Cary, NC.
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