Justin Knuckles
It’s remarkable how much influence a clock can bring to bear on the outcome of a pool tournament. As the clock hits midnight, players’ glances at it (analog or digital display) are not just about what time it is, but what time, by projection, a tournament might be over. When that projection starts to produce estimates that indicate it might not be over until sometime around dawn, a handful of players will have decisions to make about things that have nothing to do with pool. Thinking of the tournament as a single-day event, some players might not have planned for a second day and as a result have not considered where they’re going to stay. Those who live a long distance away begin calculating the traveling hours to home, if and after the last 9-ball drops at (hypothetically) 4 o’clock in the morning. Sometimes, the prospect of actually winning has a strong influence on decisions made during this clock-watching phase of any event, but not always.
On Sunday morning, around 2 a.m this past weekend (July 30), there were four players left at a stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour in Cary, NC. Both of the matches that had recently brought the field down to that four went double hill. The manager of Breaktime Billiards (who was also watching the clock) made a decision that the three, possibly four remaining matches would have to be played later in the day. At that point in time, one of the four remaining players decided that he wasn’t going to return. Christian Greene, who’d lost the hot seat match to Christy Norris, chose to accept a 3rd place finish in the event and the field went down to three, all of whom went to their respective neutral corners, presumably to sleep, before the final three or four matches got underway to produce a winner.
Justin Knuckles, who’d lost a winners’ side semifinal to Norris and was the winner of one of the double-hill matches that produced the quarterfinalists, won the quarterfinals on Sunday and in the absence of Greene, leapfrogged past the semifinals into the finals. He won both sets of the double-elimination final to claim the event title. It was his first ‘outright’ win since he began recording payouts on the tour two years ago. He’s chalked up numerous runner-up finishes and last August, joined with Graham Swinson to opt out of final match and shared the win while splitting the top two cash prizes as Swinson became the ‘official’ winner. This past weekend’s $500-added event drew 41 entrants to Breaktime Billiards in Cary.
Knuckles and Norris met first in a winners’ side semifinal, while Greene and Charles Maxwell squared off in the other one. Both matches were 6-3 wins for Norris and Greene. Norris and Greene then battled to double hill in the hot seat match. Norris prevailed in what proved to be Greene’s last match.
Knuckles opened his loss-side run against Glenn Weatherly, who’d defeated Bryan Plummer 5-4 (Plummer racing to 7) and Jeff Underwood, double hill, to reach him. Maxwell drew Mike Mullins, who’d recently eliminated Justin Mawyin 7-1 and Orlando Marcus 7-5. It was already well past midnight when the four competitors set out to become either the event’s quarterfinalists or losers in the event’s first money round, battling to finish in the tie for 5th/6th place.
Weatherly, engaging in his second straight, double hill match, lost to Knuckles. Mullins survived his double-hill match against Maxwell to join Knuckles in those quarterfinals.
It was at this point that Knuckles, Mullins and Norris (waiting in the hot seat), were made aware that they’d have to return later in the day to finish the event and that Christian Greene would not be joining them. Knuckles and Mullins became aware that their quarterfinal match would put one of them into the finals against Norris.
That proved to be Knuckles, who sent Mullins home after a single match on Sunday 7-2. Knuckles took the opening set of the true double-elimination final against Norris 7-3. He didn’t give up a rack in the second set and claimed the event title.
The event drew two juniors and 10 women. In light of this, tour director Herman Parker added $100 to the prize fund to award the top female finisher who didn’t cash in the event. Three of the 10 women finished in the same place and as a result, Pam Perry, Tracy Hardie and Ashley Carpenter had to split the $100 three ways.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Breaktime Billiards, as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Bar PoolTables.net, Realty One Group Results, TKO Custom Cues (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel Company (Angela Harlan-Parker), Diamond Brat (Tonya Crosby), Federal Savings Bank/Mortgage division (Alex Narod) and AZBilliards.
The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend, Aug. 5-6, will be hosted by Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN. Parker also announced an upcoming event on his TOP (The Open Players) Tour. Scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 1, the $1000-added Raleigh Open will be hosted by Breaktime Billiards in Cary, NC.
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