Phillip Richardson and Randy Tate
We rarely pass up an opportunity to highlight family battles. On pool tables, of course. Husbands and wives, sibling rivalries, parent and child competitions at regional tour events. This past weekend, August 26-27, on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, it was parent and child (NC’s Randy and Bethany Tate) who took center stage. Waiting in the wings for an appearance in the finals, was a competitor, Phillip Richardson, who, though he had not recorded a payout with us here at AZBilliards in 14 years, followed an opening-round loss (to Thomas Sansone 7-5) with a nine-match, loss-side streak that put him in the finals against Tate the father in the finals. Two years prior to that last recorded payout in 2009, Richardson won an event at the same location he played in this past weekend – Dot’s Cue Club in Rocky Mount, NC – and qualified for attendance at the 2007 US Open 9-Ball Championships. The $500-added Q City 9-Ball event drew 39 entrants to Dot’s Cue Club.
Father and daughter knew from the start that they were operating from opposite ends of the bracket and that the only possible place that they might be matched up was in the battle for the hot seat. By the time they reached their respective winners’ side semifinal matches, they knew a meetup in the hot seat match was a distinct possibility. Bethany Tate (16) defeated Ulises Reyes 5-3 to hold up her end of the ‘bargain.’ Dad, in the meantime, was busy ‘beating up’ on another youngster, Jas Makhani 6-4, and the father/daughter hot seat match was on.
“In the last five years,” said the elder Tate in a text to us here at AZBilliards, “I have dedicated more time to the development and advancement of my kids’ pool games and hardly any to my own.”
Noting that he rarely plays in pool tournaments these days and that his girls like him to play at home because they think they play better than he does, Tate went on to say that something very different happened at this event.
“This weekend,” he said, “the giant was awakened and provided me a great opportunity to make my stand.”
“On the way home,” he added, “Bethany officially said that she thinks I play better than her. I felt that all was right with the world. LOL.”
Any questions as to whether the ‘old man’ might cut the kid a break in the battle for the hot seat were answered quickly. Dad gave up only a single rack, claiming the hot seat 6-1 and sending his daughter off to a Sunday semifinal against a man (Richardson) who arrived with eight notches on his loss-side belt.
But before that went down, Reyes and Makhani arrived on the loss side to face Richardson and Jeff Underwood, respectively. Richardson had recently eliminated the younger Tate sister, 14-year-old Noelle, 7-1 (older brother, Joey, was plying his trade at the VA State 10-Ball Championships at Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA) and, in a double-hill win over co-owner with Jesse Gilbert of Dot’s Cue Club, Robert West. Ulises Reyes drew Underwood, who’d eliminated Mitchell Vick, double hill, and Andy Harris 7-2 to reach him.
Reyes and Makhani never made it out of their first, loss-side match as, by identical 7-3 scores, Richardson and Underwood advanced to the quarterfinals. Richardson downed Underwood 7-2 in those quarterfinals and then, spoiling the potential father/daughter final party, defeated Bethany Tate 7-1.
Randy Tate completed his undefeated run with a 6-2, first-set final and claimed his first Q City 9-Ball title since before AZBilliards began coverage of the tour six years ago. Like the Governator Ah-nold is famous for saying, “(they’ll) be back.” All three of the pool-playing younger Tates will be competing in the upcoming final event of the Junior International Championship (JIC) series next month at Wolf’s Den in Virginia and in the JIC Championships at the International Open in Norfolk, VA in early November; presumably, because some qualification protocols are still outstanding. Dad will be joining them in a trip to Austria where the three will help represent the USA in the World Junior Nationals in November. He’ll be there to root for all three of them.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Dot’s Cue Club co-owners Robert West and Jesse Gilbert for their hospitality, making note of the fact that the Club will host an event of the PremierBilliards.com’s TOP (The Open Players) Tour in November. The $1,000-added Rocky Mount Open is scheduled for the Club on the weekend of November 18-19.
Parker also thanked 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 Labor Day weekend, Sept. 2-3, will be the tour’s 500th stop since launching in 2013. The $500-added event will be hosted by Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
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