Gage Smith and Jayce Little
Winners on regional tours run the gamut from first-time winners (and/or first cash-payout winners) to seasoned veterans who show up regularly and win more or less frequently. The ratio seems to fluctuate and during the COVID years (still ongoing in places), it seemed to do so on a weekly basis. Lately, on the basis of anecdotal evidence, the first-timers are gaining on the veterans. Not a week goes by these days that some unknown competitor(s) don’t weave their way through brackets with veterans and come out on top. This past weekend (Sat., Aug. 24), two relative newcomers (both considered as junior competitors) came out literally ‘on top’ because they ended up as ‘official’ winner and runner-up at the latest stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s TOP (The Open Player) Tour; a $500-added event that drew 39 entrants to Janet Atwell’s Brunswick Borderline Arena in Bristol, TN.
Gage Smith, who arrived with just a single runner-up finish on his resume, went undefeated to the hot seat in this event and negotiated a split of the top two prizes with Jayce Little, who’d won eight on the loss side for the right to challenge Smith in the final and whose claim to fame in our database, was a single win, runner-up and third-place finish. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, Smith was awarded ‘official winner’ status. As Die Hard’s John McLane was famous for telling LA policeman Al Powell shortly after dropping a body onto his cruiser outside the Nakatomi Plaza in LA, “Welcome to the party, pal!”
According to Tour Director Herman Parker, the weekend, which offered ‘staggered’ entry fees for varied player rankings, featured “a ton of upsets,” beginning with wins by the unlikely winner/runner-up duo of Smith and Little. Among the tours’ (TOP and Q City 9-Ball) veterans who would likely have been among the event ‘favorites,’ were Travis Guerra, DJ Brads and Dustin Coe, to name just a few. Some of the match combinations had the veterans beating up on each other, while the eventual winner and runner-up skated by. Dustin Coe ended up being defeated by Brett Underwood (who would finish third in this event) and eliminated by Travis Guerra. Gage did engage with DJ Brads, defeating him, but Guerra knocked Brads out on the loss side. Guerra lost his opening-round match, double-hill, and after five, loss-side wins, was eventually eliminated, double-hill, by Jayce Little.
Smith warmed to his task steadily, opening with a 6-3 win over Mike Brown, before giving up two to Brads, and one to Cliff Stout to draw Bryan Toman in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Brett Underwood, in the meantime, bound for the hot seat match, got by Jeff Little (4), Dustin Coe (2), Keith Maranville (4), and Yoshiaki Kanamura (3), to draw Mike Skeens in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Smith, looking to advance to the hot seat match, got tied up in what would prove to be his most serious challenge. Toman battled him to double hill before he prevailed. He was joined by Underwood, who’d defeated Skeens 6-3. Smith, in what proved to be his last match, claimed the hot seat 6-3.
When Toman came to the loss side, it was Little, five matches into his loss side streak that had included the recent elimination of Kanamura, by shutout and Travis Guerra, double hill, who challenged him. Skeens picked up Robert Wilkerson, who’d lost his second-round match to Brads and was also working on a five-match, loss-side winning streak. Wilkerson eliminated Michael Rudd 5-3 and shut out Donnie Streeter to face Skeens.
Little advanced to the quarterfinals after ending Toman’s streak by allowing him only a single rack. Wilkerson extended his loss-side streak, downing Skeens 5-2 and advancing to join Little. Little then stopped that streak 5-2 to face Little in the semifinals, the final match of the event.
Little won it 5-2. Negotiations got underway for the cash-prize split and Smith became the event’s official winner.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her Brunswick Borderline Arena staff, as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC, TKO Custom Cues and Realty One Group results (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel (Angela Harlan-Parker), Federal Savings Bank (Alex Narod), CHC Underground (Chris Clary), Run Racks Worldwide Apparel (Wanderer Kelly) and AZBilliards.
The next stop, to be held under the auspices of the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour (in other words, handicapped) is scheduled for this weekend (Aug. 31-Sept. 1). It will be hosted by Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
Editor’s note: As this report was being prepared for posting, we learned of the passing of Keith Crawford, known affectionately as “The Hammer” in a pool community centered, though not exclusively, in and around Franklin, NC. Though Crawford cashed in only one event that we know about (7th at a stop on the Great Southern Billiard Tour in July, 2014), condolences that speak of a much larger and well-respected ‘reach’ to his influence have begun to emerge. He was Gage Smith’s grandfather and in his later years, raised Smith, who knew him as “paw paw.” Very supportive, constantly encouraging and always there for the young man. On the morning after Gage officially won his first pool tournament, he visited his grandfather in hospital, beaming with pride to tell him of his first win. Crawford passed away in the early hours of the following day. While the loss of his grandfather is likely to have deeply undercut Gage Smith’s pride of accomplishment in winning a pool tournament, he will know for the rest of his life that in their last moments together, they not only shared in the victory, but more importantly, he had made his grandfather proud as well, in what would prove to be the last hours of his life.
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