Having claimed his first regional tour title in five years on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour five months ago (June 22-23), JT Ringgold has just chalked up his second. Ringgold went undefeated this past weekend (Sat., Oct. 12) at a $250-added event that drew 22 entrants to Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC, where he’d claimed the first one.
Ringgold faced separate opponents in the hot seat match and finals in this one; Micah McSwain in the former and Jarvis Miller in the latter. The highest-rated competitor in the event, Ringgold was racing to 10 throughout the tournament. After being awarded a bye in the opening round, he shut out Ryan Barker and defeated Jerry Cannon 10-2 to draw Tracy Hardie in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
After defeating their opening round opponents, Miller and McSwain faced each other in the second round. Miller had shut out David Williams in his first match, as McSwain was busy surviving a double-hill battle against Tanner Jackson. McSwain gave up just a single rack to Miller and later, have a second shot at him, in the semifinals. McSwain advanced to shut out John Bouchillon and pick up Brandon Korczak in the other winners’ side semifinal.
McSwain chalked up his second straight shutout, sending Korczak to the loss side and advancing to the hot seat match. At the other end of the ‘possible outcome’ spectrum, Ringgold and Tracy Hardie battled to double hill before Ringgold prevailed to join McSwain. Ringgold defeated McSwain 10-3 (almost double hill) to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Miller had picked up a first-round bye and, racing to 6, had eliminated Wilson Dorsey (3) and both Justin Outlaw and Jerry Cannon (2) to draw Korczak. Hardie picked up Frank Leahy, who’d lost his opening-round match to Jonathan Brockman and chalked up five, loss-side wins, including a double-hill win over Ryan Barker that put him up against Hardie.
Miller and Korczak battled to double hill before Miller prevailed and advanced to the quarterfinals. Hardy joined him after ending Leahy’s loss-side winning streak 5-3. Miller then won his second straight, double-hill match, eliminating Hardie to draw his rematch versus McSwain in the semifinals.
Miller ‘thanked’ McSwain for extending the number of matches he’d had to play by defeating him 6-3 in those semifinals. Ringgold stopped Miller’s winning streak by defeating him 10-3 in the finals to claim his second, 2024 Q City 9-Ball title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Mickey Milligan’s for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, digitalpool.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), and AZBilliards.
Plans for the next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour are still on-going. Check the tour’s FB page for updates.
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