The North Carolina Fury Amateur 9 ball tour hit the Charlotte suburb of Pineville, NC on February 20 for its second stop of the season. The Green Room was host to the double points event and the action of 34 players.
Cary Dunn, who was 2nd place in the season opener appeared ready to play as he continued with a smooth stroke to the hot seat match. The bracket was not an easy one with Dunn putting players like Jeff Pruitt, Ryan Ross, Wood Bonner, and John Barton on the one loss side. The matches were close the play intense.
The bottom half of the bracket had been taken over By Eddie Little who was determined to make it a good run by putting Jim Supples, Billy Ethridge, Voytec Partyka and David Brown to the one loss side. Little, a veteran Fury tour player, had yet to achieve the 1st place spot but had showed his ability by placing the top quarter of the field in other events. The race to the hot seat match was close and it looked like Little was on a roll.
The hot seat match was finally left between Dunn and Little. The match was intense but Dunn managed to jump ahead and sent Little to the one loss side to pit him again against David Brown.
In the final race to 9 Little jumped ahead of Dunn with 4 quick wins before Dunn managed to get one in. Little, determined to stay ahead this time snapped off 2 more wins bringing the score up to 6-1. Dunn was still fighting back when he took the next win but Little still maintained his lead and brought the score to 8-2. Dunn fought back hard and got two more games before Little finally took the win at 9-4.
Little was excited about the victory and the prize money. . "After all those second place finishes, this one just really feels good." Little told tournament director Steve Jennings after the match. "The hard work finally paid off."
Ryan Ross and Chad Ward were recipients of paid entry by the new WWPPA pool league recently started in the Charlotte area. League Operator, Norm Medlock was present to support his players as well as adding $60 to the Fury Tour event. Medlock spoke with tour owner Kay Higgins, who was visiting the event about the league. " We want to help all aspects of the sport. We will be having qualifiers for more than just this event and will be adding money to the events our players play in to help out." The league has just got started and seems to already be growing. Anyone interested in joining the league can check it out at www.wwppa.com or email at info@wwppa.com.
Final results:
1st Eddie Little $470
2nd Cary Dunn $280
3rd David Brown $180
4th Dale Russell $110
5th/6th John Barton, Robin Hill $60
7th/8th Voytec Partyka, Robert Hamilton $40
