For the first time in a number of weeks on the KF Cues 9-Ball Tour, and what was the first event of the tour's new season, the open players outnumbered the amateurs; by one, as it turned out, but it made for a strong double field of players on the weekend of October 3-4. Danny Sheldon won nine games on the one-loss side to get into the finals and then win the amateur event over Mike Delawder on Saturday. Mike Davis came back from a defeat in the hot seat match versus Richard Broumpton to meet him a second time in the finals and win the open event on Sunday. The $1,000-added events, amateur and open, drew 95 players (48 open, 47 amateur) to Bankshot Billiards in Jacksonville, FL.
Davis had sent Butch Croft west from among the final four in the open event, as Broumpton was busy defeating tour director Tony Crosby 7-5. Broumpton survived the hill-hill hot seat match and waited for Davis to come back from the semifinals.
Dave Grossman and George McLanahan were waiting for Crosby and Croft on the one-loss side. Grossman advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4 win over Crosby, but McLanahan fell to Croft 6-3. Grossman then dropped McLanahan into fourth place 6-1 and ran into a determined Davis in the semifinals. Davis got his second crack at Broumpton with a 6-4 win over Grossman, and then, in the single-race-to 9 final, defeated him 9-5 to take home the first place prize.
Sheldon opened his bid in the amateur event with a first round, 7-3 defeat at the hands of local player Walter Blacker. He then embarked on a 10-win romp to the winners' circle, defeating his 10 opponents by an aggregate score of 54-21; a .720 ‘batting average' (wins divided by total games played) over that stretch of 10 games. In the finals, Mike Delawder won more games in the 8-5 finish than any of the 10 opponents who'd faced Sheldon since the opening round.
Delawder got into the hot seat from among the winners' side final four with a 7-2 win over Lincoln Seiffert and a 7-5 win over Chip Dickerson, who'd sent Bobby Garza west 7-5. Seiffert and Garza moved over to meet Sheldon and Han Berber, respectively. Sheldon chalked up the seventh of his 10 wins with a 5-2 victory over Sieffert, as Berber defeated Garza 6-4. Sheldon then shut Berber out in the quarterfinals (the second shutout of his run) and dropped Dickerson into third place 5-2.
Sheldon and Delawder fought back and forth in the early going of the single, race-to-8 finals, to a 3-3 tie. Delawder surged ahead by two, but they were his last as Sheldon completed his impressive run with five racks in a row, wrapping up his first KF Cues Tour win.
Tour director, Tony Crosby, took time out after the events to call special attention to the event's host and room – Owner Jeff Scott of Bankshot Billiards. He also reiterated thanks to the tour's name sponsor, KF Cues and new sponsors, Delta 13 Racks, for delivering racks for use in this season-opening event. A complete list of sponsors can be found at the tour's Web site – www.kfcuetour.com
