Sparky Ferrell and Karen Corr took respective Open and Women's titles at the 24th annual Music City Classic, held from January 14-17 at JOB Billiards in Nashville, TN. The $6,000-added Open event drew 109 entrants, while the $1,000-added Ladies event drew 29 competitors.
In a Midnight Madness event on Saturday night, Jonathan “Hennessee from Tennessee” Pinegar, who ended up tied for 17th place in the Open, took home the winner-take-all, $4,000 prize in the eight-entrant field for that event, defeating Jesse Bowman in the finals.
For Ferrell, who went undefeated, it was his second straight major victory in two weeks, having won the $1,000-added White Diamond Winter Classic in Lafayette, LA the week before. For Corr, it was her second straight Music City Classic win, having defeated Sarah Rousey in the finals of the 2009 event.
Five wins against John Gatton, Bobby Pickle, Tab Pranee, Mike Dunklin and John Gabriel, who would come back from the event's final 12 to within a single match of meeting him again in the finals, put Ferrell among the winners' side final four. As it was, Ferrell went on to face Josh O'Neil, whom he defeated 11-5 for the right to meet Jesse Bowman in the hot seat match. Bowman, in a hill-hill struggle had just sent Manny Chau to the one-loss side. Ferrell moved into the hot seat with an 11-8 win over Bowman.
On the one-loss side, it was Gabriel and Tommy D'Alfonso waiting for O'Neil and Chau. Gabriel got by Shane McMinn in a hill-hill match and Gabe Owen 11-5 to pick up Chau. D'Alfonso, who'd been sent west from among the winners' side final eight by Bowman, reversed that score process with an 11-5 victory over Shane Winters and a hill-hill win against Claude Marrier to meet O'Neil. Gabriel got by Chau in a hill-hill match, as D'Alfonso was dropping O'Neil into the tie for fifth place 11-9. Gabriel then got into a second straight hill-hill battle to advance past D'Alfonso in the quarterfinals.
Gabriel's determination to get back to Ferrell led to an early and substantial lead in the semifinals. Up 9-3 at one point, and playing as though he were late for a bus, Gabriel watched as Bowman methodically closed the gap, eventually winning eight in a row (with Gabriel breaking all eight of the racks) to finish Gabriel's bid. Comments on the UStream chat screen that followed this matchup speculated that the loss would have Gabriel pounding his dashboard all the way home and thinking about it for weeks to come.
Bowman got his second chance at Ferrell. Though he stayed competitive, leading by a game at 9-8, Bowman watched as Ferrell tied it up, reached the hill and then won it, with Bowman conceding a 7-9 combination.
Corr's victory in the Ladies' event went through Amy Chen twice, in the semifinals and finals. She gained the hot seat with a 7-3 win and repeated that score in the finals. Chen had defeated Grace Nakamura in the semifinals. Kim Jones finished fourth.
The Midnight Madness event on Saturday night saw Pinegar, Keith Bennett, Gabe Owen, Shane McMinn, Bobby Pickle, Tommy D'Alfonso, Jesse Bowman, and Billy Young square off in a single-elimination, race-to-11 format that concluded when Pinegar defeated Bowman in the finals 11-7 to capture the winner-take-all prize of $4,000.
The event was broadcast on www.poolactiontv.com, via The Big Truck Show, with Big Truck himself (aka Ray Hansen) at the microphone. In addition to his commentating, Hansen was instrumental in providing us here at AZ with bracket updates and information about the entire event, without which a lot of this report might not have been possible.
Men's Division Payouts | Women's Division Payouts
