As an A Player, Ken Ludy was generally racing to 7 games during Stop #18 on the New England 9-Ball Series, held on Saturday, March 10. In six of the eight matches it took for him to claim the event title, Ludy’s opponents were racing to fewer games. He played one opponent, another A player, straight up, while in his winners’ side semifinal match against Joe Dupuis (an Open player), it was Dupuis who had to win more games (9 to Ludy’s 6). Ludy won all but one of his eight matches in the $500-added event that drew 44 entrants to Straight Shooter’s Family Billiards in Fall River, MA.
In all but two of Ludy’s matches, opponents chalked up less than five racks against him. The two opponents who chalked up five or more against him were Dupuis, who, racing to 9, managed to run up six, before Ludy hit that same number to win the match, and Tyler Campbell, who chalked up five to win the opening set of the true double elimination final. That winners’ side semifinal win against Dupuis, which finished at 6-6 put Ludy in the hot seat match against Ryan Stevens, who, in a straight-up race to 6, had sent Campbell to the loss side 6-4. With Stevens racing to 5, Ludy claimed the hot seat 7-1.
On the loss side, Dupuis, fresh off his victory at the New England Pool & Billiard Hall of Fame tournament a week earlier, picked up fellow Open player, Mike Minichello, who’d won the previous stop on the tour, and after being defeated by Dupuis on the winners' side of this event, defeated Sal Morgado and Antero Tavares (both B players, racing to 5), both 10-1 to get a second shot at Dupuis. Campbell drew Lida Mullendore, who’d gotten by Josh Caesar 6-2 and Adam Blair 5-3.
In a straight-up race to 7, Dupuis advanced to the quarterfinals over Minichello, 7-1. Campbell joined Dupuis with a 6-3 win over Mullendore. Campbell, in those quarterfinals, then chalked up his requisite five racks, before Dupuis could hit his target of 10, winning the match 5-8 to advance to a rematch against Stevens in the semifinals.
Campbell proceeded to shut Stevens out in those semifinals (6-0) and then, win the opening set of the true double elimination final 5-4. Ludy rallied in the second set, allowing Campbell only a single rack on his way to a 7-1 victory that secured the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Shooter’s Family Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Molinari, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Championship Cloth, and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for the weekend of March 17-18, will be the $2,000-added Players Championship, to be hosted by Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
