Joey Tate
The current BEF Junior Champion in the Under-14 Boys category (two years in a row), recent competitor in the WPA World Junior 9-Ball Championship event in Moscow (Oct. 30-Nov. 3) and member of the 2018 USA Atlantic Cup Challenge team, which is set to compete, beginning on Thursday (Nov. 27) in Las Vegas, Joey Tate warmed up for his appearance on that team with a victory on his ‘home’ tour, the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour. At an event held on the weekend of Nov. 10-11 at the Gate City Billiard Club in Greensboro, NC, the teenager went undefeated through a field of 56 entrants to claim his second Q City 9-Ball title. The event featured a ‘first’ for the tour – two junior players, Tate and Cameron Lawhorne – competing in the finals.
Tate worked his way through the field to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against Robert Ash, as Lawhorne squared off against Brent Kyles in the other one. Tate got into the hot seat match with a 6-3 win over Ash. He was joined by Lawhorne, who sent Kyles to the loss side, double hill (6-7). Tate claimed the hot seat 6-3 and waited for Lawhorne’s return from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Ash and Kyles walked right into their second straight loss. Kyles fell to Collin Hall, double hill (6-7), while Ash was defeated 7-2 by Don Lilly. Hall took the quarterfinal match against Lilly 6-2, and then, in the semifinals, was defeated by Lawhorne 6-3.
Lawhorne chalked up one more rack against Tate in the finals than he had in the hot seat match, but it wasn’t enough. Tate completed his undefeated run with a 6-4 win that gave him his first non-asterisk (final match played) win on the tour.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Gate City Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball.
