Jeff Abernathy withstood a strong, challenging bid from the one-loss side by Sidney Champion and held on to complete an undefeated weekend at the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour stop on the weekend of July 11-12. The $1,000-added event drew a small field of 15 entrants to Breaktime Billiards in Wilmington, NC.
Abernathy gained the hot seat after four victories, opening with a 7-2 win over Barry Irving and following it with 7-5 victory over Jay Calhoun. From among the winners' side final four, he then beat Zach Wilson 7-4 and then, Larry Faulk 7-2. Faulk had defeated Chris Vollmar in a hill-hill battle before heading west to join him.
After an opening round shutout victory over Peaches Fuller, Champion moved to the one-loss side with a defeat at the hands of Zach Wilson 7-4. From there, he embarked on a five-win streak that would put him into the finals. He defeated David Tickle 7-4 and Trey Greene 7-3 to face Vollmar. Younger Chapman, in the meantime, got by Fuller 7-3 and Irving 7-2 to get into a match versus Wilson. Champion dropped Vollmar into the tie for fifth place with the first of three straight hill-hill battles that would propel him into the finals. Wilson moved into the quarterfinals versus Champion with his own hill-hill win over Chapman. Champion then successfully avenged his second round defeat at Wilson's hands by hanging on to win his second straight hill-hill contest in the quarterfinals and did it a third time versus Faulk in the semifinals.
The final race to 9 began as a back and forth struggle that lasted until about midway through the match. At that point, Abernathy started to pull out in front and was three racks ahead on the hill, when he closed it out at 9-7.
An Early Bird tournament on Friday night drew almost as many entrants as the main event. The 14-entrant field ended up in a finals battle between Larry Faulk and Younger Chapman. Faulk took home the $140 first place prize with a 7-2 win over Chapman, who earned $80. Third place ($40) went to Ernie Mayhew and the $20, fourth place prize ended up in the hands of Anthony Arney.
A Second Chance Tournament with five entrants ended with a 9-1 victory by Jim Barthule over Mayhew. Barthule pocketed $70, while Mayhew went home with $30. There were four entrants each in a Ladies and Juniors tournament, as well. Terry Faulk ended up defeating Rachel Eliazar 9-6 and pocketed $40 for her efforts in the Ladies tournament, while Taylor Hobbs took home $40 after defeating Caleb Grissom 9-5 in the Juniors event.
Results
Open Tournament
1st Jeff Abernathy $1,000
2nd Sidney Champion $500
3rd Larry Faulk $175
4th Zach Wilson $75
5th Chris Vollmar
Younger Chapman
7th Trey Greene
Barry Irving
9th Jay Calhoun
David Tickle
Peaches Fuller
Scott Crandall
Abernathy goes undefeated on Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour
July 12, 2009