Janet Atwell and Scott Roberts
Given the trials and tribulations surrounding Janet Atwell’s last month or so, it’s surprising that she competed, let alone was able to claim her first event title in her new Borderline Brunswick Arena in Bristol, TN. She hosted and signed on to compete at a $250-added stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour this past weekend (May 11-12) and through a field of 37 entrants, went undefeated to the hot seat before, in the early hours of Sunday morning, agreeing to a split of the top two prizes with Scott Roberts.
She’d competed in the first WPBA tour event at the new room a week earlier (May 1-5). She finished in the tie for 17th place at the Borderline Brunswick Invitational, with a proverbial ‘boat load’ of owner/manager/competitor distractions during the event. She finished the event as commentator (with April Larson) for the event’s live stream of the final match between Kelly Fisher and Kristina Tkach. In discussions with Larson during the stream, she commented that the entire process of opening the room, hosting the WPBA event and competing led to a “roller coaster of emotions” which, a week later, was still on-going, as she settled into the singular task of winning her first pool tournament in her new ‘home.’
“I was still exhausted,” she said on Monday afternoon, “but I really needed to play in this one. I really hadn’t had any practice time on these (new Brunswick) tables, because it had been just so hectic keeping things going through the WPBA event.”
“As I was competing in that event, I thought the tables played great,” she added. “It had a way of re-igniting the passion and (this past weekend) everything just fell into place.”
Settling into a comfort zone with renewed energy was not without its ups and downs. Atwell found herself in spurts of playing really well and then, at other moments, missing shots that she shouldn’t have, but she kept reacquainting herself with the idea of putting that ‘pedal to the metal’ when she stepped to the table.
“That first match (against Kenny Greer), I was trying to get a feel for the tables,” she said, “and I thought, ‘they play so good, this is fun again.’ And then I got to thinking that it’d be nice to win this.
“And of course, you know how it is. . . when you end up staying on the winners’ side of the bracket,” she added, “you get more and more motivated.”
There is no greater contribution to performance at the tables than the removal of as much tension, anxiety and stress as is humanly possible before you actually get to the tables. Atwell felt the ‘monkey’ take a flying leap off her back and acknowledged that getting rid of that daily tension that had been part of her life over the past few months was a significant contribution to her undefeated run on the Q City 9-Ball Tour.
“You’re absolutely right,” she said. “You hit the nail on the head.”
As she had done at her last official win on the Q City 9-Ball Tour (March, 2023), she opted out of a final and split the top two prizes with the runner-up (friends, in both cases); Reid Vance just over a year ago and this past weekend, Scott Roberts. It was approaching 3 a.m. when she and Roberts posed for the accompanying photo just outside the room.
Match by match, you could track Atwell’s improvement as she worked her way through the six matches that she won. She opened with a 7-4 win over Greer, gave up two to Keith Young, and just one each to Brandon Crouch and Daniel Shelton, before encountering Bryan Toman in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Working from the opposite end of the bracket, eventual runner-up Scott Roberts got sent to the loss side by Ron Frank in the opening round of play and ended up winning the unofficial ‘more matches played than anyone else’ prize (10). Zach Wilson, in the meantime, downed Christian Trevathan 8-1 before sending Ron Frank over to the loss side 8-6. Wilson advanced to meet up with Mike Robertson in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Atwell got into the hot seat match with a 7-5 victory over Toman and was joined by Wilson, who’d defeated Robertson 8-3. With Wilson racing to 8, Atwell claimed the hot seat 7-6.
Robertson and Toman moved to the ‘west’ side of the bracket and ran into two competitors, both of whom had lost their opening match and gone on a five-match, loss-side winning streak. One of them made it six in a row and went on to win two more, but the other did not. Robertson eliminated Danny Clay 6-2, as Scott Roberts was busy defeating Toman 8-5.
Roberts then eliminated Robertson 8-4 in the quarterfinals and Zach Wilson 8-6 in the semifinals. Negotiations got underway to split the top two prizes, leaving Atwell, as the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, as the event’s official winner.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Atwell and her Borderline Brunswick Arena staff for their hospitality along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC, TKO Custom Cues and Realty One Group results (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel (Angela Harlan-Parker), Federal Savings Bank (Alex Narod), CHC Underground (Chris Clary), Run Racks Worldwide Apparel (Wanderer Kelly) and AZBilliards.
The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of May 17-18, will be hosted by The Big Orange Social in Knoxville, TN.
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