The Fury Carolina Amateur 9-ball tour returned to Katie?s Cues in Raleigh on June 4th for their sixth stop. Room owner Don Pritchard rolled out the red carpet for the players as usual, providing a professional atmosphere for the tour participants. With the unforgiving pockets on the Olhausen tables, there were plenty of surprises awaiting the field of 33 players.
Upsets occurred early in the day and had regular contenders Jeff Pruitt, Dale Russell, Eddie Little and Robert Ray leaving early. Other regulars like David Brown, Johnny Griffin, and David Slaughter managed to battle through the field along with a couple of newer players such as Bernie Kirby and Jan Bailey.
Kirby and Brown both cut through the right side of the bracket to fight for the hot seat. Brown put together a 28-14 record while Kirby?s path resulted in a 28-15 record, including a hill-hill win over Griffin. The hot seat was close in the beginning but Kirby pulled away to win 7-5, sending Brown left.
Meanwhile, Griffin was putting together wins over Mike Brown and Slaughter. In the semis, Griffin put David Brown away 5-3 to earn another shot at Kirby in the finals.
Kirby was quick to jump out to a 4 game lead in the final race to 9. Griffin?s first opportunity came in game 5 when Kirby scratched on the break, leading to ball in hand and a run out for Griffin. They traded the next two games, leading to a 5-2 score. Griffin then scratched on the break, allowing Kirby to start a three game sweep to strengthen his lead to 8-2. Griffin was able to take one more game before Kirby finished the match with a 9-3 win.
Results:
1st Bernie Kirby $430
2nd Johnny Griffin $230
3rd David Brown $150
4th David Slaughter $100
5th/6th Jan Bailey, Mike Brown $75
7th/8th James Hibbert, Jo Jo Ferguson $50
