As the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour geared up for its first of two tour championships this coming weekend, the competitor who finished 7th in this past January’s tour championship, Blade Best, traveled to Bristol, TN on the weekend of October 21-22 to compete on the tour, and went undefeated to claim the title. The event drew 33 entrants to Borderline Billiards in Bristol, TN.
Best, who faced separate opponents in the hot seat match and finals, got into the hot seat match following a 6-3 win over Brandon Stiltner in one of the two winners’ side semifinals. Randall Bowman, in the meantime, defeated Best’s eventual finals opponent, Doug Shulz 7-5. Best claimed the hot seat 6-4 and waited for Shulz to complete his three-match, loss-side trip to the finals.
On the loss side, Shulz opened his loss-side campaign against Ricky Bingham, who’d defeated Rick Roper 8-3 and James King 8-4 to reach him. Stiltner drew Daniel Adams, who’d just eliminated Tim Hart 8-3 and Taz Holliday 8-1.
Shulz and Adams advanced to the quarterfinals; Shulz, double hill over Bingham and Adams, 8-4 over Stiltner. Shulz took the next two matches by the same 8-2 score, over Adams in the quarterfinals, and Bowman in the semifinals. Best, though, ended Shulz’ run with a 6-5, single-set victory in the double elimination finals (Shulz racing to 8) to claim the event title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Janet Atwell and her staff at Borderline Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour will be the first of two Tour Championships, the first, this weekend (October 28-29), will be a $1,000-added event on the bar tables of Cue Time in Spartanburg, SC. The event will be by invitation to the tour’s top 100 competitors. The full-table tour championship dates will be announced at a later date.
