Ronnie Xu, Tim Clark and Ken Lee
With four regional tour wins over the past two years between them, three on the Garden State Pool Tour and one on the Predator Tri-State Tour, Tim Clark and Ronnie Xu were lined up to compete in the finals of an 8-ball stop on the Garden State Pool Tour this past weekend (April 6). Clark had gone undefeated to the hot seat, while Xu, who was sent to the loss side in the second round of play, would end up playing twice as many matches as all but one opponent in the tournament, won seven loss-side matches to punch his ticket to the finals. At the conclusion of the event semifinals, just after 2 a.m. on Sunday morning (according to the digitalpoolbracket that recorded it), they opted out of that final match and negotiated a split of the top two prizes. The $100-added event for 660 and under Fargo-rated competitors drew 23 entrants to Players Billiards Café in Eatontown, NJ, which had hosted Xu’s first and only win on the tour last October.
Clark’s four-match trip to the hot seat went through Mike Strassberg 7-3 and Eliomar Lima 5-1 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Gary McDonnell. Ken Lee, who’d won his opening-round match against Xu 4-1, defeated Gil McGrath 5-1 to draw Richard Ng in the other winners’ side semifinal.
McDonnell battled Clark to double hill, but Clark won it 6-3 (McDonnell racing to 4). Lee joined him in the hot seat match, following his 4-1 victory over Ng. Clark chalked up his second straight, double-hill win and claimed the hot seat over Lee 6-3.
Four matches into his seven-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Lima 5-2 and Nic Torraca, double hill, Xu picked up Ng. Four matches into a loss-side winning streak that was about to come to an end, with recent wins over John Costello, double hill and Alex Vangelov 6-2, Ryan Buczkowski drew McDonnell.
Xu and Ng battled to double hill before Xu advanced to the quarterfinals. McDonnell joined him after downing Buczkowski 4-3 (Buczkowski racing to 6). Knowing that the competitor, Ken Lee, who’d turned a potential five-match day into a nine-match day was waiting for him on the other side of the quarterfinal, may have motivated Ronnie Xu’s double-hill win over McDonnell.
Xu completed his loss-side streak with a 5-2 rematch victory over Lee. He and Clark negotiated the split, with Clark, as the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, going into the books as the official winner of the event.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked Bill Hill and his Players Billiards Café staff for their hospitality, along with sponsors Brutal Game Gear, In the, Kamui , JFlowers cues and cases, World Beaters apparel, Outsville, Kamui, Off the Rail apparel, and John Bender cues.
The next Garden State Pool Tour stop, scheduled for the weekend of April 20-21, will be a two-bracket split for Fargo Rates of 510 and Lower and 511 to 660. The event will be hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
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