Clint Clark
It’s been a ‘break out’ year for Clint Clark, even though his first recorded win in 2023 was this past weekend’s (Sat., July 15) stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour. His first recorded cash payout came in 2001, when he finished in the tie for 17th place at that year’s Viking Cues 9-Ball Tour National Championships; an event won by Shannon Daulton. Clark came in to this past weekend’s event having already secured 2023 as his best recorded earnings year. The $500-added event drew 19 entrants to Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC; a last-minute and much-appreciated change of venue when a formerly scheduled venue backed out of hosting the tour stop, three days before it was scheduled to get underway.
In something of a study in contrasts, while Clark was looking to chalk up his first 2023 win to add to his best recorded earnings year, his hot seat match and finals opponent, Paul Semeta, was working on picking up his first recorded cash payout, in what has now become his best recorded earnings year. They both have the rest of the year to improve on their best year ever.
Each advanced through the short field to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against a ‘Travis’; Clark versus Travis Shelton and Semeta facing off against Travis Guerra. Clark downed Shelton 8-2, while Semeta defeated Guerra 5-4 (Guerra racing to 6). Already having advanced to the point of earning his first cash payout in a pool tournament, Semeta increased the amount of it by guaranteeing a first or second-place finish, by winning a double-hill match versus Clark and claiming the hot seat 5-7 (Clark racing to 8).
On the loss side, the two Travises, hoping to get right back to winning-work, ran into two Hyatts; brothers Joe, Jr. (16) and Jacob (11). At the recent Anthony Mabe Memorial, Jacob finished in the tie for 5th place and became the youngest player to ever cash at a stop on the Q City 9-Ball Tour. He did it again this weekend, so. . . the youngest player to ever cash twice on the tour. He and his brother weaved their way through the loss side and won both the 7/8 and 5/6 matches. Joe, downing Collin Hall, double hill, and Jacob, eliminating Kirk Overcash 5-3 in the battles for 7th/8th. Joe took care of one Travis (Shelton) 5-2, while Jacob handled the other one (Geurra) 5-4; (Guerra racing to 6) in the 5th/6th races.
And so, of course, sibling rivalry came up in the quarterfinals, made fiercer by it being the first money round. It came within a game of double hill. Both racing to 5, elder brother Joe eliminated younger brother Jacob 5-3.
Clark ended the Hyatts’ dual run, defeating Joe, Jr. 8-2 in the semifinals. Immediately after the semifinal, Clark and Semeta made an agreement to split the top two cash prizes, but agreed to play a single set for the event victory (as opposed to the tour’s normal, double-elimination final format). Clark won it 8-3 and became the official winner.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Breaktime Billiards owner, Sundeep Makhani and his staff, a lot, for agreeing to host the event at the last minute. Parker also extended his customary thanks to the tour’s title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Bar PoolTables.net, Realty One Group Results, TKO Custom Cues (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel Company (Angela Harlan-Parker), Diamond Brat (Tonya Crosby), Federal Savings Bank/Mortgage division (Alex Narod) and AZBilliards. The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend, July 22-23, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Action Billiards in Inman, SC.
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