Sabrina Sherman, Hunter Sullivan and Tim Clark
Until this past July, it had been a long time since Tim Clark had earned a cash payout, let alone an event victory at a pool tournament; 2008, to be exact. He won a stop on the Garden State Pool Tour in July and this past weekend (Nov. 11-12), he did it again. He chalked up his second victory on the tour with a significant flourish, coming from the loss side to avenge the loss and double-dip the defending champion of the Garden State Pool Tour’s Amateur 9-Ball Championships, Hunter Sullivan. The 2022 $600-added championships drew 58 entrants to Rockaway Billiards in Rockaway, NJ.
Clark and Sullivan both emerged from the event’s upper (A-B) bracket and met for the first time in the (overall) winners’ side quarterfinals. Sullivan took the first (and last) of their three matches 7-5 and advanced to play Kevin Scalzitti in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Sabrina Sherman and Ben Zimmerman squared off in the other one.
Sullivan got into the hot seat match with a 6-5 win over Scalzitti (racing to 7). Sherman joined him after downing Zimmerman, double hill; 5-6 (Zimmerman racing to 7). Sullivan claimed the hot seat, his last win of the event, 8-6 over Sherman.
Clark opened his loss-side campaign with a 5-6 win over Dinko Busanich (Busanich racing to 8) and a 7-1 victory over Julian Tierney, which set him up to face Scalzitti. Zimmerman drew Jorge Capillo, who’d recently eliminated Nicole Adams, double hill, and Giancarlo Delgado 6-1.
From this point on through the first set of the double elimination finals, every match went double hill. Clark over Scalzitti, Zimmerman over Capillo. Clark over Zimmerman in the quarterfinals and Clark again, over Sherman in the semifinals.
If coming back on the loss side to face and defeat the opponent who’d sent you there comes with a certain ‘satisfaction’ badge, facing that opponent in the finals and defeating him twice has a badge marked ‘double satisfaction.’ Doing both of those things and winning your first major tournament has ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ written all over it. Clark and Sullivan battled to double hill in the opening set before Clark finished it. Clark took the second set 7-5 and claimed his first (recorded) event title.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked the ownership and staff at Rockaway Billiards for their hospitality, as well as tour sponsors Billiards Engineering, JFlowers cues, John Bender Custom Cues, Pool-a-Holic, Off the Rail Apparel and IntheBx. The next event on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for Dec. 10-11, will be the tour’s by-invitation-only Grand Amateur Championship, to be hosted by Players Billiards in Eatontown, NJ.
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