Chris Clary
As far as we know, prior to this weekend (Sept. 23-24), Chris Clary had only cashed in one event, anywhere. He showed up on the AZBilliards player-profile database when he finished 9th at last December’s Q City 9-Ball Tour’s Bar Box Championships at the Rock House in Gastonia, NC. The scene shifted to Inman, SC’s Action Billiards for this past weekend’s $500-added event, where 48 entrants joined Clary to compete. Clary would go undefeated to the hot seat, at which point, with the loss-side backed up a bit and considering the amount of time he’d be waiting for several matches to complete before engaging in the finals, he decided to split the top two prizes with whomever advanced out of the loss-side field to play against him in the finals. Clary left, having secured his second (known) cash payout and his first ‘official’ event title.
The competitor who emerged from the loss side to finish as runner-up, after winning the semifinals, was Junior Gabriel, who was looking for his third Q City 9-Ball Tour win of the year (and his fifth in the last three years). He’d been sent to the loss side by Clary in a winners’ side semifinal and won three, loss-side matches before claiming the runner-up title and the negotiated amount of cash split with Clary at the end.
After an opening-round bye, Clary’s path to his first (reported) event win started out against a competitor who’d arrived on the scene having just won both the ProAm and 18U Boys divisions’ events at the final stop on the Junior International Championship series last week (Sept. 16-17) – Landon Hollingsworth. With Hollingsworth racing to 10, Clary chalked up the five racks he needed to win his opener and then ran into two straight, double-hill matches, against Dwayne Kelley and Scott Green (who owns Action Billiards). He survived both matches to draw and then defeat Junior Gabriel 5-3.
Meanwhile, Ryan Houston, looking for his first (recorded) payout in an event, got by his first three opponents by an aggregate score of 15-5, giving up one to Chris Preacher and two each to Rudy Maybin and Sammy Epps. This set him up against another Ryan; Hollingsworth, no relation to Landon, in the other winners’ side semifinal. Houston defeated Hollingsworth 5-5 (Hollingsworth racing to 8) and joined Clary in the hot seat match. Clary claimed the hot seat 5-3 and after negotiating with his potential loss-side competitors to split the top two prizes, claimed his ‘official’ win and left.
The loss-side battles went on. Gabriel arrived to pick up a rematch against another competitor looking for their first win; Casey Looper, who’d lost his opener to Gabriel and headed out on a six-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Tyler Henderson 5-2 and Caleb Gibson 5-3. Ryan Hollingsworth drew Landon Hollingsworth, who’d lost his second-round match to Chris Clary and was in the midst of a seven-match winning streak that had just sent Bryan Ervin (10-4) and fellow junior competitor Hunter Zayas (10-6) home.
Gabriel ended Looper’s loss-side streak in their rematch 6-2 and in the quarterfinals, faced Landon Hollingsworth, who’d defeated Ryan Hollingsworth 10-1. With Landon Hollingsworth racing to 10, Gabriel battled him to double hill before winning that quarterfinal match 6-9 and then gave up just a single rack to Houston in the semifinals. The event was over.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Scott and Lisa Green and their Action Billiards staff for their hospitality, along with 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 Q City 9-Ball Tour will change ‘hats’ this coming weekend (Sept. 30-Oct.1), becoming the PremierBilliards.com’s TOP (The Open Player) Tour, when it visits Breaktime Billiards in Cary, NC for the first $1,000-added Raleigh Open. Parker also announced upcoming, 1st-time state championships in Tennessee and South Carolina, scheduled for Oct. 14-15 (TN) and Nov. 4-5 (SC). The TOP Tour will close out its 2023 season with the Rocky Mount (NC) Open on the weekend of Nov. 18 and on the weekend of Dec. 2-3 will hold the 1st TOP Tour Championships.
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